Yet more gloomy news from the print journalism world – in the UK we have news of 135 jobs cut by the top-selling regional daily newspaper and another regional publishing network rationalizing its coverage divisions from six to three. This hot on the heels of last month's news from Trinity Mirror of 30 job cuts and the closure of seven papers and eight job cuts at the Daily Mirror. Across the pond, the LA Times is to cut 75 jobs, about 10% of its editorial staff. And as Editor & Publisher reported yesterday, US print circulation is down across the board.

The trends seem to support Jeff Jarvis'
theory that the article, which he sees as the basic building block of
journalism, is no longer relevant to the media-consumption patterns
we've seen emerge with the rise of new media journalism.

In his Media Guardian column, Jarvis calls for the next generation of the article:
"I want a page, a site, a something that is created, curated, edited
and discussed. It will include articles. But it's also a blog that
treats a topic as an ongoing and cumulative process of learning,
digging, correcting, asking, answering. It's a wiki that keeps a
snapshot of the latest knowledge and background. It's an aggregator
that provides curated and annotated links to experts, coverage from
elsewhere, a mix of opinion and source material. Finally, it's a
discussion that doesn't just blather but tries to add value. It's
collaborative and distributed and open but organised."

Something tells me we're going to need a new strain of hack to make it all happen.

Start-ups grow up to weather the winter
Staying with tales of the consequences of economic recession, the New York Times carries a piece about tech start-ups slowing their metabolism to survive.
Somewhere along the line, the story picked up the slug 'Dot Bomb' – as
crushing a judgement as can be delivered when it comes to tech
start-ups.

The story (or non-story, depending on one's point of
view) revolves around the novelty of VC-funded tech start-ups adopting
seemingly basic business principles in favour of the 'live fast, die
young, burn millions' ethos of their predecessors: "To preserve cash,
many tech start-ups are rushing to lay off employees and cut expenses.
They are shelving their dreams of Google-size riches and getting small, humble and thrifty, all with the more modest goal of surviving the coming economic winter. " 

Seesmic's Loïc Le Meur is quoted; his company laid off 7 people. Writing on his blog, Le Meur seems surprised at the attention
he and his fellow belt-tightening, staff-axing start-up compadres are
getting. He writes: "Should entrepreneurs try to hide they are doing
this? No. It will end up in the news anyway, so transparency in bad
times is probably a good idea even though I found it obviously very
tough."

Le Meur gives props to Seesmic's users, who he believes
will help the company survive: "The doomsayers that say Seesmic will
fail have generally no idea about our current traffic figures and did
not bother to ask so here they are: we are approaching one million
visits a month in Google Analytics and 500 000 videos posted since
public launch in may 2008 which I hear is not that bad compared to any
online service launch. Most important, we have a very active community
on Seesmic.com that is helping us go through the recession by its
activity (one video posted per minute in average) and its enthusiasm."

Another good reason not to sell out to the man
On the subject of changing the world through the medium of video, Gawker's Hamilton Nolan last week brought our attention to the pro-Barack Obama remix of Budweiser's "Whassup" ads from back in 2000, which he described as "two minutes of poignant political genius".

Business Week tracked down the man behind the movie, Charles Stone III,
who it transpires was able to make this remix without fear of reprise
from Budweiser because the company had only leased the rights – paying
a paltry $37,000 for a five year usage license.

As Burt Helm
reports: "Back then, people gave him a hard time about the low price.
Now Stone, a diehard Obama supporter, says it’s more than paid off.
'That I’m able to use an idea distributed by a huge company, who made a
lot of money off it, so that now when I put out what I want to say,
it’s recognizable, and it sparks — that’s worth $1 million to me.'"

Nolan's brother in arms Ryan Tate sums up:
"In this case, the idealistic position could also be the smart money
move: "Whassup" suddenly looks like an iconic part of American culture
rather than a cheesy flash-in-the-pan ad campaign. With another
advertising deal, Stone can take that cachet to the bank, should he
ever feel the need to do so."

- Basheera Khan