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Hint: They're Using iPhone Apps

The newspaper industry is in a downward death spiral, having been severely impacted by new technologies, the ubiquity of internet access, and a rise in citizen journalism. Here in the U.S., some papers are filing for bankruptcy, others are close to doing the same, and there's even a proposal to give the newspaper industry a bailout plan of its own. Elsewhere in the world, it's more of the same. In Japan though, the country's high population of elderly citizens is keeping the papers afloat...for now, at least. But like everywhere else, they will soon have to face the future: young people don't do newsprint.

Tonight, The Wall Street Journal reports that the Knight Foundation has just awarded a total of $5 million to a number of local journalism projects in the U.S. These projects range from creating hyper-local online news sites, to building local Web portals, and establishing local news bureaus.

While the Knight Foundation's endowment has been hurt by the current economic climate, the Foundation is still committed to granting a total of $24 million to local media projects over the next five years.

With the apparent death of newsprint now upon us, journalists and others in the business are struggling to come up with a new model to save their industry. One new attempt to do so is the recently launched site News Mixer developed by a group of Medill School of Journalism students in conjunction with the Cedar Rapids Gazette. The site, integrated with Facebook Connect, lets users read and respond to stories as well as share them with their online friends.

Can you imagine a news-delivering web application so compelling that you would pay a couple of dollars per month for it? What would it look like? That's the challenge facing The Reynolds Journalism Institute at the University of Missouri. They're working on a project called "Information Valet," which hopes to save the failing newspaper industry by finding a way to move news journalism online while making it profitable and sustainable.

San Francisco-based blogging startup Six Apart has announced they will be giving away free accounts on their TypePad blogging system for professional bloggers and journalists who recently lost their jobs as well as those who fear the axe is coming. Cleverly dubbed the "Journalist Bailout Program," the service includes one free blog, a place in the Six Apart Media advertising program, promotion on Blogs.com, a as well as other tools and advice on driving traffic to your site, all courtesy of Six Apart.

Rupert Murdoch, the chairman and chief executive of News Corp., gave a speech on Sunday titled "The Future of Newspapers: Moving Beyond Dead Trees." In the speech, he made the bold statement that newspapers would always be around in some form or other. "Too many journalists seem to take a perverse pleasure in ruminating on their pending demise," he said. "Unlike the doom and gloomers, I believe that newspapers will reach new heights in the 21st century."

What could possibly be bigger news than the supposed heart attack suffered by Apple CEO Steve Jobs? The fact that it's simply not true. The rumor which spread like wildfire across the internet this morning was based on a report from CNN's citizen journalism site, iReport.

According to citizen reporter, Johntw: "Steve Jobs was rushed to the ER just a few hours ago after suffering a major heart attack." Apple quickly squashed the story, claiming it to be untrue. Did citizen journalism just fail us? You bet it did.

During this past week a strange event has put Twitter in a new light. Berny Morson, a Rocky Mountain news reporter, took reporting on Twitter to another level. He did not wait for the memorial service to publish the news about the tragic death of a 3-year-old boy. Instead, Morson "twittered" the funeral service this past Wednesday. All across the world bloggers and media outlets have been speaking up about the incident. Was Morson really in the wrong for twittering such an event?

Are you tired of reading non-objective articles written by what are supposed to be credible journalists? You're not alone. According to Pew Research, 66% of Americans say they consider the press "one-sided." (Wonder what side that is?) At SpinSpotter, they believe the mission of the press is supposed to be to inform us of the news, not persuade. However, that's not always the case these days.

With so many Americans getting their news online instead of in a daily newspaper, SpinSpotter decided to use the power of the web and all its many users to combat the growing trend of media bias. How? Simple: by making you the editor. With the new browser plugin from SpinSpotter, you can edit and share any sign of bias on the web.

Tests on Twitter, wiki-style study groups, students quizzed on yesterday's most popular YouTube videos and the biggest hits on Del.icio.us/Popular - is this what the future of education is going to look like?

In some journalism schools around the US, it just might be. Would that really be so bad? Though many may disagree with us, we think there is some merit to teaching new media in journalism and other schools.