Media Bullseye

Vanity Fair shoots a revealing photo of teen star Miley Cyrus, and the media loses its mind. Am I the only one who thinks this entire scandal and the ensuing media circus was completely coordinated by a PR machine? Whether it was the publication, photographer, Disney or Miley herself, everything about this story seems calculated. Was this reaction truly not anticipated?

Weekday newspaper circulation has continued to drop this year, as every major daily except USA Today and The Wall Street Journal, who both reported modest gains, reported declines, according to the Audit Bureau of Circulation.

Reading about the forthcoming book version of Wikipedia got me to wondering: does everything we do online eventually come full circle into the mainstream media? It seems that more and more, successful online ventures eventually winds up as a part of the mainstream; whether as a book or a new job or other endeavors.

Wikipedia, the collaborative online reference source that allows users to create or modify information pages about a multitude of subjects, will soon be printed as a book set for publication in Germany.

I have been delighted to see so many female-centric social media projects launching this year, from Yahoo's Shine to Women on the Web. Toby Bloomberg highlights some of the best of these. Also: the Wall Street Journal is now available in print form in the United Kingdom, is this a sign print is still alive and kicking? And a journo ends up at a supporter-only Obama event; was his campaign truly surprised at the result?

A quarterly report released this week by the Publishers Information Bureau notes that "Of the 231 magazines that reported advertising figures in both 2007 and 2008, 153 reported a decrease in advertising pages--80 by 10 percent or more. And only 54 magazines reported ad page gains of more than 10 percent."

Sure, newspapers are allegedly a dying breed. But there is much to learn from traditional journalism that just might give your blog a boost. My favorite tip? Learn to edit yourself. Also in today's Jots: what would you give up to get something back? And how to get over blogophobia.

Starbucks launched a platform for customer feedback online this week, and many a blogger is thrilled with the news, as the coffee giant had long held back in social media endeavors. Also: Which social aggregator is best, 12 ways to preach to the non-converted, and a warning about loss of traditional print journalism.

In today's jots: Jeff Jarvis asks for help in determining a new business model for journalism; a discussion about Oovoo day; a question of social media's exclusivity; and the unsavory flacks of Hollywood's least savory characters.

With all the sites and tools that Twitter has spawned, one of the more interesting (and useful to newbies) is the wiki for "Twitter packs." But Dave Fleet worries that the idea, while good, isn't fool proof, and may cause problems. Also: Interactive content, and print media still alive and kicking.