» Tim Porter, in discussing local news coverage and how several newspapers recently missed opportunities to adequately cover big local stories: "The opportunity to attract audience is huge during big news stories. It is critical at these moments that newspapers, which are having their lunch eaten on so many fronts, exploit their advantage of being able to gather and disseminate information and differentiate themselves, in print and online, from other news sources..."

Also: "It should be clear by now to newspapers that their longstanding mix of news, information and advertising is increasingly and irreversibly being unbundled. Peter Rip, a venture cap guy, uses the apt analogy of the newspaper as a mainframe computer and the Internet as the enabler of disruptive businesses (Craigslist, eBay, blogs) that are the new PCs. As these more cost-effective businesses take away the newspaper's advertising content, all it will have left is its journalism. At that it must excel..."

» Steve Yelvington on Reiman Publications: "[It is] a remarkable Wisconsin-based group of glossy 'rural life' magazines that are packed with contributions from readers and supported entirely through subscription fees (no ads). Reading a Reiman publication is like joining a neighborhood club, and the magazines have a fiercely loyal following that would be the envy of any beleaguered newspaper circulation director. Participative journalism, pre-web."

» Rebecca MacKinnon, in a lengthy report on Microsoft's handling of Chinese blogs: "Microsoft’s MSN Spaces continues to censor its Chinese language blogs, and has become more aggressive and thorough at censorship since I first checked out MSN’s censorship system last summer. On New Years Eve, MSN Spaces took down the popular blog written by Zhao Jing, aka Michael Anti. Now all you get when you attempt to visit his blog [is an error message]. Note, his blog was TAKEN DOWN by MSN people. Not blocked by the Chinese government..."

» And, on a lighter note, "Pixel advertising" - learn more here about the story of Alex Tew, a UK student who's made hundreds of thousands of dollars selling tiny bits of ad inventory on one highly traffic webpage. More from his blog "The eBay auction for the last 1,000 pixels on the homepage is off to a flying start. At the time of writing there have been 78 bids made with the current highest bid at US$22,900. Wow."