newspapers

A couple of recent launches highlight just how much participation has become part of the mainstream.

The universe of "Amigos" officially expanded today with the announcement of an expanded relationship between Yahoo and a set of newspaper companies that has grown to 12 with the addition of McClatchy.

The great philosopher Yogi Berra was quoted as saying, "You got to be very careful if you don't know where you're going, because you might not get there."

I was thinking about that the other day because a colleague had told a story about a key newspaper executive -- not one of ours, fortunately -- who admittedly had no goals or vision for that newspaper's website.

No goals. No vision. No strategy.

I wonder how widespread a problem that is.

Morris has several interesting openings right now:

New media directors at several newspapers ranging from the Florida Times-Union to little Pittsburg, Kansas. The job is opening up any day now at Bluffton Today. A new media director has a tough job, like a publisher, integrating revenue, audience, journalism and public service issues, and serving as a key management team member.

In a comment, Tish Grier observes that Wall Street needs to get out and talk with real people. She's right, but so do newspapers. I just got back from several days in a local market where a team of Medill students did exactly that, interviewing hundreds of regular people -- women, youth, small business folks and so forth -- as part of a project building on the NewspaperNext Blueprint for Transformation. It's exciting stuff, and I look forward to being able to say more about it later.

Tim O'Reilly, the Harvard-trained classical literature buff who made his name and fortune peddling geek books featuring funny animals, has turned his attention to the plight of newspapers in a post titled "SF Chronicle in Trouble?" He writes:

Howard Weaver wants six-word stories.