Steve Yelvington does an excellent job of rebutting Joel Brinkley's 'if only newspapers charged for content online everything would be OK' arguments with examples, many from his own experience, of how people coming late to the game don't really know the history of the online content business. Check out the Borrell Associates report about internet pure-plays and how they are taking almost 60% of local online ad share, more than newspapers and broadcast TV. Steve knows his numbers and knows his newspaper industry history.

Doc Searls sees a high-def two-way future for video and huge possibilities for telcos if they "get on the side of all producers — including the people they now call consumers."

In the first era of the web (after NCSA Mosaic but before MySpace), "Technology was permanent — but conversation was transient." But now, "Today, technology is transient – but conversation is permanent." The nugget from this post is that the web is now not a technological but a social construct.

A well crafted illustration says more than a thousand words. This is a fascinating statement on the bailout and how it could have been and still might be.

Derek Willis, a member of the New York Times web development group, explains how to use GeoDjango to create the Represent project. All it took was Ubuntu, GeoDjango and some good design work. It's another argument for wise use of open source software.

From Kaiser Kuo on Twitter: "Sina, one of the biggest Chinese portals have acquired Focus Media, a media company which operates the largest outdoor advertising network in China."

Valleywag says: "(Digg's financials) are frightful, even for a startup." Last year, they lost $2.8m. "…it's worth thinking about Digg's numbers amidst the litany of complaints about the ink-on-newsprint business: newspapers coast to coast are seeing devastating declines in advertising revenue. The New York Times has mortgaged its headquarters. The Tribune Company has declared bankruptcy. And yet, even in their decline, newspapers remain prodigious generators of cash. This moribund industry generated $13.7 billion in profit in 2007."

"Chrysler’s crippling difficulties in North America are forcing the company to largely cut its overseas business, which has been suffering heavy losses."

In his first interview since the world financial crisis, Gao Xiqing, the man who oversees $200 billion of China’s $2 trillion in dollar holdings, explains why he’s betting against the dollar, praises American pragmatism, and wonders about enormous Wall Street paychecks. And he has a friendly piece of advice: “Be Nice to the Countries That Lend You Money”

"After years of suing thousands of people for allegedly stealing music via the Internet, the recording industry is set to drop its legal assault as it searches for more effective ways to combat online music piracy." The music industry is looking for greater cooperation from ISPs.

Patrick Thornton wonders who will be left to rebuild journalism after this financial crisis. The entrepreneurs and innovators will be there.

I'm seeing a troubling trend right now. I know these are desperate times, and I remember seeing this happen after the dot.com crash. Online journalists were the first to go, and two years later, managers wondered where all the good online journalists had gone. It's happening all over again.

A good quick primer on how to use Drupal, an open-source community platform that is getting a lot of attention right now in journalism circles.

McClatchy Co., the nation's third-largest newspaper publisher, said Monday its total revenue fell 19.4 percent in November as print advertising declines continued to hurt results.

The New York Times would need about 1.3bn page views a month to support its current cost structure. With that much traffic, they could generate about $300m per quarter in ad revenues, according to a study by ContentNext. To put ath in perspective, Yahoo and AOL currently get around 1bn page views a month.

Large news organisations could survive as web-only plays but they would have to increase their traffic greatly to do so. The New York Times would have to increase its monthly page views from its current 173m to 1.3bn, according to a new study out by ContentNext.

James Surowiecki looks at the troubles of the newspaper industry, and he draws on the common comparison that newspapers followed the example of the US train industry in misunderstanding their business. He says: "…many argue that if newspapers had understood they were in the information business, rather than the print business, they would have adapted more quickly and more successfully to the Net."

"Here’s the problem: People generally do NOT want to follow an RSS feed on Twitter, especially from a news organization. Twitter is a conversational tool. It is a personal tool. If you want to read an RSS feed, you can use Google Reader. If you want people to follow your newsroom’s account, put a person on it. A real person."

You'll have to pay to get the full report, but even the bullet points are interesting. "Newspapers are doing their best to offer features online that consumers find compelling, but they’re still lagging many of the independent news and political sites." And I found this interesting as well. "The local-news niche is frightfully crowded, and there are fewer ad dollars to support those ventures."

"Beat blogging really is a give and take. It’s not about marketing the same old content in new ways or pushing old content onto new platforms. Beat blogging is about expanding ones network of sources." I actually like how Patrick put it on Twitter: "Journalists have to be social on social media for it to work." I'll elaborate on that in a long overdue post shortly.

Keith and the Girl is a great little podcast that I listen to occasionally, and if traditional media want to make the transition from mass media to social media, they should read these tips. I'll be writing about my recent US election road trip, and I used many of the same techniques to build community around the project. Live events and rewarding your most passionate supporters are a good place to start. If you reward positive behaviour instead of just punishing negative behaviour, you'll grow a strong, happy community.

Is consolidation the answer that will save newspapers? If it was, Gannett would be doing better.

Heather Hughes is asking question that a lot of journalists are asking right now. What next? The photojournalist left newspapers after climbing the ranks only to find her opportunities drying up. The fact of the matter is that the market for journalists is shrinking, and many of us who had planned to spend the rest of our lives doing journalism have to consider something else to do. She started her own wedding photography business, but I wonder what text journalists will do. The one thing she asks fellow photojournalists is not to undercut each other and agree to cutrate fees. During desperate times, she advises not to give into desperation.

Good article about internal and external adoption issues in terms of wikis. His preliminary conclusions highlight some of the major issues especially some of the non-technical, cultural issues when it comes to collaborative working using wikis.

Gone in 60 seconds: Most of your viewers. Good, albeit brief, analysis of web video watching patterns. Viewing patterns online are very different than television, and I don't think that will change until (or if) we have more converged devices that allow for much larger viewing sizes. Web video is still not the sit back experience of television. Steve Yelvington says that this study is "the average of apples and oranges".

Heartening to see a by-the-numbers look at education and achievement in the US. Too many stories solely based on anecdotes only reinforce conventional wisdom. Story is worth a read. The key point is that college entrance exam scores have been rising "gradually if haltingly" since 1980.

Damn straight. The definition of news never was "it's news until I write about it" but myopic journalists still believe it is. The entire post can be summed up: "Newsrooms no longer have the luxury of wasting resources on non-stories".