The Tribune Company is looking at potentially selling its newspapers, and one Indiegogo project from The Other 98% wants to “put the ‘free’ back in ‘free press’” by crowdfunding the money to purchase the media conglomerate. The price tag? Oh, you know, only $660 million. Today they are just over $60,000, with 30 days remaining in the campaign. Read more

The New York Post is one of those papers that you should only read with a grain of salt. It’s pretty much a place where frat boys with a communications degree go to make ridiculous puns and silly headlines. It’s the kind of pick me up, like a GIF ridden Tumblr blog, you can turn to when you want to have a chuckle and get a lesson in how not to report the news.

That’s why it’s no surprise that they made a Photoshop composite on their cover this week. You should just assume that they all are. It’s the News Corp way.

But doesn’t it sort of make you feel good about what you do?

Show and Tell

Unless you’re job is to be funny, like the Post or Gawker, making composites for your homepage photo is not a practice you should partake in. The only thing you should be doing with photo editing software is adjusting levels or image sizes. Even the most innocent offenses, like getting rid of a fly away hair or removing something distracting from the background, can lead you down a dark and uneasy road. If the picture needs work, you need to go out and retake it. Or find another one to use.

The same rule applies when it comes to video. The FOX CT debacle of too much cleavage  in a Women’s History Month segment could easily happen online, too. We’re all busy, but take the time to edit and review content. What’s ‘funny’ to bored overnight editors amongst themselves will hardly be as well received in the real world. Just because we live in an onslaught of media doesn’t mean things can slip through the cracks.

Clicks and Engagement

Some have said that the new layout for the New York Times isn’t any good. Too much focus on making it readable, when other newspapers like The Daily Mail have been surviving with their completely unreadable homepage.

That’s because the Mail is a tabloid. Their strategy is to get clicks, and the more you have to click to get to the photos of someone doing something bad, the more “money” they make. Clicks and SEO are important. It’s all ingrained in our consciousness when we publish, but it should be left out of the planning and writing phase. The new layout for the Times is simply good strategy. As mobile and news pubs evolve, a focus on being readable should be at the heart of any good strategy, because that’s the business of news. Don’t get caught up in the hype. If the content is good, and accessible, they will come. You don’t need bad puns to get them. A good pun? That’s an entirely different story.

Have you spotted any other good fails on the web this week?

There was a huge media event this weekend, and I’m not talking about the Oscars. It was when NASCAR took to YouTube and had a fan video of a crash taken down, in the name of the DMCA.

The posted video, showing parts of the crash not viewable in the official NASCAR version,  stayed down, although copies of it circulated on sites like Deadspin. Later, Google put the videos back up; NASCAR must have realized what a silly, corporate idea ti was to block the video just as news of the crash broke.

 The DMCA, and intellectual property online, is one of those looming questions surrounding digital journalism. I found myself embroiled in a lighthearted, but serious debate with another tech-minded friend about who was right in this case and its implications. Both of us found ourselves quoting and recommending books to each other by the end of it when we decided to agree to disagree. And it reminded me of how many really good, insightful books there are about copyright and digital culture that should be “required reading” for anyone with an email account.

In the name of a mid-winter Thursday, here are a couple to curl up with this weekend:

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I’m all a-Twitter for tonight’s State of the Union address. Already, #SOTU is trending as media outlets and organizations prep for the big event. And, already, everyone is bemoaning, or planning drinking games, for the speech.

If you’re a cynic, it’s just more political theater. But if you, like me, are a political junkie, the State of the Union night is one whole awards season wrapped into an hour on C-Span. Provided Anonymous doesn’t hack the whole thing.

Like the Grammy’s or the Superbowl, I can’t wait to watch the event with the Twitter-verse. I won’t be sitting in a newsroom, but I’ll be trolling the #SOTU feed for my favorite journo friends’ take line-for-line.

I have a few favorites for tonight. Read more

You’ve still got a week before your journo-sweetie will need an actual Valentine’s Day gift. But we’ve got you covered if you haven’t come up with the perfect way to say you mean the world to me. The 10,000 Words team put together our annual round up of valentines just for the journalist in your life.

This is our fifth year at it, so if you don’t find the appropriate sentiment in this year’s batch, definitely check out the previous editions for even more journalism love: 2012, 2011, 2010 and 2009.

Got a good valentine idea that we missed? Share it with us @10000words using the hashtag #journolove and maybe we’ll add it in or use it next year.

There’s more!
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