Here’s what I’ve been reading today:

• Free Sheet Newspapers versus Traditional Daily Newspapers: Competing or Complementary? An Empirical Comparison of their Gratifications to Readers – “The free sheets’ strength lies especially in fulfilling an entertaining function” and “readers receive a higher gratification by traditional daily newspapers in the information/orientation dimension” [via Adrian Monck]
• John Ryley: ‘Mobile phones are future of TV news’ – Press Gazette- “The mobile, or something of that size, will change things. I suspect fewer of us will sit in front of the television.” In the US it is the Kindle in the UK it’s mobiles.
• Join the NUJ? Why? | Dave Lee / jBlog – “If the NUJ is really out there to act as a service for all working journalists, it needs to wake up. It needs to get over its fascination with tradition. It needs to pull its head from the sand, stand up and come up with a plan to really help those in need.”
• Let’s have a PCC for the 21st century – currybetdotnet – 10 February, 2009 – A nice list of suggestions from Martin on how to improve the PCC
  after their mauling at the hands of the Media Standards Trust
• Paying for the news: A link-a-thon – “If you’re not interested in the debate over micropayments and whether that will help save the newspaper industry, you’re probably not going to be interested in this post. If you are interested — as I am — you can find plenty of food for discussion in the links that follow.” Yes you can.
• Multimedia… but why? – Graphics work better online with some interactivity. So says Mark S. Luckie. I agree but part of me thinks that the increasing complexity of site design and graphic elements means that even the best online graphics can often be a weak signal in amongst the design noise. Perhaps adding interaction would make them stand out. But it could also raise the whole volume of the page.
• Battle Plans for Newspapers – Room for Debate Blog – NYTimes.com – An interesting round up of US big thinks of what’s gone wrong and what can be done. As usual the comments are as interesting as the copy which shows what a good discussion starter this would be left in any
  newsroom
• Can ‘The Printed Blog’ Succeed with Blogs in Newspaper Form? – MediaShift talk to Joshua Karp, the man behind paper based blog aggregator The Printed Blog. An interesting idea which harks back to the days of penny publishing/pamphleteers
• Note to press offices: do not get on the wrong side of Noel Edmonds | Journalism.co.uk Editors’ Blog – Quite a few people have pointed to this great rant from Noel Edmonds who as well as apparently doing his show for free has never been so angry. Shades of the film Network or a vision of a distopian future where the Daily Mail is televised. You decide.
• One Week Without Virtual Newspapers Petition – This petition is doing the rounds (and getting a lot of comment) asking newspapers to shut their sites for a week to non-paying viewers. Why? “it is critical that all Americans understand that daily newspapers aren’t simply businesses, but an integral part of American Democracy” But closing a channel of information to all but those who can pay doesn’t seem very democratic does it
• Local newspapers, blogs and the future – “Professional journalists don’t waste your time” So says an editorial at the WestSeattleHerald.com. Blogs and the web, apparently do.