While  inevitable, it is sad to see newspapers disappear.  The entire industry is in disarray and until someone somewhere finds a profitable economic model – the mood will be somber.  I work in a similar industry.  We have seen a decade of decline and have struggled to shift in to growing markets.  It is hard, and I know that the day will come when my company closes or is bought out.  The hard, cold reality is that no business can survive if it is not profitable.  Reporters will not volunteer their time (for long).  Printers will not donate paper and ink.  The barriers to entry in to the news industry have dropped so low that anyone can enter and publish online.  But while publishing costs have dropped precipitously, revenue has as well.

The staff of the paper did a great job publishing this video:

Final Edition from Matthew Roberts on Vimeo.

What are the chances that this isn’t some kind of publicity stunt. How is it possible to be clever enough to steal the pulitzer prizes from a locked case inside a locked safe in a secure area in a business and then be stupid enough to sell them on e-bay?

Who knows – but the details are available on this NY Times article about the prizes being sold on e-bay.

I have had so many people make the following claim to me that I now wonder whether I’m the victim of a mass lie. It is funny though that he would manufacture a lie to cover his own disfunction. Even better is that he now is being quoted on the web as having lied to all of his family, freinds and acquaintances.

A few months ago, Scott Stratten was suffering from what he terms “inbox paralysis.” A marketing consultant in Oakville, Ontario, he had 500 old messages in his inbox, all needing responses. “I felt so guilty, I couldn’t even bring myself to open my email,” he says.

In desperation, he decided to delete all his messages. He then sent an email blast to 400 people on his contact list, telling them a lie. He made up a story that his Internet service provider had informed him that some emails weren’t getting through, and that was why friends and clients never heard back from him. “People were very empathetic,” he says, “and it allowed me to start fresh.”

An article by by Jeffrey Zaslow of the Wall Street Journal (reprinted here in the Northwest Florida Daily News).

I’m not certain how long it will stay available to the unsubscribed, but there’s a hugely humorous post by Lee Gomes on the Wall Street Journal on web content.

Update: I neglected to explain the major theme of the post in my original discussion here – web masters are paying pennies to individuals on shore and off to crank out what they loosely call “original content”. In fact they are outsourcing the production of crap.

My favorite quote:

In fact, search engines are more like a TV camera crew let loose in the middle of a crowd of rowdy fans after a game. Seeing the camera, everyone acts boorishly and jostles to get in front. The act of observing something changes it.

You just have to love that observation.

Learn how to pick locks.

A shepherd was herding his flock in a remote pasture when suddenly a brand-new BMW advanced out of the dust cloud towards him.

The driver, a young man in a Brioni suit, Gucci shoes, Ray Ban sunglasses and YSL tie, leaned out the window and asked the shepherd, “If I tell you exactly how many sheep you have in your flock, will you give me one?”

The shepherd looked at the man, obviously a yuppie, then looked at his peacefully-grazing flock and calmly answered, “Sure.”

The yuppie parked his car, whipped out his lap top and connected it to a cell phone, then he surfed to a NASA page on the internet where he called up a GPS satellite navigation system, scanned the area, and then opened up a database and an Excel spreadsheet with complex formulas. He sent an e-mail on his Blackberry and, after a few minutes, received a response.

Finally, he prints out a 150 page report on his hi-tech, miniaturized printer then turns to the Shepherd and says, “You have exactly 1,586 sheep.”

“That is correct; take one of the sheep,” says the shepherd, and watches the young man select one of the animals and bundle it into his car.

Then the Shepherd says: “If I can tell you exactly what your business is, will you give me back my sheep?”

“OK, why not.” answered the young man.

“Clearly, you are a consultant.” says the shepherd.

“That’s correct,” says the yuppie, “but how did you guess that?”

“No guessing required,” answers the shepherd .”You turned up here although nobody called you. You want to get paid for an answer I already knew, to a question I never asked, and you don’t know crap about my business.”

“Now give me back my dog.”