The ABC gets social and localMargaret Simons reports live from the Media140 conference, where ABC chief Mark Scott has made some announcements about Auntie’s future: a digital media project in local communities, ABC “widgets” for social media pages, and staff guidelines for using social media.
Media
iTunes for print? Selling the story instead of the magazine
Online aggregator Maggwire.com is planning “to do for magazines what iTunes did for music”, by selling “premium” magazine articles for a few bucks online. It may save the companies, but could it kill off the printed versions in the process?
media death watch 
The Time Inc. carnage begins
Forced to cut $100m in expenditure, publisher Time has begun trimming the fat, announcing layoffs at Sports Illustrated and the closure of Fortune Small Business. And this is just round one: 280 layoffs are expected in total.
40 years of Sesame Street
Sesame Street is 40 years old today, and still going strong. Naturally, this milestone for a show half the world grew up with has sparked a flood of memories. Amongst them, CSM shares 11 of its favourite clips, and NY Mag maps out the show’s real New York locations.
Interest rate horse puns: their cups runneth over
The priceless coincidence of two major news events occurring within an hour of each other yesterday had the nation’s top journalists jockeying relentlessly in their favourite pursuit: tenuously-linked punnage.
Macquarie Anthology to have a global reach
The Macquarie PEN Anthology will have a considerable effect on the burgeoning study of Australian literature abroad, writes Nicholas Birns. Yes, some bits are very literary, and some authors miss out, but finally Australian literature might get its deserved world recognition.
Community TV finally gets the digital green light
Fans of giant microphones and awkward presenting rejoice: after a hard-fought campaign by Australia’s community TV stations, the government has finally agreed to allocate them a vacant spectrum to simulcast their broadcasts — at least until the switch to digital-only TV in 2013
Why e-Readers are not the future of magazines
The Kindle and its ilk may be taking the newspaper and book worlds by storm, but they’re not going to revolutionise the way we read magazines anytime soon: the screens, formatting and lack of interactivity just aren’t up to the task.
media death watch The last days of Gourmet
The former associate art director of the now-defunct Gourmet magazine has put up this online photo gallery to document the final days in the publication’s now-empty offices. How thoroughly depressing.
graph pr0n 
The social networking boom
Focus graphs the boom in social networking sites over the last decade — from early pioneers like Classmates.com to recent innovators like Twitter.
When a city loses its newspaper
When a newspaper goes bust — as they’re increasingly want to do these days — it isn’t just the writers and readers who are affected: government becomes less accountable and society becomes stupider.
Better than real news: how The Onion is written
The folks at satirical newspaper and website The Onion have a novel way of creating “stories”: they write the headlines first, then fill out the article (just like many real newspapers, we suspect). The NYT sits in on the surprisingly complex creative process.
The world’s first Twitter-only gadget. Er, why?
Tech company Peek has created a hand-held gadget that only does one thing: tweet. For US$199, you can’t make phone calls, send SMS or check your email, but you can tweet on-the-go. Perfect for friendless geeks with no need for a real phone, we guess.
Nam Le: Stuff Facebook, read a real book
Nam Le’s The Boat has scooped this years PM Literary Award for best fiction. In his witty acceptance speech, Le says that social media, TV and film can never engage a community like literature can.
More drama over the PEN anthology
After nearly 40 years of public support for our literature, dramatic literature is still the poor relation, writes Katherine Brisbane. Are plays really that difficult to enjoy?
How to save business media: more sex and cow farts
Business magazines are going bust and Stanley Bing knows why: they’re full of boring rich farts. Time for less “what old guys are thinking” and more “what young people are doing”.
The Christian Science Monitor: now with less Christian Science
News outlet the Christian Science Monitor may be subsidised by the Christian Science church, but only 20% of its subscribers are actually Christian Scientists, according to the editor.
Newsroom fist fight at the Washington Post
Pulitzer prize-winning Washington Post editor Henry Allen recently punched out one of the paper’s feature writers after he was presented with “the second worst story I have seen in Style in 43 years.”
Web ads: a watcher’s guide
Push-downs, troll ads, blogger endorsements and the Hulk — they’re all new and different ways advertisers and webmasters are trying to catch your eye (and clicks) online, to generate more (or any) money from the web.
It’s tough being a Democrat on Fox
Politico meets the token Democrats who appear on Fox News. “It sucks,” says one. So why do they do it? People watch Fox — and for these true believers, some of their souls can still be won.
Newsday columnist quits over paywall
Newsday columnist Saul Friedman has quit after the company erected a paywall on its website. In an open letter explaining the move, he says even he can’t access his own columns now.
How I made millions spamming Facebook: an insider’s confession
You know those ads on social networking sites saying “Inbox (5). Nick, someone in Sydney has a crush on you!”, with your name, profile picture, and city in the ad? Dennis Yu made millions off them. He explains how.
Can Coco Pops protect you from swine flu?
Cereal giant Kellogg is in trouble in the US for emblazoning “Now helps support your child’s IMMUNITY” across the front of its Cocoa Krispies (that’s Coco Pops to you, skip) packets, amid the country’s swine flu hysteria. Can the company convince the courts the claims are medically sound?
What next? Meme, the musical, starring Bumcrabb and Bolt
New internet meme alert! Where does Andrew Bolt get his climate change sceptic facts and figures from? The “University of East Bumcrack”, said Annabel Crabb. T-shirts already available for sale.
Nine’s cricket team: all out except Slats
As the cricket season eases into its being, it’s time to reflect on the Channel Nine commentary (read pensioners) team, most of whom are well beyond their use-by dates, mulls Michael Vaughan.
