The other day driving to the ACES convention in Minneapolis, I was thinking about journalism and gaming, and the problems of the news industry. So many people are proposing new ideas, or bemoaning the moves made by industry titans. But what do we really know?

I’d love to see how much a major newspaper chain spends on various cost centers (printing, distribution, sales, management, editorial, etc.), and then see how those cost centers could be managed to make a reasonable profit without gutting the editorial division.

Which is when it hit me: Newspaper Tycoon. I’ve seen several versions of the Playstation/PC game “Railroad Tycoon,” and when I was just out of college, I got wrapped up in the SimCity craze when it came to the Macintosh.

So why couldn’t someone create a version of that “real-world” simulation for newspapers (or any media in this crazy environment)?

Imagine being offered the chance to purchase family-owned newspapers, and trying to juggle the debt created by such purchases, and figuring out how to survive the Internet cuts in your classified income. Trying to come up with new ways to boost circulation, dealing with labor strife, advertiser complaints over negative coverage, etc.

What lessons could be learned from such a game that had accurate figures that depicted the real business decisions that have to be made, and the competing “stakeholder” commitments that newspaper execs have to deal with.

I think it’s a good idea. And it would also help with anyone who wanted to teach or take a “business of journalism” class. Maybe this has already been developed, and I’m just not aware of it. If so, please let me know in the comments. Otherwise, it’s an idea that I’m giving away for free.

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Okay, so this idea is sort of sad given the state of the economy, but it’s something that might make your news web site more useful to your community.

Last week, we learned that Circuit City was closing its doors and laying off 34,000 workers. That means they’ll be liquidating all that electronics merchandise they have on hand. There are other retailers who are closing their doors in this tough economy. So why not put together a map on your web site with information about liquidation sales? It could include addresses for all the Circuit Citys in your area, along with store hours and information about the liquidation sale.

Ditto for other retailers in the area who are closing.

Thoughts?

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• Circuit City to Liquidate Assets
• Circuit City’s Going-Out-of-Business Sales Begin Today. Customers Can Use Gift Cards
• End of an era: Circuit City to close *all* its stores
• Bargain buyers, beware Circuit City, R.I.P.
• Circuit City to be liquidated
• CircuitCity.com morphs into an info page

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The WTF? In Chief

I’ve been working on an interactive graphic for the Obama inauguration. Here’s a preview:

click to see larger version

The idea is, you get a visual representation of all of the things the new president has “on his plate” when he takes office. It might be instructive to compare his “plate” to what previous presidents had on their “plates” when they took office.

Honestly, I probably won’t get this finished by the time the inauguration rolls around (classes starting this week and all), but I might assign it to my interactive reporting class to finish up.

So the WTF in Chief idea would be to have an official appointee whose job it was to explain WTF?!?! to the American people.

Not the press secretary, but someone whose sole job is to respond to the righteous indignation of the American people about the seriously messed up state our nation is at the moment (and if you don’t think we’re in a world of doo-doo, then I don’t even want to deal with your denial of reality). Maybe that’s Obama’s job ultimately, but it might help if we had someone who could respond on a semi-regular basis to commiserate with us.

Someone whose job it would be to explain:

• WTF happened to our $350 billion in bailout money?
• WTF happened to the recovery from Hurricanes Katrina, Ike and Rita?
• WTF is going to happen to those who authorized torture at Guantanamo Bay?
• WTF is going on in Iraq?

etc. See this report from the Center for Public Integrity for a list of 128 major meltdowns in the executive branch over the last 8 years. I think you get the picture.

The idea also got me to thinking about a similar position newspapers could adopt – think of it as sort of the ombudsperson for the financial meltdown. We already have Alan Mutter doing this from the outside, and others who are content to lob information from the outside, but wouldn’t it be a good thing for some newspaper company execs to come out and lay everything on the line for their loyal readers and “stakeholders” (I hate that word)?

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This morning’s Random Idea is called the Unicorn Chaser sidebar.

We’ve all seen the “related content” links that show on a web site’ story page. Here’s one from the New York Times:

So the idea is this: people are always complaining that there’s not enough “good news” being told. What if you created a “related content” box that featured good news as an antidote to the bad news you’re reading currently.

I’m calling it the Unicorn Chaser box in honor of Boing Boing’s original Unicorn Chaser.

For instance, let’s say you were reading an article about how disgusting and unclean doctors’ lab coats are, an article by the Wall Street Journal. (aside: why is this article in the “opinion” section? Does that diminish the factual basis for the article? Shouldn’t it be in the “Health” section?) Obviously, this is the type of article that can put you off your breakfast, especially if you’ve recently been in a doctor’s office. So, to counteract that mental disturbance, In the article sidebar, you’d see something like this:

Click for larger version

Some people will dismiss this with a wave of the haughty hand and a suggestion that it’s somehow beneath journalism to provide links to positive stories. To which I respond: why? If it’s information, why not link to it from disparate places on your web site? Is it a little bit “light”? compared to all the heavy-hitting innovation that’s happening these days? Sure. But why can’t we try some light with the heavy subject matter?

Thoughts?

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