Scripps closed the Rocky Mountain News today– it was a great newspaper, a great website, a model of how a news operation can change. Unfortunately, the JOA in Denver didn’t give Scripps enough flexibility to stop the losses it had seen this past year ($16 million).

Here’s a long video on the end of the RMN (21 minutes, but it’s worth it.).  If you can watch it in full screen in HD.

This must be the day of lists. Newsweek has a great list of the Seven Lies We Tell Ourselves About Facebook. I’ve listed the Newsweek “lie” and my response to it.

1. I only friend people I really know- I actually only friend people who I am willing to go out to dinner with so my standard is actually higher than this. There are several people who I’ve not friended because I don’t want to eat dinner with.
2. Facebook made me do it- I refuse to do something on facebook just because everyone else has done it. I won’t play the name game or 25 random things (that’s probably more because I’m lazy than anything).
3. Wall to wall flirting isn’t cheating – It’s horrible the way some people flirt and friend so outlandishly on facebook where they would be embarassed to be caught flirting in the same manner in real life.
4. I use facebook to keep in touch with people – I have to agree with Newsweek– I use facebook because I’m nosy (yes, I said it, now you can admit to it, too).
5. I’m so over facebook- I really am moving in that direction. More now than last week and more next week than now. When your grandma chats with you on facebook and asks you to post a link and then your 6 month old nephew friends you, it’s time to find another place to hang out.
6. I’m not so competitive- I hate most games- board games or computer games so I don’t care if you beat me. I don’t really know why I hate games. Just playing them really tires me.
7. Facebook is my friend- Ok. I know facebook isn’t my friend (just look how they flip flopped on their terms of service this week), but I can’t say it’s a business either or at least a successful one. On the other hand, I sure wish that I had come up with the idea and launched facebook or at least something similar where I could sue facebook for stealing my idea.

Here’s a great article from Smashing Magazine on 10 Harsh Truths About Corporate Web Design.  I’ve worked online in some form or fashion for about 10 years and this article really gets to the heart of a lot that I’ve experienced.  My favorite truths are

• You need a separate web division
• Periodic redesign is not enough
• Your website cannot appeal to everyone
• Design by committee brings death

I think I like these so much because I can related to them– I have lived them.

It’s so funny to me that I deal with the exact same issues at different organizations whenever I am new– this week it’s new windows! Opening up a new window is so important to people (who don’t understand the web) because they don’t want their users to leave their site– that’s just exhibiting a selfish desire to keep the user on their site.  Instead, let’s be generous to the user and respect their browsing experience.  If you respect the user, in the end your user, your customer will respect you and use your esrvices. I sent this out to my staff today and I thought this is perfect blog fodder, too! So here’s my philosophy (and some links to some folks who are an expert on web accessibility) on new windows:

Avoid opening new windows when at all possible—even when linking to pages off site. The web was made for links and when you send a user off to a valuable web site through a link they appreciate you keeping their browsing experience intact and will remember that you referred them to useful site and will come back to you (of course this assumes that we only link to valuable sites).

On the other hand opening a link in a new window opens a new browser on the user’s computer without their consent and breaks the back button where they cannot use normal usability constraints to find their way back to your site.  If you have ever watched a novice web user use a site where links are opening in new windows, then you know you are completely confusing them with those new windows and at the end of their browsing session they could have seven or eight windows open.

At times it is appropriate to pop-open a new window for special features such as flash animation, video or podcast. When we do pop-open the window it’s nice to make sure we are controlling the size of it to make sure the user can still the the original content behind it and know they are in a new window and if you want to be really nice you can provide a nice close button so the user can get rid of that window.

Here’s some good reads on not forcing a new window on the user

• Web Content Accessibility Guidelines
• Don’t force windows on new users
• Dive into accessibility – Not opening new windows
• Discussion on opening new browser windows
• Accessibility tips

If you’re not sure whether or not you should open or new window, then err on the side of the user and just don’t open it.

The whole concept of paying for newspaper content is making its way around the journalism blogosphere again. Except this time it’s also had endorsements from print journalism celebs like Walter Isaacson, Mort Zuckerman and Steve Brill.  For the most part I’ve tried to ignore it all since I feel like I’ve been there, reputed the arguments and fought that battle and won before.  Of course this all stems from the fact that newspapers as we know it are dying and the old hands are pulling out all the stops to save the old way of doing things so they don’t have to change.

At times I’ve really had to admit that I’m not part of the old newspaper tradition and wonder if I’m even part of the new newspaper tradition because I really agree more with what the webbies/techies have had to say about the newspaper industry rather than the newspaper industry itself. For example, Techdirt responds to the claims that google devalues everything (ridicolous!)

This is wrong on so many levels it’s hard to know where to begin. Google doesn’t devalue things it touches. It increases their value by making them easier to find and access. Google increases your audience as a content creator, which is the most important asset you have. It takes a special kind of cluelessness to claim that something that increases your biggest asset “devalues” your business.