802 Online

Ouch. A new report shows the big dailies are still losing ground. From Editor and Publisher:

Circulation at the [LA Times],according to the FAS-FAX released this morning, took one of its biggestdrops ever with daily down 8% and Sunday down 6% for the six-monthperiod ending September 2006. Many other major metros followed suit andthe industry took an average daily hit of 2% to 3%.

The San Jose Mercury News, for example, is off 9.4% daily and 9.7% Sundays.

Yikes. Here's a list of the Top 25 papers. Philly Inquirer's down 7.5 percent. Portland's Oregonian is down 6.8 percent. NY Times down 3.5 percent.

The NYT is losing my Sunday subscription, too. Just got a letter saying the price is going up to $6.30 an issue for delivery of Sunday only. Why would I pay that when I can get the thing at the gas station down the street for $4.90? Although, last time I called to cancel my subscription, the NYT guy was so panicked he gave me a discount rate. Wonder if that'll work this time?

Incidentally, our circ. at 7D is not down. But then, you don't have to pay for our paper.

Not that I'm gloating. I understand the frustration with the big dailies, but I'm not convinced that this is a healthy trend for our democracy. I guess the best we can hope for is that, if/when newspapers perish, something better will come along to replace them.

Yes, it's a small state. Vermonter believes he heard Howard Dean dis his mother-in-law on Air America. But it sounds like she deserved it...

Busy today. Not much blogging. Here's something, tho, from Bill Simmon of Candleblog:

Blogging and the Democratization of Media: From the Printing Press to Wikipedia and Beyond

Vermont Community Access Media (VCAM) will host a panel discussion about blogging, podcasting, citizen journalism and the future of online self-expression on Thursday evening November 2^nd at 6:30pm. Panelists include political writer and nationally renowned blogger Steve Benen (thecarpetbaggerreport.com), Seven Days staff writer and blogger Cathy Resmer (7d.blogs.com/802online), and Front Porch Forum founder Michael Wood-Lewis (frontporchforum.com). The panel will be moderated by filmmaker and blogger, Bill Simmon (candleboy.com/candleblog).

The panel is free and open to the public and will include an extensive Q&A/brainstorming period.

What is blogging? Is it just a fad? Is it a threat to “traditional” journalism? The panelists will discuss these questions as well as the many different ways in which citizens are participating in an enormous online meta-discourse, using blogs, podcasts, video blogs, online forums, tagging, YouTube, Flickr, and countless other web-based tools.

VCAM is a non-profit community media and technology center offering free public access to and hands-on training with state-of-the-art video production and post-production facilities. VCAM operates channel 15 on Adelphia/Comcast Cable in the greater Burlington area.

The VCAM studio is located in the south end of Burlington at 208 Flynn Ave., in the back, facing the RR tracks. For more information or directions, call 651-9692 or visit vermontcam.org.

What's scary in the Vermont bloggy sphere this week?

• A Calamity of Errors, Judgments and the 167 dollar poop. Is that $167 American, or Canadian? A nightmare trip to Montreal.

• Undead Molly's dead pumpkins. Undead's photo on right.

• Darned ol' Ice Age. Global warming is frightening.

• Losing the Family Jewels. Lucky's unlucky day.

• Satanist at the bus stop. Not sure which is scarier — the Cherry Street bus stop, or a guy who uses it as proof that "maybe Hitler was right about a couple of things."

Links via Mama Says, Undead Molly, Tom's Astronomy Blog, Tremors in the Fog, Diabologue.

Blair Witch? Meet Drake Mountain. Creator Davy Russell explains his "nonfiction" video blog project:

SYNOPSIS: Six amateur paranormal enthusiasts camp out for five days on a mountain in Vermont with a reputation for being haunted. The team will explore the mountain, learn more about its mysterious history, visit the abandoned ghost town and record anything strange that happens. The expedition will be broadcast on a video blog via a satellite Internet connection from the mountain.

The show will run from Monday, October 23 - Friday, October 27. Two 5-10 minute episodes will appear daily.

This clip shows the first episode. Four more have already been posted.

I gave a citizen journalism workshop last night organized by Burlington's Center for Communities and Neighborhoods, an office of CEDO.

There was a lot of talk about blogs and citizen journalists vs. mainstream media. Funny, this morning, I saw Steven Johnson writing in the Chicago Tribune about how blogs are mainstream now.

Says Johnson:

"If it's not mainstream, blogging is pretty darnclose," says David Sifry, founder of Technorati (technorati.com), aburgeoning site built on the idea of tracking and sorting throughblogs. "We're seeing about 175,000 new Weblogs created every singleday, about two every second of every day."

Hard to be alternative, eh?

Incidentally, this is not the brilliant Steven Johnson who wrote Emergence: The Connected Lives of Ants, Brains, Cities and Software and Everything Bad is Good For You.

If you missed Jeneen Interlandi's story about Eric Poehlman, former UVM researcher sentenced to prison for fraud, check it out. It's a fascinating account of how a whistleblower lab assistant exposed his boss for fudging data.

I know this got covered by the local media, but I really enjoyed reading the Times' long-view perspective.

My only quibble?

After the hearing, Poehlman walked through downtown Burlington with his mother and a group of young colleagues from Montreal who had come to show their support. The rain had stopped and the sun cast a bright shimmer over the wet cobblestone streets.

What cobblestones? We don't have any cobblestone streets downtown. Church Street is paved with bricks.

Here's Vincent Maher's account of the Ljungkvist/Borelius incident. An excerpt:

Recently, Magnus Ljungkvist (press secretary for Sweden's Social Democrat party and a blogger), revealed  financial mismanagement and tax evasion by Maria Borelius, the Swedish Minister for Foreign Trade. This led to her resignation this week after just six days in office. (Note: Ljungkvist's blog is in Swedish. For background in English, and more links, see Media Culpa.)

I didn't come up with that zinger of a title. Vermont Hum did. Here's Hum's recap of the Auditor of Accounts debate on VPR. Sorry I missed this one. Glad someone is paying attention.

Lib Union offering Jerry Levy... made an interesting debate even more interesting. Levy stammeredsomething about not being the best technical person for the job butwould give 100 per cent. He's also directed playswhich makes him uniquely qualified for the position. Levy wasn't at thedebate — his segment was taped. Here's the wrap on the major candidates:

• Republican incumbent Randy Brockwas solid, having an answer for most everything. He's proud of keepingpolitics out of the office, and doubly proud of completing state auditsin a timely manner, something that hadn't been commonplace in the past.When Martha Abbott tried to corner him about living in Floridapart-time, Brock was steadfast, saying he's taken some long weekends tothe Sunshine State but does not live there. He stated he has a car withlots of miles, all of those miles logged in Vermont.
• Dem candidate Tom Salmon needs more debate experience; at times he had a lightweight timbre not unlike Dan Quayle.He was strong when he pointed out he's the only one in the race with acollege accounting degree and is a CPA. Brock is not. When Brockpointed out that Salmon had not held a job since 1993, Salmon defiantlystated that was false; he worked for a firm from 2002 -2003.
• Martha Abbott soundedconfident and answered questions thoroughly. She admittedunapologetically that she is carrying a political agenda though thecampaign.

Fascinating interview with Lynndie England in Marie Claire. Apparently the Abu Ghraib poster girl has never done a print interview before. This one is long and definitely worth reading.