These are some of the things that have caught my attention lately. It’s a more eclectic mix than just the news business, but then so’s life:

• Lauren Rich Fine: Newspapers Should Come To Terms With Lower Margins—Then Go Private | paidContent.org – "[E]ven when there is some form of cyclical recovery, margins for the industry will be dramatically lower than they were during the heyday. I, for one, just hope they are positive as that is good enough for an industry that matters quite a bit beyond just its economics. For an industry that well understands it serves the greater good, come to terms with lower margins. And then go private!"
• Journalistic fellatio | The Quad City Reporter – "I have to adapt my tactics to the people I deal with. And so while I may complain about those stories I think of as journalistic fellatio, I’ll keep doing them because it’s worth it to have sources that trust and like me. And that’s the essence of the game. I need to trust my sources to deliver information. But in order for that to happen with any regularity, I need to give my sources a reason to deliver that information to me. And so I’ll do those happy, sappy stories from time to time. If it means just one juicy bit of information, it’s totally worth it."
• NYT’s Sulzberger: ‘We can’t care’ if newspapers die | CNET – "Now that everyone is in their end-of-the-world mode, we should make a conscious effort to reject the increasingly frenzied 'apocalypse now, tomorrow, and forever' talk," he said. "Quality content matters…trustworthy voices are more important than they have ever been… [W]e must be where people want us for our information."
• Eisner On Online Video And What ‘Works’: Sex And Sarah Palin; But ‘Story’ Is The Thing | paidContent.org – "Sex seems to work. User-gen, sports, news, anything with Sarah Palin works. At the end of the day, like in all the other industries from movies to TV, long-form, story-driven content is what ultimately works. But it’s still in the experimental stage. At ABC, we started America’s Funniest Home Video—so this isn’t the first era to watch a man get hit in the groin with a bat. Most of the studio video is repurposed, like Hulu. It makes NBC and News Corp feel like they’re doing something—I’m not sure it’s the right thing, but they’re doing it well…"
• Did journalism’s business model distort journalism’s social mission? | OJR – "For some of us, then, the problem may actually be that what we are worried about is saving journalism. Wrong focus.

  “Take the mission away from journalism and think more about journalism as a tool: We care about poverty, and how could we use journalism as a tool to make a difference,” he said.

  If that sounds like advocacy said Wertman, it needn’t be. You persuade your donors (and consumers) that a full, fair, balanced and proportional picture of the issue is the best way to get people interested and informed, and thus to bring about action."

• Fat newspaper profits are history | Reflections of a Newsosaur – "Although the economy will recover in the fullness of time, there are very real doubts about whether newspapers still have the time, resources and ingenuity to migrate to a viable new financial model to assure their long-term survival."
• Why Traditional Recession Tactics Are Doomed To Fail This Time | Umair Haque – "Starbucks tried to grow by selling us more junk we don't need — music, mugs, and mouse pads. That was orthodox, textbook, industrial-era strategy: grow by seizing share in adjacent markets. But it's also defunct in a world where we don't need more useless junk."
• Advertising plunge will kill newspapers – and there won’t be a bailout | Kiyoshi Martinez – If you follow the journalism industry publications and blogosphere, then you’ve probably witnessed an industry doing it’s finest fiddling while Rome burns. Everyone’s talking ad nauseam about the problems with newspapers and the industry.

  Everyone is wondering, “What is killing newspapers?”

  Here’s your answer: “A lack of money.” Yes, it’s really that simple.

• McClatchy Posts a Small Profit as Revenue Falls – NYTimes.com – "For the entire third quarter, advertising revenue fell 19 percent. A gain of 9 percent in online advertising revenue could not offset a nearly 22 percent drop in print ads because Internet ads made up only 12 percent of overall advertising revenue.

  Circulation revenue dropped 4.9 percent."