The San Jose Mercury News (Blogs), Google Finance
So the San Jose Mercury News is up for sale. Readership is down, and journalists wonder about the “death of journalism” when it seems it’s still alive and well on the Internet. I haven’t subscribed to a newspaper for quite some time. This isn’t to say I’m not into news; I hit several news websites every ten minutes and listen to podcasts daily. It just seems more immediate to get things digitally rather than wait 24 hours to read about yesterday’s news in today’s paper.
The pattern I’ve developed is clear: I’m just as interested in what people think about the news than the news itself. So you get the news online, and then consult blogs, podcasts, editorials to see the reaction. For really meaty, in-depth journalism, I’m partial to magazines like The Economist. The middle area that newspapers used to fill for me has clearly been replaced with the Internet.
Another note: Google Finance. I expected to be underwhelmed, but as usual there’s a “Google Twist” that is interesting. The stock timeline is coupled with letters that indicate when the news stories occurred. Plus, the stock timeline is zoomable so you can indicate which period of time you’re interested in. In one quick page view, I’m immediately thinking about replacing my Yahoo! Finance bookmarks with Google Finance. Drat them.