Weekly Wide Web

Micro-Newsonomics

Now newspapers fit into the digital age was the hot topic at a recent alternative-newsweekly conference that several Tucson Weekly staffers attended.

One of the speakers was Ken Doctor, a media analyst who spent 21 years with Knight Ridder. I've just finished reading his new book, Newsonomics: Twelve New Trends That Will Shape the News You Get.

Doctor argues that news of the future (i.e., next week) will be much more in the hands of the readers. People won't get all their news from one source; they'll curate stories from a number of places based on their own interests. Likewise, user-generated content (including viral videos of breaking news) will stand alongside professionally generated content. News now comes in smaller and smaller forms, like blog posts and Twitter updates.

Our thinking is: You probably won't spend most of your day clicking refresh on our Web site, so the Weekly will come to you, whether it be through Facebook, Twitter or Google News updates.

Avid readers of The Range, our blog, will notice that we've got a whole lot more content on there now than we did a few months ago; we may publish in print once a week, but online, we're practically a daily newspaper.

What does this mean for you? As Doctor points out, "Journalists who take to blogging as a form usually produce more content."

In an age of reporter layoffs and cutbacks, more content is just what the Doctor ordered.


THIS WEEK ON THE RANGE

There's so much happening on The Range these days that we can't do it justice in this small space, but here we go: Last week, we brought you a load of political news, including tidbits about the U.S. Senate race between Republicans John McCain and J.D. Hayworth; fresh bills we're tracking with the Arizona Blogislature; and the latest in Congressional District 8, where Democrat Gabrielle Giffords is in a fight to hang on to her seat. We also shared a video of Democratic Rep. Olivia Cajero Bedford explaining how those newfangled, energy-efficient light bulbs were ruining the experience of putting on makeup.

We continued our celebration of the publication of Weekly arts editor Margaret Regan's book, The Death of Josseline, highlighting her appearances on KUAT Channel 6's Arizona Illustrated and NPR's Talk of the Nation.

We partnered with the warm-hearted folks at tucsoncoldwetnoses.com to launch a new feature, Dog of the Day, which features lovable pets that need a home.

On the science beat, we highlighted the marshmallow test from the "Mind and Brain" lecture series, now underway on Tuesday nights thanks to the UA College of Science; and we brought you more photos from Mars.

Speaking of photography: John deDios continued to share the work of UA journalism students, who brought us rodeo photos and more. Jim Nintzel also squeezed in a shot of newshound Wilco (The Dog) as she experienced the snowy climes of Flagstaff.

The Artistic Range featured its biggest artist yet: Andy Warhol, whose work is being celebrated at the Tucson Museum of Art and downtown at Eric Firestone Gallery, which had an opening party last week that featured great music, go-go dancers and a mechanical bull. Make it to these shows as soon as you can, people!


COMMENT OF THE WEEK

"Now that this article has come out, Target will probably try to save their butt by hiring older employees."

TucsonWeekly.com user "sUperfAn," in response to "Getting the Ax" (Feb. 25), about longtime Tucson Target employees who were forced out, they claim, because of their higher salaries.


BEST OF WWW

We have proof that the OMFG burger challenge at Lindy's on Fourth can be accomplished by mere mortals. This challenge was made famous last year after a visit by Adam Richman and his show, the Travel Channel's Man v. Food. Richman was unable to eat the 12-patty, 3-pound behemoth within the allotted time (although he did eventually finish it). Well, in our video, Chad Rowland attempts to break his own record of eating one of these things—in less than four minutes. Not only that; he also tries to eat a SECOND BURGER within the 20-minute time limit (the amount of time normally given to eat just one OMFG burger). We've got the whole thing in its entirety at TucsonWeeklyTV.com.