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Asian journalists are going through a period of travail.

Help wanted ads were down in December. We could have told them that but it's official, now.

Nick Denton takes the U.S. newspaper and media industry to task. I do recommend going over to the Media Resource page and check out some European and Middle-eastern papers on their take of the impending war.

According to this columnist, Knight Ridder made its goals on "the backs of laid-off employees" and staffers who must "cope with lower budgets..."

The entire staff of ZDNet Tech Update put themselves up for bid on eBay after getting pink slips.

This article suggests that steady paychecks don't guarantee happiness on the job. On the other hand (and here's the lesson) recruiters love those passive candidates.

It's tough all over. Global unemployment is at one of the highest levels in history. 20 million people across the globe have lost their jobs since the recession began two years ago. There are 180 million people without jobs in the world.

A former diplomat says that journalists may be the latest target of rebels opposing U.S. support for Bogota.

Even the BBC is cutting jobs.

It's even easier, these days, to keep tabs on competing news organizations and journalists.

But will journalists listen to the Pope?

Despite an eight-year high in the U.S. unemployment rate, employees and employers were hopeful about the future. This is a survey that tracks a lot of job seekers.

Journalists held in Columbia by rebels who want publicity.

Meanwhile, journalists are preparing for war.

It could get rather dangerous in Iraq. As a crusty war correspondent put it, reflecting on his war coverage days, "Sometimes I was bloody terrified but the adrenaline high is extraordinary."

Some media lay-offs include Bloomberg LP, CNET Networks, Inc., and Reuters Group PLC.

The publisher of The Weekly Planet, alternative paper in Tampa, has fired its political reporters. He's going to rely on freelancers to report on music and culture. The astonishing thing is that the average reader of the alternative paper is 46 years old. I guess the boomers never really did get over the 60's. It should be the establishment papers who have the investigative fortitude to go after local politicians.

Another tale of the alternatives. A deal was cut between national publishers of the alternative press to shut down one publication in Los Angeles and Cleveland. Some staffers in Cleveland are starting their own publication with their sights on a different demographic. As the old news hound used to say, "If you don't like the news, go out and make some of your own."

The New York Times, always Politically Correct, has set out guidelines to its employees about the type of stocks they can own. You decide whether it's too much to ask.

Writers should pay attention to this story about how newspapers are changing under the pressure of new technologies and habits. "Our future relies on us to transition from being a newspaper company to being an information company."

Interesting report from the Poynter Institute on a seminar for journalists in Spain. Biggest problem? Understaffing. Let's see, if unemployed American journalists knew some Spanish.....

We all know there are "lies, damned lies, and statistics..." but here are the latest figures on unemployment from the U.S. Labor Department. December remained unchanged at 6.0 percent. The number of persons unemployed 15 weeks or more rose to 3.2 million in December, an increase of 815,000 over the year.

Included in the newly unemployed are hundreds of people from Hartcourt Education, the textbook publisher.

An interesting article on "we journalism" in the latest Columbia Journalism Review. I would take it all with a grain of salt. I think, in some ways, journalists like the idea of the public doing some of the leg work for them. It does have the interesting effect of turning the working journalist into an editor as well, as he sifts through all the points of collaboration, looking for something credible or useful. Of course, the collaborators might turn out to be a huge pool of unemployed journalists.

Tips on how to prepare and send your resume through e-mail.

Another article from Job-Hunt.org on finding the "hidden job market." One thing they mention is important. Search professional and regional associations. Go to any region on Sunoasis Jobs and you will find a city or regional newspaper association that lists more opportunties than you would find on a job board, at least in the locality you are looking.

Pacific Media Watch provides a summary of the past year in journalist safety and censorship.

Young journalists make up their "dream newspaper." It's filled with personal and narrative journalism. "Make me smell it."

Online news is analyzed by The Digital Edge.

Six conglomerates (you know their names) now pay nearly 70% of writers' salaries.

Far fewer journalists were killed in the line of duty in 2002 because of the attention on the Pearl death.

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David

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