Online readings about dead-tree and born-again-online news media:

PRESSTIME, as its home page asserts, is the "flagship publication of the Newspaper Association of America," aimed at news. circulation and advertising executives. It also could be good reading for journalism and media studies students.

From this year's first issue, the 5,000-word cover story has more to do with advertising, circulation, toxic waste, cost-cutting and consolidation... but the closing item does mention the trend in "hyperlocal" coverage as one of 8 Trends to Track in [base ']08

Other January 2008 articles worth reading:

• St. Petersburg Times profile: Finding Success by Challenging the Norm
• Susan Clark Johnson on the Free Flow of Information Act protecting reporters and their confidential sources, as long as the reporters haven't been "consolidated" out of their jobs.
• Rob Curley on Building a Better Newspaper Web Site (oops... that was from the December issue)
  

The NAA site also lists the finalists for the Digital Edge Awards, given for online publishing issues including multimedia and interactive storytelling. Among the nominees: my old friends at the Knoxville News Sentinel (http://knoxnews) in several categories, and the local Roanoke Times (http://roanoke.com) for its multimedia coverage of the Virginia Tech shootings last April. The Times won a "best overall news site" award last year among papers its size.

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