A new newspaper in Nova Scotia is returning two newspaper traditions: afternoon publication and paper boys.

According to an article in the Globe and Mail the newspaper is targeting readers who “are up and going pretty early and don’t have a lot of time in the morning to read… the evolution of the media industry could make the evening paper more relevant than ever. With cable networks and the Internet driving a 24-hour news cycle, appetite for a late-day newspaper exists.”

Furthermore, the late afternoon delivery with youth newspaper carriers could be a great money-saving move as morning newspaper struggle with rising fuel costs and hiring and retaining an early morning delivery staff.

Personally, I love the concept of bringing back the paper boy. I got my start in the news industry as an 12-year-old carrier on a route with 56 customers that I delivered rain, sleet, snow or flood off the back of my bicycle. I stayed with it until I was 18 ending up with 325 customers. I’m proud to say that more than a couple of times over those six years I was named The Evening Times Carrier of the Month.

One-man bands used to be the rage television newsrooms, but with equipment getting smaller they are putting the camcorder and computerized video editing system in a backpack and putting the videographer out on the road. KTHV channel 11 in Little Rock hired a backpack journalist in June and now has promoted him to weekend anchor and is looking for a new hire to don the pack.

Yahoo has been using backpack journalist Kevin Sites to visit “Hot Zones” around the world. In his gearbag he carries a Sony handheld High Definition camcorder, a second Samsung tapeless camcorder, a 12″ PowerBook, a satellite modem, a satellite phone, and a Palm Treo 650.

A lot of the arguments behind one-man bands were budgetary where you were able to cover the story with only one position rather than two, but I can see where a “backpack journalist” could actually cover remote stories better as the case of Yahoo’s Kevin Sites. I’m not really sure how being a backpack journalist provides much benefit in the case of a local TV station like KHTV.

I know you probably haven’t seen this, but Veggie Tales is now airing during NBC’s Saturday morning kids show block. NBC’s Program Standards has required them to edit out any reference to God or the Bible to put the show on air. At the same time, NBC is promoting airing a live concert of Madonna’s where she sings suspended from a mirrored crucifix. The other day I found Phil Vischer’s (the Veggie Tales creator) blog and he says,

“I know the audience and time of day is completely different, but it is a bit ironic that telling kids God loves them is “not okay,” but singing a song while mocking the crucifixion is fine and dandy. Let us Christians never forget that we are strangers here. We don’t fit in. It’s ok.”

Vischer’s blog is pretty good because it chronicles the story as he keeps sending them episondes with God in them and they keep making him change them. He also some introspective posts where goes back and looks at what went wrong at VeggieTales and why they had to sell out to another company.

With the finalization of their newsroom buyout program today, the Dallas Morning News announced that 111 newsrooms employees were participating in its voluntary severance program. A number that equals almost 20 percent of their newsroom employees. There are reports that all the staffers in some departments took the buyout.

So what does this mean for regular readers of the DMN? It’s the diminishing of their top 10 media market paper from a national position to a local position. No more telling national and international stories from a Dallas perspective. Instead you can read the wire stories. More errors in the everyday story. Less focus on the details. A smaller newshole.