This is what’s been turning my head today:

Special mention to a series of posts by Sam Shepherd responding to Roy Greenslade’s “no reason for subs” thoughts

• Subs v Greenslade (part one) « Subbed Out? – “to write off every sub outside London (and every sub that doesn’t work for a tabloid) as non-creative, a purely mechanical beast that simply chops copy to fit a box it didn’t even design, is quite possibly the most ridiculous thing he’s ever said.”
• Greenslade v subs (part two) « Subbed Out? – “Take away local subs, who care about and are proud of their pages, who know what the paper is and what its stance is on everything from how it reports suicides to in what context you can use the word interweb, and you take away part of that personality.”
• Subs v Greenslade (part three) « Subbed Out? – “So when a story breaks and you’re running constantly updating copy on the web you’ve got a sub who can make it accurate, make it clear, make it interesting, make it sing – in both the old sense, and the new SEO sense – and finally do it fast, like in the old days of deadlines. Exciting for them and for the reader. Doesn’t sound so bad, does it?”

Deep breath…and…relax

• Peter Barron: Journalism ‘underplayed tech revolution’ – Press Gazette – Interesting stuff but I would disagree with “The public, not Google, will decide the fate of the mainstream media” Actually I would say it’s the MSM that decides the fate of the MSM. How they behave and treat their audience. Why would the public care?
• How much is too much? Defining the grey areas in attribution and linking | Journalism.co.uk Editors’ Blog – This is fast becoming a debate about arrogance but you could also read it as a sad effort by the MSM to hide their cut-and-paste habits from an all too knowledgeable public. Whatever it is one thing is clear. A linking policy is a must and it must be as open as possible
• Johnston Press is the HBOS of newspapers, says NUJ official ahead of strike | Media | guardian.co.uk – Eeeek. There’s a headline
• YouTube Toolbox: 100+ Tools and Resources to Enhance Your Video Experience – Ooodles of youtube related goodness and gadgets to play with from Mashable
• Journalism Beyond Newspapers – Don’t Become Nonprofits – Work for Them – Dave Cohn makes a great point
• Halifax Evening Courier launches ‘experimental’ social networking site – More Facebook cloning action. This time from Johnston Press
• 7 Ways To Keep Costs Low, Content Fresh Using Social Media – Roland Legrand offers “seven attention points which could help to increase content production while staying cost effective.” but my favorite bit was the caveat at the end “There is one area where you should never cut costs: training.”
• What do we call this new form of journalism and media? – Very interesting – for me – and something I will blog on at some point
• OFT seeks initial views on review into local and regional media merger regime – One question in particular struck me “the extent to which public service broadcasting, local authorities and other public sector news and local information services, whether or not funded by advertising, constitute competition to commercial local media services”

Have a good weekend