The more things change . . .

The more things change, the more they stay the same. A new study finds that teens, surprise, prefer watching scripted shows on regular television live rather than any of the new media alternatives. They do like the options -- and I'm sure they really like having options -- but the old ways work.

I find that myself, even though I spend a lot more money than I should getting my several hundred channels plus on-demand plus the wonderful DVR. I find that even with the options, I'm more likely to channel surf until I find something interesting live rather than use the on-demand options or even shows that I've put on DVR (except for sports shows, where I love being able to skip through commercials; DVR's the choice for them).

The bottom line: Don't give up on the old media until it's really dead.

Some thoughts for newspapers from Wikipedia's founder

In the interests of advancing opinions that, I think, are totally off base but interesting, I point to a talk by Jimmy Wales, founder of Wikipedia. His solution for newspapers, natch, is the Wikipedia model, including saying newspapers should scrap their sports sections and just print offerings from enthusiastic bloggers, "Avid sport fans write tons of content and there are people who would pay money to have the job of a Sports Illustrated reporter." . All of which is true, of course, and I'll even concede his point that some bloggers may be as good as print columnists and reporters, although this is ridiculous: "The very best political bloggers are easily equal to the best New York Times columnists." But this is worth reading because, like so many bloggers, there are some grains of information or thought hiding out in his often-wrongheaded advice.

Hearings to look at ways to help newspapers

Congressional  hearings are planned to study ways to help newspapers economically. It's going to be interesting to see the testimony -- and who will testify.

Cable TV and objectivity

And, while on the subject of objectivity, David Carr in today's New York Times writes (OK, the headline writer wrote the specific words, taken from Carr's column) "Cable TV wars are killing objectivity."

Should we get rid of the White House press corps?

Ana Marie Cox in today's Washington Post suggests we get rid of the White House press corps. A problem faced by those people, of course, is that their jobs depend on access, and access depends upon not offending a White House media czar. That leads to weak coverage.

A good friend years ago suggested that newspaper credibility was hurt by unsigned editorials, and suggested getting rid of the editorial page. I think it's a good time to look at both suggestions.

JS touted for Pulitzer

Editor & Publisher today touts the Journal Sentinel's series "Chemical Fallout" for a possible Pulitzer Prize, which is scheduled to be announced today. It's a good possibility, and a richly deserving honor for a piece of excellent journalism.

Wisdom from comic strips

Today's imaginative Pearls Before Swine comic by Stephan Pastis takes on newspaper business models with a lot more intelligence than most media companies. It's worth looking at.

Living in interesting times

Journalism schools are rapidly revamping their curricula to address the reality of modern journalism. As the old Chinese curse goes, "May you live in interesting times." Today we're living in interesting times.

Old media looking to build payment system for their sites

An impressive group of media executives are forming a new company to build a system for online payments. It's yet another sign that the old media are moving beyond the panic stage and beginning to look at ways to make the new media work for them. A New York Times story described the new system this way: "As the company envisions the system, a nonpaying reader on a magazine or newspaper site would reach a certain point and see a page asking for payment — the Journalism Online system, operating within the publication’s Web site. But a reader who wanted a subscription to multiple sites would go directly to the new company’s own site." The system would be built around credit cards. My prediction is that the era of free content is rapidly coming to a halt.

Time CEO believes magazines will be "strong" in the future

Time CEO Ann S. Moore expressed her belief that magazines will recover from the current problems and prosper in the future. "I'm absolutely sure that the Time Inc. brands I'm working on will be strong long after we're gone," she told an industry group. Among the things she said was something that directly applies to college journalism students: "The need for trusted editing skills is not going to go away." There was a lot of interesting observations in her talk, among them the toll on productivity of email. I'd add Twitter, Facebook and other social media to that. The industry used to talk about time pressures. Now everyone seems to want to suggest moving into new platforms. Some of these new social media, I suggest, will be the 8 tracks and digital audio recordings of the future.

Blogger criticizes police; police seize computers

For those who think the world will be just fine without big media companies, I point to this story about a blogger in Phoenix whose house was raided and computers and other files seized by Phoenix police. He runs a blog criticizing the police. Without forming judgements on the merits of either his blog or the police actions, I note that the blogger, while receiving some publicity (especially on the Internet; little in established media), is carrying on his fight by himself at quite some legal costs. It offers a chilling prospect for any individual who faces the prospect of running afoul of local authorities. I remember when I once was served papers threatening a million-dollar lawsuit, I felt very confident because I had a corporation and its attorneys backing me me. I'm not sure I'd have written the story if I didn't.

Another possible future

Hyperlocal sites hope to fill gap if newspapers die. They aggregate news, blogs, government information, etc. at an extreme local level. Seems like all it would need is someone to cull through all the chaff to find the grains of wheat. Amazing that the industry seems to accept that people want quick reads but then gropes at solutions that involve anything but.