A twitter feed, themediaisdying, had just over 3,000 followers on Dec. 14, when the NYT wrote about it. That number has ballooned to more than 7,200 as I write this.

The NYT columnist asked his readers for advice when he launched a Twitter feed a few weeks ago.

I cull some of the more useful responses:

From the NYT:

Amid all the pressures on the radio industry, news-talk stations see an opportunity — and his name is Barack Obama.

After eight years of playing defense for President Bush, the conservatives who dominate talk radio are back on offense.

The winter solstice occurred in Canada at 7:04 a.m., which means the great turnaround can begin!

Here in Toronto, the sun rose this morning at 7:48 a.m. and will set at 4:44 p.m.

Way up in Edmonton, sunrise occurred at 8:48 a.m., with sundown at 4:16 p.m.

In a month or so, winter's psychological grip on me will be substantially broken. That's when I really start to notice the returning light. And now we're only three months from the equinox!

Christmas is nice, and I'm not intentionally downplaying its importance to Christians, but to me, the solstice is a more logical event around which to organize an early winter celebration.

Speaking of celebrations, at 6 p.m., the Kensington Market Festival of Lights gets underway!

Addenda

Some solstice-related reading:

CBC.ca: Winter Solstice: December's often-overlooked event

BBC: Winter solstice at Stonehenge (photo gallery; here's the news story)

BBC: Paganism - Winter solstice

Toronto Star: Reserve is a refuge from artificial light

The Star story is about the dark sky reserve at Torrance Barrens north of Orillia.

And speaking of light pollution therapy, I addressed the topic a few years back.

Are you a woman of a certain age? Would you like to be an on-air sports journalist? Sorry, but you probably don't have what it takes.

Toronto Star editor-in-chief Fred Kuntz, in his "I must be going now" message, praises the role of newspapers in keeping cities and societies informed.

From the Salon blurb: "The South's attempt to kill the North's auto industry is the latest battle in an ongoing conflict. It's time for a Third Reconstruction to put an end to it."

From AP via globeandmail.com:

The Iraqi journalist who hurled his shoes at President George W. Bush is begging for a pardon for what he described as "an ugly act," the Prime Minister's spokesman said yesterday.

Mark Felt, the former FBI official who covertly kept Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein on track in their reporting on the Watergate scandal that eventually brought down U.S. President Richard Nixon, has died at age 95.

As revenues sink, U.S. newspapers have decided to strategically focus on local news, which means many of the Washington bureaus that existed when Dubya was sworn in eight years ago have either been drastically scaled back or eliminated as Obama's inauguration looms.

The Colonist newspaper, a forebearer of the Victoria Times-Colonist, came into being on Dec. 11, 1858. One can now examine every issue published from that date to June 30, 1910 online at http://www.britishcolonist.ca.

Victoria journalist Tom Hawthorn rhapsodizes about browsing through that paper's inaugural issue.

I suspect we might see something like this in the forthcoming book by the recently paroled newspaper operator David Radler:

• Buy small newspapers
• If you have three people in their newsroom, make two of them sell ads
• Obsessively micromanage costs
• Fine people for "provoking the publisher"
• When you do buy bigger newspapers, count the desks and remove one-quarter of them (along with the people who occupy them, of course). You won't miss a beat
• In a vainglorious frenzy, spend $200 million to create a brand-new newspaper and conservative bully pulpit from scratch so it can be in fourth place in the country's biggest market
• Non-compete fees are like free money

BlogTO had a post today on the impending demise of Pages bookstore at Queen St. W. and John.

The problem facing the bookstore is essentially this:

• The landlord wants to double the rent when the lease expires at the end of February
• Pages founder Marc Glassman has been looking for a new location for two years, to no avail
• "From Leslieville to Parkdale to St. Clair West, he's encountered landlords that he believes are asking way too much, and doesn't feel that even a reduced rent in any of those locations would necessarily make the business sustainable given their lower retail foot traffic compared to Queen and John"

If you can't stay and you can't move, you're in a bit of a conundrum.

From youknowhere:

Amid the bleak backdrop of imminent economic collapse, worried observers got some good news last October when executives from the nation's top 10 failing companies celebrated the historic $700 billion government bailout with an ultra- extravagant $800 billion party aimed at restoring confidence and bolstering their resolve.

Craig Silverman has rounded up the best media errors and corrections of 2008.

For some reason, I found this to be particularly amusing:

Four different newspapers published apologies this year because they had reported – inaccurately! – that David Gest has herpes. Specifically, they reported that Gest alleged that he had contracted herpes from Liza Minnelli on their wedding night. The offenders were The Independent (UK), Daily Mail (UK), Times (UK) and the Baltimore Sun. (Perhaps I missed a few others.) Read all four apologies here, and here’s one from the Daily Mail:

In articles published on 23 and 26 May 2008, we gave the impression that Mr Gest had contracted a sexually transmitted infection and alleged that he had Liza Minnelli’s dog killed without her knowledge. This was wrong. David Gest has never had a sexually transmitted infection and did not have Ms Minnelli’s dog killed. We apologise to Mr Gest for any embarrassment caused.

Paul Waldie looks at some of the options for David Radler, recently granted parole, and finds the former right-hand man of Conrad Black can get back to what he does best -- milking tiny newspapers for every nickel.

From the Dec. 16 Globe and Mail:

(Muntadar al-Zaidi of Al Baghdadia satellite TV) gained his privileged access to Mr. Bush on the strength of his accreditation as a journalist. Without it he would have been like any other anti-Bush protester, chanting unheard insults behind barricades and a tight cordon of security. The price for this access was a duty to treat Mr. Bush, as with any other news subject, fairly and professionally. He owed that to Mr. Bush, to Mr. Bush's Iraqi hosts, and frankly, he owed it to his fellow journalists who rely on news conferences like the one he disrupted to carry out their work.

The moment world leaders think they will be the target of projectiles thrown by reporters is the moment that the privileged access will end, not just for Mr. Zaidi, but for other journalists as well, harming the vital work of a free press.

Yes, to maintain privileged access, journalists should never throw anything hard at world leaders -- especially questions. :)

More seriously, I do concur with the overall sentiment. That type of behaviour is way outside the bounds of what should be considered acceptable.

Addendum

This BBC story has more aftermath news: Bush brushes off shoe attack

From the Financial Post:

Fred Kuntz is resigning as editor-in-chief of the Toronto Star effective Dec. 31, several sources at the newspaper confirmed on Tuesday.

From CP via CTV.ca:

Canada's biggest newspaper publisher, Sun Media, is cutting 600 jobs in Western Canada, Ontario and Quebec as it restructures in the face of harsh economic conditions.

   more »

While the Globe and Mail took Canada's Conservative government to task for a weak GHG emissions goal for 2020, Australia's just-announced goal is only marginally better.

Incidentally, both Australia and Canada are in the top five of the world's per-capita emitters of GHGs.

From the BBC:

Barack Obama has named physics Nobel Prize winner Steven Chu as his energy secretary and tasked him with finding alternatives to fossil fuels.

The US president-elect said the new administration's priorities were to end US dependence on foreign oil and fight climate change.

Naming his environment team, he said US energy dependence had grown even as global resources were disappearing.

During last week's U.S. Senate showdown over auto sector aid, some southern U.S. Republicans blocked the package, ostensibly on the grounds that the unions hadn't given up enough. Salon explores why.

The Globe and Mail wrote the following in an editorial:

When Jim Prentice took over the environment brief six weeks ago, he emphasized the need to balance environmental action with economic realities. But there appears to be little balance in the government's approach. When Mr. Prentice asserts that Canada will reduce its carbon emissions by 20 per cent as of 2020, he means from 2006 emissions levels, not the 1990 levels, as would be the base line if the Kyoto Protocol were to be the goal.

Canada is committing itself to a three-per-cent reduction in emissions by 2020. ...

I could have sworn the Globe was opposed to any attempt to meet Kyoto on the grounds it would hurt the economy, although the above only notes the weakness of the Tory target -- without suggesting anything tougher, let alone trying to meet Kyoto.