Start a Newspaper for $10

This year has seen the decline of the newspaper and print industry. According to the Newspaper Association of America, there was a 17% decline in advertising revenue in 2008. The shift has left people asking What will happen to newspapers?

I have wondered how the news industry was going to change to deal with the reality that was happening to them. Why does anyone need a newspaper when they can use the internet to be their own media channel.

Lance Armstrong is a great example. He decided to have a media blackout and use Twitter and his blog as his media channel.

In comes Printcasting. It is a new company out of Boulder that has created a tool that allow users to "create a local printable newspaper, magazine or newsletter that's supported with local ads. No money tools or design are required."

It uses technology to hurdle over the common issues that a journalist would have with creating their own paper. Instead of needing design skills or expensive technology, you can create a newspaper for $10.

You can even register your RSS feeds to allow others to syndicate your materials. Basically, if you are passionate about journalism, want to invest your own time, you can be a publisher.

It will be interesting to see if the concept catches on at all.

Google OS - Moving from Good To Great

Yesterday, Google announced it will be moving into the Operating System market with Chrome OS. It seems like a natural evolution to what has become part of their stable of online 'office' products like Gmail, Google Docs and Google Calendar.

Maybe the launch of Google Wave was meant to show integration among their products in this space.

However, the move gave me pause. It makes me think about the posts I wrote about Jim Collins' Good to Great. How do big companies maintain market dominance and leadership? Google is pretty good at it. Yet, one of the most important ideas in the Good to Great series is the Hedgehog concept.

The hedgehog concept challenges a company to define what it is best at doing. Not what it wants to be best at doing. It is a core focus and mission.

While reading a Media Post summary by Joe Mandese, it was right there - In it's biggest deviation yet from is core mission statement of "managing the world's information," not to mention its most direct assault on Microsoft, Google late Tuesday officially announced its entry into the computer operating system market.

Will the shift from Google being a great search engine and building better tools for searching and advertising via search prove to be a successful one? Or will the ambitious drive through the muddy OS waters cause the Chrome to rust. It will be interesting to watch.

Twimailer helps combat Twitter Spam

In April, I wrote a post about a Twitter application called, Twimailer. Twimailer is a service that shows you details about new followers. It includes the number people they are following and that are following them.

I thought it was a pretty convenient way I could decide if I wanted to follow someone back. What I hadn't realized at the time, is that it is a great tool to manage and block Twitter spammers.

True, if I am not following them, I won't see their posts, but I like Twitter and I want to keep the environment useful.

This morning, I had three follow request in my inbox from people whose only tweet was im into finding a nice guy , interested ? - with a link that followed.

Needless to say, I blocked those users immediately from the link provided at the bottom of the email. I also reported the users as spam - another quick link at the bottom as well.

If you are starting to get a larger amount of followers, Twimailer makes it easier to sort out the wheat from the chaff.