Why? Because of this.

Way to go, Will Phillips! Keep on keeping on!

Everyone should refuse to pay their taxes until anyone can marry,

-Shady

The local chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists (the people who brought you this) is taking you bloggers seriously. So seriously, in fact, that they’re ready to help you learn the tricks of the trade in an earnest bid to encourage a new crop of citizen journalists to raise up, start their own WordPress blogs, hopefully do some actual reporting and lure you away from time-wasting vanity projects like these!

That’s right: This Saturday, from 10 a.m.-2 p.m., SPJ is putting on the SPJ Blogging Academy, billed on its Facebook events page as

For any current or aspiring bloggers, an intro to community journalism. We’ll tell you about how to avoid ethical and legal pitfalls, how to get better access to government entities, and how to make the best use of fresh reporting on your blog.

The event features helpful hints from uber-bloggers like Max Brantley of the Arkansas Times, Rep. Steve Harrelson of Under the Dome and — lord help us — David Kinkade of The Arkansas Project.

Check it out Saturday at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock Law School, Room 305. Get more info on the Facebook page right here.

Watch/Listen Now: Video | Audio

Arkansas Business Publisher Jeff Hankins is filling for Steve Barnes tonight as host of AETN’s “Arkansas Week.” This week’s guest: Max Brantley of the Arkansas Times, Rick Fahr of The Log Cabin Democrat and David Keith of the University of Central Arkansas‘ Journalism Department.

There’s should be lots to talk about this week, including this morning’s Arkansas Democrat-Gazette report that Arkansas State Police are going to assist in a prosecutor’s review of the university’s finances. On Jeff’s official agenda: the latest on Arkansas lottery plans, state highway funds from the Feds and natural gas proceeds, tobacco settlement spending, and a possible Sarah Palin/Mike Huckabee showdown.

Watch the show tonight at 8 on your local AETN affiliate or click the links above to listen to audio or watch video once AETN posts to its RSS feed.

Meanwhile: Hankins is hosting! And he’s not letting any of this go to his head. Except for a diva-worthy rider he left with “Arkansas Week”’s backstage staff this week. After the jump, see what Hankins is requiring of his AW dressing room before showtime.

Page 1. All white, please.

Page 2, addendum: Janet Jackson, Amy Grant and - shhh! - Adam Lambert.

Having the Best Week Ever

Another week, another roundup. A look back at the Week That Was:

U.S. Senate hopeful Kim Hendren stepped in it, and The Tolbert Report was (virtually) there! He might have buried the lede, but he still got linked the hell out of!

In times of confusion and doubt, the world turned to Zack Stovall. Don’t worry. Daddy’s here.

Blogfight! John Brummett vs. everyone, rounds 1-4. Then the Arkansas Times tried to moderate, but to no avail! Coming this weekend, still more.

We had a Tweetup! Videos, photos and more here. Also, check the new home of the Little Rock Tweetup at LRTweetup.com. (Thanks to @Tsudo!)

We spotted another possible Blanche Lincoln challenger! Meanwhile, Capsearch tried to round up all the other possible Arkansas candidates for anything right here.

Some people found out they won’t be getting their Morning News at the house anymore.

Kyran Pittman weighed half-assed blogging vs. whole-ass blogging. And then there’s the hermit crabs.

Ms. Adverthinker discovered the perils of Facebook defriending.

Whole Brevity Thing rounds up the best iPhone photo apps for shutterbugs everywhere.

The Razorbacks Expats got an early, early, early look at the 2009 Razorbacks football season.

Also

Kris Allen. Yes, we heard. Yeah, it’s wonderful.

Relax!

It’s the weekend! Lots to do for free for the next two days, according to FrugalAR.

This time, the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette was out first with news today of its latest round of newsroom cuts, posted on its Web site here. Others, including The Arkansas Project, Arkansas Business’ Mark Hengel, the Arkansas News Bureau and the Arkansas Times, quickly followed up.

From Hengel’s report, this from General Manager Paul Smith:

The poor economy has been “pretty widespread, and it sure hasn’t missed us,” Smith said. Smith did not disclose how much revenue has fallen.

“We’ll have some more staff reductions until the economy improves,” he said. Cuts are taking place at the paper’s Little Rock headquarters and in northwest Arkansas, where Wehco publishes the Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. Managers are informing employees Monday.

Affected employees will receive pay through May 18 and may choose to work through the date, according to a Democrat-Gazette report.

More here, and an update after the jump.

This latest round follows other cost-cutting moves by the newspaper. Publisher Walter Hussman’s Wehco company, which owns the DG, has also made cuts at the DG’s sister paper, the Chattanooga Times Free Press.

Noted on Twitter, this from former DG writer Werner Trieschmann, himself laid off from the paper during a previous round of cuts: “Newspapers haven’t found the bottom yet.”

UPDATE: Here’s the Democrat-Gazette’s newspaper story, printed on Tuesday, the day after the layoffs. Interesting words from Managing Editor David Bailey, who apparently told the newspaper staff that the DG isn’t experiencing a “newspaper problem.” The cuts are tied to the economy, and once the economy improves, the paper will staff up again.

Griffin Smith told the newspaper’s staff that Democrat-Gazette Publisher Walter E. Hussman told him, ‘We’re going to have to scale down, and when things get better, we’re just going to have to build it back up.”

“Those are brave words that most publishers aren’t saying,” he said.

Vote early, vote often

… and can spare a few minutes, you might cruise over to the Arkansas Times, where they’re taking nominations for their 2009 Best of Arkansas Readers Poll. I think there’s a blogs category …

But you don’t have to vote for this electronic rag! There’s others (probably) more deserving!

The Arkansas Project

The Think Tank

The Tolbert Report

Kyran Pittman’s Notes to Self

Emily Reeves’ Ms. Adverthinker

Zack Stovall’s Unfamous First Words

And many, many more in our Blogroll sidebar, all the way over in the right rail. Happy voting!

But will it float? Blake goes SWIM-ing

Day 5 of the Swine H1N1 Flu and we’re all holding our own! Let’s celebrate our fortitude in the midst of this pending societal meltdown by taking a short look at the Week That Was:

The Arkansas Times was obsessed — obsessed — with Judge Willard Proctor.

Ms. Adverthinker pondered why it matters that more women are online than men.

Blake, at the Think Tank, got invited to a super-fancy speaking event on social media in New York City. Better wear your nice shoes!

The Arkansas Project tracked that insidious dark avenger that was the Swine Flu. Fortunately, we’re not blowing up any bridges just yet.

Central Arkansas Refreshers met, had refreshments.

The Tolbert Report introduced us to Rick Crawford, who says he’s taking on U.S. Rep. Marion Berry next year.

Zack Stovall, after shouting at me like a madman on the streets of downtown Little Rock, wonders what will come of the national Republican Party.

Kyran Pittman continues her sessions on the ins and outs of blogging. Latest edition: Dealing with rude commenters.

A Twitter tutorial on THV!

We gave more personal information to Skynet.

Robert Blake made us laugh. Again.

Sarah Palin Twittered.

Looking Ahead

It’s a blogging/social media tsunami this weekend as

Blake Rutherford and Emily Reeves go SWIM-ing tonight.

Kyran Pittman signs books on Saturday in Little Rock.

Delta Trust CEO French Hill tweets from Berkshire Hathaway on Saturday.

Local comic book artist/Twitterer Mitch Breitweiser is in Benton for Free Comic Book Day.

Brummett does Eureka Springs on Sunday.

Final edition. (Photo from KTHV)

Media news from around Arkansas and the nation:

Mourning News – Twitterer Chris Spencer is among nine newsroom staffers at Stephens Media Group’s Morning News to be laid off this week. The newspaper is also implementing a limited furlough program for employees, combining several sections of the newspaper during the week and cutting costs in other ways. Spencer is keeping a chin up, according to his Twitter account. The Arkansas Times has the full memo from management detailing the changes. The Morning News posts its own story on the changes here.

A Voice in the Dark – In other Stephens Media Group news, the company decides to suspend publication of the Saline County’s The Voice newspaper. KTHV’s report is here. Publisher Dennis Byrd tells the TV station that “This was strictly because this newspaper was so young and it was in a competitive market and we knew that going in.” The Voice started under Stephens in 2007. The Benton Courier, The Voice’s competition, remains in business. Byrd says The Voice could re-open if the economy improves.

Deadlines Are Important to Newspapers – The New York Times Co. is sticking to its May 1 deadline to get millions in concessions from union workers at The Boston Globe. If it doesn’t get what it wants, it might close the paper.

Worse – McClatchy, which owners newspapers including the Fort Worth Star-Telegram and the Miami Herald, sees its losses deepen in the first quarter.

Off the Air, Out of a Job – National Public Radio lays off 13 and begins a furlough program of its own. And “Day 2 Day” is still canceled. Sigh.

Unfriending – Yahoo! is pulling the plug on the MySpace-before-there-was-MySpace, GeoCities. The death knell for the animated .gif industry?

Tina Sells Out – Tina Brown’s HuffPo wannabe The Daily Beast finally starts selling advertising. Paying the bills is important.

Here’s the “Shake”-y video of my reading of Bite at the Arkansas Literary Festival – it’s what you get when you use a cheap digital camera – but still, I’m glad to have a memento of my public poetic debut. In addition to Bite, I read Of My Science and Her Poetics and Spammed.

I arrived at the event complete with entourage – 17 people came to support me and the overall turnout was good at roughly 100 or so. I was the curtain jerker, going on first, but I that allowed me to enjoy the rest of the evening.  It was exhilarating, exciting, wonderful, terrifying, fun, and, in a way, life-altering.  Thanks to everyone who came out!

Here was the official lineup of the event, with four local open mic-ers (including me) reading alongside six established writers.

PUB OR PERISH 2009

OPEN MIC: BRYAN BORLAND

SCOTT STANDRIDGE: Scott Standridge is a poet, short story writer, and the former editor of City Slab magazine, From 2006 to 2007 he wrote a new original sonnet every day for a year. His poem “Noir, #28″ was a finalist for the 2008 Howard Nemerov Sonnet Award. His poetry has also appeared in The Hypertexts, Dreams and Nightmares, and Modern Drunkard Magazine. He lives in Little Rock.

DOROTHY ALLISON: A native of Greenville, South Carolina, Dorothy Allison is one of the best writers working today. Her books of poetry and fiction include Trash, The Women Who Hate Me, Cavedweller, Two or Three Things I Know for Sure and Bastard out of Carolina, which was a finalist for the National Book Award.

OPEN MIC: DONALD STREIT (Very cool political-tinted poetry)

MAUREEN SMITH MCGOVERN – Maureen McGovern is a painter, poet and actress. A former newspaper journalist and magazine writer, she appeared in the films “The Pigman” and “The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-in-the-Moon Marigolds.” She lives in Fairfield Bay with her husband, Don

OPEN MIC: LENNON SIMPSON (A Slam poet – one “traditionalist” poet had called his style “The McDonalds of poetry” earlier in the day – and he preceded his performance by telling her to fuck herself because he likes Big Macs. I was very happy Lennon participated because he brought a burst of energy to the event.)

RANDI ROMO: Randi Romo is an old friend of Pub or Perish, A resident of Little Rock, Randi is very passionate about the struggle for equal rights for our gay and lesbian neighbors and other oppressed people in Arkansas: or, as she put it: a Passionate Queer Chicana Word-Spitting Art-Making Warrior-Woman Activist who is trying hard to be the change she wants to see in the world. Randi is the co-founder and the current director of the Center for Artistic Revolution, a Little Rock arts and culture action group.

CHRISTINA HENRIQUEZ: Cristina Henríquez is a graduate of Northwestern University and the famous Iowa Writer’s Workshop. A resident of Chicago, her stories have appeared in The New Yorker, The Atlantic, Glimmer Train, Ploughshares, and TriQuarterly. She is the author of the novel The World In Half and the short story collection Come Together, Fall Apart.

OPEN MIC: BRE SCHRADER (Bre brought STD awareness to Pub or Perish and I think we’re all better for it.)

PAUL LAKE: A native of Baltimore, poet and novelist Paul Lake is a professor of English at Arkansas Tech University. His poetry and essays have appeared in Southern Review, Paris Review, Sewanee Review, Poetry and many others. He is the author of the poetry collection Another Kind of Travel, and the novel Among the Immortals, a literary thriller about poets and vampires. In June of 2008, he published his second novel, Cry Wolf, a political fable about a farm called Green Pastures.

Here’s a couple of photos – one of my co-workers who came out to cheer me on – complete with signs (The one here says “Bryan’s BFF’s” – that’s Best Friends Forever – and then there’s the obligatory photo of me with a beer beforehand, because, really, poetry and alcohol go together like poetry contests and expensive entry fees.

For serious – thank you to all my friends and especially to my love Christopher, who endured me reading my poetry endlessly in the days leading up to Pub or Perish.

With Steve Barnes

Arkansas Business Editor Gwen Moritz, Arkansas Times Editor Max Brantley and Kelly MacNeil of KUAR-FM, 89.1 radio are host Steve Barnes’ guest this week on “Arkansas Week.” You can catch it at 8 p.m. tonight on your local AETN affiliate.

Among the topics, yesterday’s 8th Circuit Court decision that released the Little Rock School District from decades-old desegregation supervision, the general state of the economy and the Week That Was at the state Capitol. Fun!

Check out the show at 8 p.m. or click here to listen to audio of the show and hear to watch video.

Arkansas Business published a list of 25 for the Future of course it has only 3.5 (the half is a brother sister duo). Of course, it also has many of the “sons and daughters” of the very important people of Arkansas. Of course, the Arkansas Times blog chimes in with

No kidding. Looked at our corporate boardrooms, state commissions and other positions of power lately? White males, paternalism and devotion to gender role stereotyping dominate. (Just try and get on the state Game and Fish Commission if you don’t have a penis.) So, no, I won’t be joining those shooting the messenger.

I love that. I love that like a bullet to the head. If I had remembered for two seconds when I set foot on Arkansas soil with my tier one law school degree and a dream that many, many people still think that women should be good little wives and very important attorneys would call me “sugar” at meetings or that I would be encouraged to do family law instead of criminal law or a whole long laundry list of other shit, I would have handcuffed myself to the Greenville bridge and refused to come home.

Okay that’s a hyperbole. It’s a lot more slight than I would like and a “very important attorney” did call me “sugar” the whole damn time. I’ve decided the next time someone calls me “sugar” I’m replying by calling them “Honeybritches” I don’t care if it’s Mike Beebe, Mike Huckabee, or Satan himself. Honeybritches it is.

Yes it’s annoying. It’s very annoying. I lived in liberal, less paternalistic quarters for far too long.

Pay cuts at the Times

Noted here, for the record. The Little Rock alt-weekly Arkansas Times has joined a number of media companies in Arkansas making cutbacks in the face of a dire economic climate. Starting next month, pay cuts of 4 to 7 percent for some employees.

Max Brantley with the news:

Publisher Alan Leveritt said today he’d implemented temporary pay reductions of 4 to 7 percent for about a third of the 41 people who work on our various publications. Lower paid employees were exempt from the cut. The cuts were indexed to pay, with the largest in the best paid jobs. The cuts take effect next month. Recently, we also laid off a receptionist and converted a full-time job on El Latino, the Spanish language weekly, to part-time.

There have been no job reductions on the Times editorial staff.

Noted: The Times recently began selling ad space on the front page of its print edition, as have other publications throughout the country, as media companies seek any new revenue they can get their hands on.

There’s this thing on the Twitters called “Follow Friday,” where folks make suggestions about who everyone should follow. They do this on Friday.

So to be a contrarian, we’ll do make our suggestions on … Monday! Herewith, a heaping handful of Arkansas Twitterers you’ll wanna catch up with. And be sure to check out our (in)complete (un)official Guide to the Arkansas Twittersphere here!

Gerard Matthews – Arkansas Times’ writer and Tumblr.

David Koon – Fellow Times scribe just getting his Twitter feet wet.

Matthew Price – One of the two mad geniuses behind Capsearch.com.

Katie Bodenhamer – The other of the two mad geniuses behind Capsearch.com. Scary knowledge of the Arkansas Code.

John DiPippa – Dean, UA Bowen School of Law. Probably knows more about the Arkansas Code.

George Hopkins – Executive director, Arkansas Teacher Retirement System.

Broadway Joe – Of Power 92’s Broadway Joe Show, a Little Rock institution.

AJ Parker – Blogger and CW Arkansas personality. She’s Twittery!

Kyran Pittman – Note to Self blogger, friend of Little Rock Family.

Shane Montgomery – Pastor and life coach. Catch his money management segment from Today’s THV last week.

Hog Sports Radio – Northwest Arkansas’ home to all things Hog and regional radio partner for ArkansasSports360.com.

Joan Duffy – Former reporter for the Memphis Commercial Appeal, now at UALR Media Relations.

KARK-TV, Channel 4 – Because Arkansas matters matter.

Donna Terrell – Weeknight news anchor for the local Fox affiliate, KLRT-TV, Channel 16.

Arkansas Department of Emergency Management – Everyone please just stay calm.

The end is near! The end of the session, that is. With the lottery now official and the grocery tax in the books, the bigger issues of the 87th General Assembly have been tucked away. But there’s one lingering piece of big business.

The state budget! Small detail.

On this week’s “Arkansas Week,” we talk about the revised state budget, the hazards of ethics legislation, college tuition for immigrants and death penalty. At the table with host Steve Barnes this week: me, Kelly MacNeil of KUAR radio and John Williams of the Arkansas Times.

Catch the show at 8 p.m. on your local AETN affiliate. Or, listen to the show now here or watch video here.

Updated: Brantley gets a response from Hussman. Their exchange:

Q: Don”t you think, inevitably, maybe not in my lifetime or the next, but inevitably, electronic distribution has to prevail? When reading devices become cheap, convenient and ubiquitous (not to mention instantly updatable), it seems to me that the lure of giving up the cost of paper, ink, printing and distribution will make too much economic sense to retain the old model.

Care to future gaze?

A: I think on line access to information will become more widespread as it becomes easier to use and more interactive. But I think there will always be a market for printed newspapers. The audience may become smaller, but if so  I think it will be well educated and those concerned and committed to their communities. If so, this will be an attractive audience for advertisers. But for now, newspapers are still the most cost effective mass medium for advertisers in most local markets.

Original item:

Max Brantley posts what looks to be an item* from the publisher of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, Walter Hussman, who is defiant in the face of newspaper failures throughout the country and industry’s slow realization that its business model, built around printed ads and delivery, is simply unworkable in the digital world.

The e-mail is from Hussman to managers at all his papers, including Paul Smith at the DG. It notes the Seattle Post-Intelligencer’s move ditching its money-losing print edition and attempting to go online-only.

The e-mail reads:

Paul, worth reading, in that it is the first print to web only conversion of a daily newspaper.

Our goal is to try and make sure this never happens to the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette and our other newspapers.

Thanks, Walter

Brantley, who admits to not owning a cell phone, seems taken aback by Hussman’s never-say-die spirit. And Times blog commenters are already having fun with it. Says one:

Anybody who doesn’t believe the day is in sight when virtually all media is transmitted electronically probably also believes that gasoline is the end game for rapid transportation.
The world is changing. Walter’s gonna get his ass passed by if he doesn’t get on board.
“never” is such a long time.

I think there’s many ways to take this e-mail, as it is written. (Brantley tells me he’s asked Hussman to elaborate.) It doesn’t mean that Hussman doesn’t have an online strategy — perhaps one that maintains some form of a print edition, which might in fact be doable in the foreseeable future in Arkansas, a state where broadband penetration isn’t so hot.

But you can’t argue this: Hussman’s losing his print-loving base every time he publishes an obit. And the kids coming up, they don’t read the print version. They go online. And in that light, Hussman’s e-mail is dispiriting.

Am I reading this wrong? Can the DG exist with the print product forever? Let me know in comments.

(* I’ve corrected my intial missunderstanding of how Brantly received the Hussman e-mail. Brantley received the copy from someone — apparently in the DG’s newsroom. Apologies.)

Twitter is awesome! But it can also get you in trouble with judges and possible employers.

This horrifying exchange, as noted by a fellow WordPress blogger at I’m Not Actually a Geek:

A lucky job applicant tweeted the following:

“Cisco just offered me a job! Now I have to weigh the utility of a fatty paycheck against the daily commute to San Jose and hating the work.”

This tweet caught the attention of Tim Levad, a channel partner advocate for Cisco. To which he responded:

“Who is the hiring manager. I’m sure they would love to know that you will hate the work. We here at Cisco are versed in the web.”

Ouch! The person who dissed the Cisco offer quickly took their Twitter account private. But Twitter search retained the record.

You kids better be careful out there on the Interwebs.

I’m watching my mouth here.

(A version of this post appeared on The Ladder @ ArkansasBusiness.com.)

Update: No sooner did we post this entry, did we see the Arkansas Times’ note on the resignation of Batesville Chamber of Commerce Director Jonah Shumate. This, after he posted some pointed political views to the chamber’s official Twitter account, which, according to our Arkansas Twitter Guide, was located here. It has of course been taken down.

Apparently, some Democratic members of the chamber learned of the Republican-leaning posts. After a meeting on the matter last night, Shumate resigned, according to the Times.

Shumate began at the chamber in 2007. He was apparently one of the youngest ever to hold the position. Them kids and their Twitters!

The Arkansas Times popped their note here about more cost-cutting measures at the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, and Arkansas Business media writer Mark Hengel follows up with more here, including word that all of publisher Walter Hussman’s Wehco newspapers are trying to contain costs in some way or another as ad revenue dries up.

General Manager Paul Smith tells Hengel that each of the company’s newspaper departments were asked to find ways to cut costs. At the Democrat-Gazette, the newsroom chose furloughs, taking off one day every four weeks, thereby cutting wages by 5 percent:

“This keeps as many people on the job as possible,” [Deputy Editor Frank] Fellone said.

He said he does not expect the newspaper’s news coverage to shrink.

“I’m confident we can cover all the news we need to cover even if we need to throw a rookie like me out there,” he said.

This is the latest attempt by the newspaper to stop the slide. Last week, layoffs. Before that, a request for workers to voluntarily cut hours. Before that, a salary and wage freeze.

The D-G isn’t the only Arkansas newspaper facing tough times, of course. Stephens Media, owner of the daily Southwest Times Record at Fort Smith, the Pine Bluff Commercial and The Morning News at Springdale, as well as the Arkansas News Bureau in Little Rock, suspended its 401(k) match program last month. And it previously laid off workers at its Washington D.C. bureau.

And furloughs are nothing new to Gannett Co. employees, including those at KTHV-TV, Channel 11, and the Baxter Bulletin.

Related

In the spirit of this dispiriting newspaper death watch, Real Clear Politics has listed 10 newspapers that are on the the bubble. Included on the list when it was released last week: the Rocky Mountain News, which indeed folded Friday. Others on the list, and their vitals:

• New York Daily News – Circulation: 632,595 (10% Decline Since 2007)
• Los Angeles Times – Circulation: 739,147 (4% decrease since 2007)
• St. Paul Pioneer Press – Circulation: 184,973 (3% decrease since 2007)
• Chicago Sun-Times – Circulation: 313,176 (.2% increase since 2007)
• Detroit News – Circulation: 178,280 (5% decrease since 2007)
• San Francisco Chronicle – Circulation: 339,430 (8% decrease since 2007)
• Miami Herald – Circulation: 210,884 (12% decrease since 2007)
• Philadelphia Daily News – Circulation: 97,694 (9% decrease since 2007)
• Seattle Post-Intelligencer – Circulation: 117,572 (9% decrease since 2007)

Wills gets his Pacino on

Arkansas Senate Approves Tobacco Tax 28-7; State’s Tax Goes to $1.15 Per Pack; What it will pay for [ArkansasBusiness.com]

Against: Denny Altes, R-Fort Smith; Gilbert Baker, R-Conway; Johnny Key, R-Mountain Home; Bill Pritchard, R-Elkins; Jerry Taylor, D-Pine Bluff; Sharon Trusty, R-Russellville; and Ruth Whitaker, R-Cedarville. (Roll call)

Flip: Sen. Terry Smith, D-Hot Springs; ‘No’ in committee, ‘yes’ in the Senate

Legislators: Robbie Wills: “The bill now goes to the Governor, who I understand is inclined to sign it.”; Steve Harrelson: Steele closes debate; Larry Teague: “The good ultimately outweighed the bad.”

Twittering the vote: Tolbert, Thompson, Goins

The bill: HB1204

More: Arkansas Times: Beebe struck deals beforehand; Thompson: Solid NW Ark. support; Arkansas News Bureau: Key – “This is the wrong time to support this.”; Steve Barnes, New York Times: News brief

Capsearch.com Video:

“Arkansas Week” airs at 8 p.m. tonight on your local AETN affiliate. And check it out! You’ll now be able to embed the show on your Web site or blog once it becomes available on the Interwebs (here’s the link to video of last week’s show, with Arkansas Business Publisher Jeff Hankins).

Tonight: I’m on a panel with “Unconventional Wisdom” host and Arkansas News Bureau columnist David Sanders and Arkansas Times columnist Ernie Dumas. Taping from the Department of Education building behind the state Capitol, we talk about today’s depressing unemployment numbers, last month’s state revenue report and something that happened yesterday at in the Legislature that slipped my mind.

Also: Sanders breaks news about waterboarding in the back rooms of the Capitol — that’s wasn’t sweat on legislators’ faces!

Here’s audio of tonight’s show. Video here.

If you’re not blogging, Twittering, podcasting, videocasting, columnizing, editorializing or reporting on the 87th General Assembly, you might be in the minority.

A quick glance around the Interwebs reveals several sites claiming to keep an eye on the Capitol, and many of them publish continually as news happens.

Among them:

• My day job, ArkansasBusiness.com: In addition to posting Associated Press reports as they pop, we’re working with new legislative bill tracking service Capsearch.com to get the latest word out of committee meetings and other happenings at the Capitol. We Twitter updates as necessary here, publish a “Capitol round-up” in our Daily Report e-newsletter at noon and have taken the weekly Government & Politics e-newsletter daily during the session, publishing Capitol news updates in the afternoon. Oh, and Capsearch.com’s Insiders’ Blog offers commentary.
• ArkansasNews.com: A brand-spanking new site for the Stephens News Bureau updates with news reports from Capitol throughout the day. Its blogs, meanwhile, offer comment and analysis on the fly. John Brummett is posting regularly on legislative matters. James Jefferson curates the new Politics in Arkansas blog. Doug Thompson has his own blog and Twitter account.
• The Arkansas Times: Editor Max Brantley keeps the conversation going on his Arkansas Blog, but even more daily legislature coverage is coming from John Williams via his newly established Legislative Beat blog.
• Others bloggers, like Jason Tolbert, take a break from their day jobs to report legislative matters that interest them, with heavy doses of photo, video and, naturally, partisanship.
• The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette is continuing its strong work watching the Ledge as newspapers around the country reportedly scale back on their own state legislative coverage. The D-G’s work can be found online, though most of its coverage is, sadly, locked down.

But all that’s to say nothing of the growing roster of legislators who are regularly blogging the session themselves: Rep. Robbie Wills (who also Twitters), Rep. Steve Harrelson, Rep. Dan Greenberg, Rep. David “Bubba” Powers and Sen. Larry Teague.

Here’s several state legislators, including the Speaker of the House, cutting out the middlemen of the press and taking their message directly to constituents. They’re giving us early word on what happens under the dome, from the hottest issues of the day to some of the more mundane details of public service. Greenberg’s even fighting back against media coverage with which he doesn’t agree.

These blogs are a great way to keep up with the legislature, and they’ll only grow in number. But it’s important to remember that these sites, like most opinion blogs, represent the views of those who are running them. They’re one food group in a diet of media consumption that’s changing, but still requires balance.

While I’ll read (and enjoy) the legislator blogs, I’ll also rely on the objective eyes of others outside the dome, as well. Fortunately in Arkansas, there’s no shortage of those.

More

Jill Zeman of the The Associated Press on legislator-bloggers here.

Noted in the Arkansas Times blog, this memo from Arkansas Democrat-Gazette General Manager Paul Smith to DG staffers.

In move to avoid (or at least put off) deeper cuts, the paper asks for volunteers who agree to reduce their hours, thereby saving the paper in payroll expenses:

We would consider any employee who is willing, at least temporarily, to reduce their workdays to four days a week, reducing their hours from 40 hours a week to 32 hours a week, with compensation reduced accordingly. Health care insurance would remain in force.

Similarly, we would also consider employees who might want to voluntarily reduce their workday. For example, if some employees wanted to reduce their workday from 8:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. instead of 5:00 p.m., and reduce their workweek from 40 hours a week to 30 hours a week by doing this, we would consider such requests.

We would modify our policy so health care insurance would remain in force for those working 30 hours a week or more.

As mentioned above, these programs would be totally voluntary at this time. For employees who make these requests, which are accepted, we would consider future requests to increase hours once business has improved and is back to normal levels.

Smith goes on to note that the paper has seen “modest” cost savings from its previously announced hiring and salary freezes, and that those savings have “not large enough given the economic downturn.”

UPDATED: Gannett Co., which owns KTHV-TV, Channel 11, in Little Rock and the Baxter Bulletin in north Arkansas, is making similar moves, with staff asked to take a week off without pay. The Gannett Blog has more.

We realize we’re getting dangerously close to beating a dead horse here, still mining blog posts from Tuesday night’s SPJ-sponsored discussion between John Brummett and Kristin Fisher over new media. But I wanted to make a couple of points based on what was said.

Off the Mark

I think everyone’s ears perked up when Brummett, of the Arkansas News Bureau, noted that Max Brantley’s Arkansas Times blog “has rendered the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette Arkansas section section obsolete.” And we’re sure the “print is dead” crowd loved it.

Old shoe?

In many respects, Brummett’s right. Brantley’s ever-churning, always-updating blog provides a good distillation of the day’s news. On many days, one could easily foresake the daily newspaper for the nuggets you can quickly glean from any number of local or national news blogs and not miss a beat. Moreover, those blogs often deliver that information in ways that are more relevent and more useful to the way younger readers consum news, via RSS, the Web and mobile phone.

But Brantley’s blog, blogs we do at ArkansasBusiness.com, my personal blog and others are in many respects still very much dependent on the news produced by daily newspapers. The very institutions we regard (often for good reason) as stodgy and outdated and woefully behind the times are also often the only sources we have for the lion’s share of our daily local and national news coverage. Without them, most blogs would be rudderless.

Gwen Moritz, editor of Arkansas Business, noted in our office yesterday the irony that newspapers are failing at a time when newspaper content — i.e., news — is now in more demand than ever.

So, to me one of the Democrat-Gazette’s great missteps, and the misstep of most other daily newspapers, is not making news content available in ways that are relevant and accessible to a new generation of readers, online and beyond. And in that sense, yes, the D-G’s Arkansas section, and other similar sections in other daily newspapers around the country, have certainly become “obsolete.”

On Target

Second, to another point Brummett made that the future of news might lie in more targeted, niche entities. I agree, and not because I work at a niche publishing company, but because you can already see the future taking shape now as more and more reporters and editors get laid off and take buyouts.

These reporters and editors will invariably land in smaller, leaner news operations, many that are likely geared toward a defined, demanding readership or niche. They will most likely boast strong Web components, if not be exclusively Web-based. A good example of such an operation is Politico.com, which was founded by former Washington Post reporters and has quickly become the source for national political coverage.

This very scenario is among Business Week’s media predictions for 2009:

A sort of shadow media industry is born—properties created and staffed by those pink-slipped in ‘08 and ‘09. This sets the stage for epic clashes with existing players in ‘10 and beyond.

Matter is neither created nor destroyed. The news industry as we know it is slowly (and painfully) deconstructing and reforming itself into something new. I’m hopeful that what we end up with will be stronger, more viable and, more importantly, more suited to the needs of readers and the standards of Good Journalism.

Related

Jason Tolbert’s epic Brummett/Fisher video collection, soon to be revered as the Frost/Nixon of its time, available here in 8 parts. (No joke!)

Who will mourn daily newspapers? – Financial Times

Newsweek to cut staff, slim magazine in makeover – WSJ

A scenario for local news – Jeff Jarvis

Caught. From KATV.com.

About an hour after calling a news conference to name a suspect, police caught and arrested an Arkansas man for the murder of KATV-TV, Channel 7, anchor Anne Pressly.

From the Associated Press via ArkansasBusiness.com:

Police on Wednesday arrested a man on a capital murder charge in the beating death of a popular television anchorwoman but offered neither a motive behind the attack nor details about why they suspected him.

Curtis Lavelle Vance, 28, fled his Marianna home earlier Wednesday with a 25-year-old woman and three children under age 5, Little Rock Police Chief Stuart Thomas said. Police spokesman Lt. Terry Hastings said Vance was arrested without incident at a home in Little Rock about 11 p.m.

“We got a tip. We went there and he’s in custody,” Hastings said early Thursday. “As far as we know he wasn’t armed.”

More here.

KATV has complete coverage on its Web site here, including video of the perp walk, where people are heard yelling at Vance, “You’re gonna die.” When asked whether he murdered Pressly, Vance said, “No.”

The Arkansas Times has more here, including some video of KATV reporter Jessica Dean talking to Little Rock Police Chief Stuart Thomas:

Stuart said the case against Vance is “solid” due to “solid detective work.” Vance apparently has only a minor arrest record, with only one arrest in Pulaski County for giving a false identification in a traffic stop, according to the Times.

Random Thoughts

It was about 12 hours ago now when word first began to circulate that police had a suspect. And it spread across all Arkansas media channels. You can track it moving on Twitter here.

Having shut everything down for the holidays, I missed the breaking news. I had a surreal, old media moment early this morning when I retrieved the newspaper to see the story on the front page of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.

Kristin Fisher

Meanwhile, lots to consider as this case moves forward. Could this case ever make trial in Little Rock given the amount of media coverage it’s received? (I see that thought noted here.) And how will the local TV media continue to cover the case of a man police say murdered one of their own?

Tough questions lie ahead, to say nothing of the pain this continues to bring to Pressly’s friends and family.

More

Anne Pressly, from this blog

KATV’s complete coverage

ArkansasBusiness.com on Anne Pressly

Suspect nabbed in Pressly murder [The Arkansas Project]

From KTHV (includes video)

From KLRT

From KARK

Arkansas Democrat-Gazette (subscribers only); Video; Photos

From KUAR

From KARN

Google News

So Little Rock finally gets Twitter. Or do they?

At the day job, I’ve set up Twitter news feeds for ArkansasBusiness.com (http://twitter.com/ArkBusiness) and ArkansasSports360.com (http://twitter.com/ArkSports360). And even Sports360’s High School Sports Editor Phil Seaton is getting in on the act, setting up his account at http://twitter.com/pseaton. And there’s my personal feed here: http://twitter.com/LT.

The Arkansas Times has started two Twitter feeds, one for its wildly popular Arkansas Blog, and another for its music blog, Rock Candies. And of course, there’s what KATV is doing here.

But I know what you’re thinking: WWJBD?

That’s, What Would John Brummett Do?

Funny you should ask. His column, today:

That’s this place on-line that you get to by, appropriately, typing twitter.com. Once registered, the idea is to put on-line a description of what you’re doing at that very moment so that your designated friends will know.

Headed to bathroom. Now in bathroom. Now washing hands. Can’t find towels. Now going to lunch. Think will have salad. Ranch dressing. Two croutons. Correx. Three croutons. Oops, iceberg leaf just fell off plate. She wasn’t bad-looking. Guy coughing. Don’t know Heimlich. He’s OK now.

I theorize that all of this reveals a fear of being alone in an increasingly frightful world, of being disconnected from comfortable associations. And I don’t think it’s just the younger people, either.

FYI: You won’t find us sending Twitter alerts about our bathroom habits. It’s all the news headlines and links you can stand. And it’s also an easy wait for our followers to drop us a line.

(As for Brummett’s theory, he might be onto something. Just this morning, the office Internet was down. The feeling of panic was palpable. And all was right with the world again once it was restored. Scary.)

Meanwhile, a less grizzled opinion of Twitter: Business Week’s editor-in-chief on why he Twitters. John Byrne’s Twitter account here.

More

My updated local Twitter directory after the jump. It includes local news media, bloggers and people I know.

Want me to add you to the list? E-mail me or message me on Twitter here.

News/News People

ArkansasBusiness.com – http://twitter.com/ArkBusiness

ArkansasSports360.com – http://twitter.com/ArkSports360

Phil Seaton – http://twitter.com/pseaton

Arkansas Times (Max Brantley) – http://twitter.com/arkansasblog

David Sanders – http://twitter.com/djsanders

Rock Candies – http://twitter.com/rockcandies

Today’s THV, KTHV: http://twitter.com/todaysthv

KATV: http://twitter.com/KATVNews

KLRT Fox 16 News: http://twitter.com/FOX16News

The Log Cabin Democrat: http://twitter.com/lcdonline

KARN: http://twitter.com/karnnewsradio

The Den: http://twitter.com/ArkSt_com

Kelly Dudzik: http://twitter.com/kellykdudzik

Sandra Kirk: http://twitter.com/skirk16

John Payne: http://twitter.com/djazzycool1

David Goins: http://twitter.com/dgoins

Mark Hengel: http://twitter.com/markhengel

Bloggers

Blake Rutherford: http://twitter.com/blakerutherford

David Kinkade (The Arkansas Project): http://twitter.com/davidkinkade

Jason Tolbert (The Tolbert Report): http://twitter.com/JasonTcpa

Bryan Jones: http://twitter.com/bryanjones/

Doug Krile: http://www.twitter.com/dougkrile

Pleth Networks, LLC Partner / Co-Founder Cotton Rohrscheib: http://www.twitter.com/powersitedesign

Companies/Groups

Tyson Foods: http://twitter.com/TysonFoods

Pleth Networks, LLC business partner Stephen Smart: http://www.twitter.com/skspilot

Arkansas Discovery Network: http://twitter.com/arkdiscovery

Winthrop Rockefeller Institute: http://twitter.com/Rockefeller

People

Pat Ulrich – http://twitter.com/pulrich

Angel Galloway: https://twitter.com/angelmg

Karl Hills: http://twitter.com/karlhills

Kat Hills: http://twitter.com/kat22stl

Mary Wagoner: http://twitter.com/MaryroseWagoner

Adena J. White: http://twitter.com/AdenaJ

Clark: http://twitter.com/clarknwark

Emily Reeves: http://twitter.com/reeves501

Amanda Galiano: http://twitter.com/AboutLittleRock

Eric Britt: http://twitter.com/ericbritt

Megan Knight: http://twitter.com/megan_knight

Brent Birch: http://twitter.com/brentbirch

Zack Hill: http://twitter.com/zackhill

Michael Paladino: http://twitter.com/mpaladino

Mayor James F. Valley: http://twitter.com/jamesfvalley

Anthony K. Valley:http://twitter.com/akvalley

John Boozman: http://twitter.com/JohnBoozman

Corinne: http://twitter.com/cozcoz

Duncan Baird: http://twitter.com/duncanbaird

Mitch Breitweiser: http://twitter.com/mbreitweiser

Luke Williams: http://twitter.com/lukewilliams

Stacey Jones: http://twitter.com/Sharkushka

Cary Hague: http://twitter.com/caryhague

Brooke Vines: http://twitter.com/brookevines

Corey and Jay: http://twitter.com/CoreyAndJayShow

Elleoelle: http://twitter.com/elleoelle

Leigh Ann Golden: http://twitter.com/leighanngolden

Elise Mitchell: http://twitter.com/elisemitch

Natalie Ghidotti: http://twitter.com/ghidotti

Vicki Malpass: http://twitter.com/vlmalpass

Jon Parham: http://twitter.com/jonp70

Waynette Traub: http://twitter.com/waynettetraub

Previously

The Obligatory Twitter Post