The real question is why he stuck around so long.

If fact, I don’t understand why any star print columnist or beat reporter doesn’t just start his or her own Web site. The Dallas Cowboys Blog for The Dallas Morning news can get hundreds of thousands of page views in one day. And that’s without a really good beat blog that really harnesses the power of the Web and social networking.

Imagine the possibilities. More on that in a minute.

Mariotti threw a few bombs on his way out, including about how he believes that newspapers are dying and how the future is on the Web. He is absolutely correct, however.

First, let’s look at Mariotti’s claim that newspapers are dying. Vin Crosbie believes more than half of today’s 1,439 daily newspapers in the U.S. won’t exist by the end of the next decade. In fact, the Sun-Times is a prime candidate to not be around much longer.

The Sun-Times Media Group was delisted from the New York Stock Exchange. That doesn’t happen for being too good. It happens when a stock falls below the minimum trading value.

Despite what many curmudgeons would like to believe and like to have you believe, newspapers are not in a cyclical down period. Many are about to be down for the count.

For a sports columnist like Mariotti, there is little incentive to stay in print. He can make more money in other mediums that have less turmoil.

Many of the best sports writers like Rick Reilly are being bought up by ESPN (for $3 million a year), Yahoo!, CBS Sportsline and other Web sites. Before the Web, print — especially newspapers– was just about the only place for a star columnist to work.

Because of the monopolies that newspapers had, columnists were at the mercy of newspapers. That has flipped with the Web. Now anyone can be their own publisher and become successful like Michael Arrington of TechCrunch.

I’m sure Mariotti was well paid by newspaper standards, but those standards aren’t very high (and just a fraction of Reilly’s new salary). Frankly, the standards of most newspaper Web sites aren’t very high either, which is one major reason why Mariotti left the Sun-Times:

To showcase your work … you need a stellar Web site and if a newspaper doesn’t have that, you can’t be stuck in the 20th century with your old newspaper.

If I were Mariotti, I’d start my own Web site and post my work there. Yes, he could go work for ESPN full time like many of his former print colleagues have, but then you are at the mercy of ESPN, which is notorious for being overbearing and controlling. Or he could join an online-only sports site.

But why bother? If I were Mariotti, I’d focus on building my own brand with my own Web site and social networking presence. With the right technical help, he could have a kick-ass WordPress installation, where he can publish his latest thoughts about whatever, whenever. He could also embed video clips, build interactive features, have a weekly podcast, interact with users and do all sorts of things that he couldn’t do at the Sun-Times.

Plus, his Web presence would be very 21st century, unlike the Sun-Times. If you’re a columnist, imagine a site that has all of your posts tagged, so that users can quickly and easily discover content. One of the most frustrating aspects of newspaper Web sites is the disarray that is their archives.

And most newspaper Web sites are unsearchable. So many page views are lost because of these technical deficiencies that a basic, free WordPress install doesn’t have.

I’d also start a Twitter account and begin building a fan base with strong user interaction. I would, of course, interact with users on my beat blog as well. Then I’d look into other social networking opportunities.

This is what Mariotti and any sports writer needs to get started: a laptop with a Web cam for video columns, a smart phone, a beat blog (WordPress is a great option), Google Apps for mail and word processing, a Twitter account and Viddler/YouTube and Seesmic accounts to put that Web cam to use.

He probably already has a laptop and smart phone. The Web technology I listed is all free. The only things that will cost money are the domain name (about $10 a year), hosting (might only be hundreds a year) and probably some technical and consulting help to set this all up.

Mariotti, if you’re reading this, start a beat blog. Don’t wait.

We have already seen a lot of top sports writing talent leave for ESPN.com, Yahoo! Sports, CBS Sportsline and others in the past year. I think the exodus of sports writing talent from traditional print publications is just beginning, because not only can big-name sports writers leave for online publications, but they can also now easily and cheaply start their own Web sites.

What is the future of journalism education?

Many people have taken issue with journalism education, especially in the U.S. One major concern is that journalism education appears to be behind the industry and rarely out in front, innovating. Many people even advise against majoring in journalism.

But let’s step back from the criticisms of journalism education and ask, what should journalism education be like? Forget the tenured has-beens and the slow moving deans, what would an ideal journalism program look like in 2008?

Would it even be four years? Would it be a certificate program? Would it be a major that required another major?

Would it be a minor? Would it be heavily cross discipline, relying on other majors and departments for core courses?

Before I get to far into this post, I want to caution that these are just ideas that I’m throwing around. I don’t agree with all of them, but I am hoping to get a conversation started. Honestly, I’m making this post because I don’t really know what the future of journalism education should be.

First, we must admit that a journalism major or certificate will never be required to be a journalist. In fact, a four-year degree used to not be a requirement at most news organizations. Now it is, but you’ll still find a lot of journalists without journalism degrees, even in top posts.

Then we must admit that journalism education at the undergraduate level is much more akin to technical training than higher education. I majored in political science and journalism. Poly sci was very academic and theory based. Journalism was very hands on and job oriented — like technical school.

If most journalism programs are essentially job training programs, then why are they four-year programs? Why do many employers want someone with a BA, when a journalism certificate would probably suffice? Most journalism is learned on the job. Wouldn’t it make more sense for perspective journalists to take a one to two year certificate program, while getting more professional experience, instead of spending four years studying journalism?

There are several ways to handle a certificate program. It could be something that people do instead of a four-year degree or it could be something that people do in addition to a four-year degree (nursing is similar to this, but it pays a lot better). Imagine a perspective science reporter majoring in biology and receiving a journalism certificate.

Wouldn’t that better prepare someone to be a science reporter than a four-year degree in journalism? Double majoring isn’t the easiest thing to do in the world, especially across departments and colleges. And frankly, does a science reporter really need four years of journalism education?

Some schools only offer a journalism minor, which requires a student to have a major in another subject. A minor could offer the same training as a journalism certificate program. Maybe it makes sense for colleges and universities to require that journalism minors and majors have another major (and I’m thinking more along the lines of economics, poly sci, a science than something like English).

Then there is a cross discipline approach. For instance, let’s say a school offered an entrepreneurial journalism program. Wouldn’t it make sense for students to be required to take courses such as economics, marketing and business management?

And I can’t imagine having an entrepreneurial journalism program that doesn’t require some Web development and computer science courses. These computer and business classes would be core requirements for the major.

By cross discipline, I don’t mean just taking a bunch of random Arts and Sciences classes, like many journalism majors are required to take. I mean requiring specific courses, particularly in areas that could help make someone a better journalist. Most journalists are lacking when it comes to computer and business.

Frankly, I don’t think courses on how to blog or use Twitter are appropriate for four-year colleges and universities. Those sound like something straight out of adult education. Today’s 18-21 year olds don’t need help learning to blog or how to use social networking.

Usually, its their professors who do. And the students who don’t use or understand social networking are probably not the kinds of people news organizations are looking to hire. What young, inquisitive college student needs to be shown how to use social networking and blogging?

It would be a very poor sign for journalism and journalism education if the kinds of students that j-schools attract are technologically deficient in comparison to their peers. Journalism has become a field that requires people to have a strong grasp of technology. J-schools needs to be attracting students who embrace technology, not trying to teach basic Web technology to uninquisitive students.

Nobody taught me how to blog, and, fittingly enough, the best resources about how to blog are found on blogs. Twitter is one of those things that the only way to understand how to use it and its usefulness is to dive right in. Nobody can teach you the value of Twitter; you have to experience it.

And what college student hasn’t at least played around with Facebook and MySpace? Those are not the kinds of students j-schools and certificate programs need.

What do you think journalism education? Should be a four-year program? Certificate? What would it teach?

What are the course courses of a journalism program (college and certificate)?

Here are some thoughts from people on Twitter:

kev097 Definitely. I think the journalism major is, prima facie, an antiquated concept.

AllieHull , Mizzou strongly recommends picking up another major, or a minor.

johnrobinson Uh, I didn’t take a single journalism course in college. Learned all on job. Turned out OK.

gmarkham we offer a two-year diploma and a four-year degree. most of the newspaper-ready students leave after two.

cnewvine I hypothesize that requiring a 4-year degree is one of the ways newsrooms get out of touch with their communities.

eyeseast My journalism program was a minor, which I liked.

ehelm I liked the way Medill’s journalism major required so many non-journalism classes, including 2 concentrations outside J-school.

coolgates learning how to leverage technology should be a big part of the puzzle, too.

AllieG By far the most interesting and useful class I’ve taken so far was Ethics of Journalism.

mthilmony Didn’t have 2nd mjr. but I knew time in school was wasted - finished in 3 yrs. in journ. so i could get it done and get a job.

howardowens The best bloggers not only have degrees, they have experience, so maybe to cover courts, law degree and two years practice exp. Journalism degree, optional.

The idea that news organizations should charge for basic content on the Web is repugnant.

It’s a losing proposition. It’s a terrible, terrible idea. And journalism is filled with terrible ideas right now.

But that doesn’t mean news organizations can’t charge for content. Far from it. Rather, news organizations need to create upsell features.

For years, I have paid to be an ESPN Insider. Insider content is not for casual sports fans, which make up the majority of ESPN.com’s users. But that doesn’t mean some users, like myself, aren’t willing to pay for a premium product.

One of my favorite Insider features are scouting reports. I have access to scouting reports on every single football player in the NFL (and other reports for other sports). For many people that may sound pretty stupid, but it’s a pretty cool feature for me. ESPN also has in-depth trend data for every football game, and I can get AccuScore predictions not only for the outcome, but how each team should do running the ball, passing the ball and play on defense.

Content is one upsell area. Another could be business listings. For instance, a local site should offer every business and restaurant a free listing but also offer premium features for a price.

Want to be able to upload coupons each week to our Web site? Premium feature. Want an in-depth, easily changeable menu for your restaurant? Premium feature. Want a blog to interact with your customers? Premium feature.

Classifieds can be the same way too. Basic classifieds for individuals should be free, but we can still sell people on premium features. Want your listing to stand out with custom features, like Ebay offers? We’ll sell them to you.

Want your listing to show up at the top for a given search? Premium feature.

If we’re going to ask people for money, we have to create value. Basic content isn’t that. News organizations need to stop thinking of themselves as just journalism companies and start thinking of themselves as content companies.

Every news organization should have About.Com-like features for their areas. This evergreen content can be immensely useful for users. The history of an area, the best places to go, etc all should be covered.

New organizations also need to think of themselves as destinations. If you want to be a premium local site, you have to be THE destination that people want to go to. Journalism alone will not make you that destination.

Restaurant guides, business guides, kick-ass classifieds, maps and guides, evergreen content, etc are the keys to becoming a destination. Upselling does not mean offering bad basic products, but rather it means offering really good premium products that people and businesses are willing to pay for.

For years individual content producers in news organizations didn’t have an easy way to figure out how popular or useful their content was with people.

But with today’s advanced site analytics, content producers have unprecedented data about users and their surfing habits. I wrote a long post about this subject over at BeatBlogging.Org. Consider this post the Cliff Note’s version with a few added tidbits.

What makes this data so important?

With Web analytics, content creators like writers, bloggers, photographers, database developers, etc can find out which content is getting the most page views and visits and from where those visitors are coming from. Content creators can also find out which search terms most often land people on their content.

Analytics will allow for content producers to make content that is more appealing to their users. For a football beat, it might mean creating more previews and Q&A sessions and less feature stories. For an education blog, it might mean writing more about teachers’ issues and less about the school district as a whole.

It also might mean different kinds of content. Your users might prefer posts that are short and comprised of lists. My users might prefer longer paragraphs. The only way to understand what our individual users want is to track their browsing habits.

The timing of posts is also extremely critical, and this varies per beat per news organization:

In general, after lunch and after work are the two peak times for Web traffic. This, however, is not universal, and detailed Web analytics will allow content producers to know the peak times to release content on their Web sites. In fact, different beat blogs at the same paper might have different peak traffic times.

Now, not every news organization allows content producers access to this information. In fact, most may not, but the content producers I have spoken to almost uniformly say it has helped them do their jobs better. Every news organization worth anything already has detailed site analytics.

It doesn’t cost a company money to give more people access to this information, but site analytics can be complicated and hard to understand without training. Some newsrooms have come up with ways of getting around that.

Suzanne Yada said her newspaper, the Visalia Times-Delta, has a daily meeting at 3 p.m. to discuss traffic figures and which stories are getting the most page views. Ryan Sholin says at the last paper he worked at he sent out a daily “Top 5.” Sholin said, however, that bloggers had full access to their stats.

Whether a news organization gives access to this data to every content producer or whether a news organization has a meeting or e-mail to discuss Web traffic, it doesn’t matter. What ultimately matters is that news organizations give content producers vital information that will allow them to do their jobs better.

To all my blogging readers, could you imagine blogging blind? That’s essentially what many news organizations are asking their content producers to do.

If your company doesn’t allow content producers access to this information, I have a question for you. Why doesn’t your company give individual content producers information about the content they produce?

Sometimes the best way to learn about a subject is just to go out and experiment.

With that thought in mind, I’ve launched a hyperlocal/beat blogging experiment, Chagrin Valley Sports. My goal is simple: provide better and more in-depth coverage of local sports in the Chagrin Valley area utilizing a beat blog. I’m starting out with high school football because it is just me right now, and BeatBlogging.Org is my full-time job.

If the site starts making money, perhaps I can hire people to cover other sports. And, yes, I can already cover football much better than any of the local papers can. Local papers tend to write a sports story about an individual school every few weeks.

These are pretty much just token stories to get schools and names in the paper, but there really is no excuse not to have at least one piece of content each week about each football team. If the site takes off, I’d like to have content about multiple sports teams from schools each week.

I’m not looking to build the coolest features or the flashiest site. I’m looking to build the most useful content. Some hyperlocal projects have been high on the cool factor but lower on the useful factor. But by concentrating on creating useful content, I can produce a lot of it, because useful content often takes less time to produce than cool content.

No, you won’t find fancy Flash graphics on my site. Nor will you find us covering high school football games with multiple video cameras.

But you will find which area players are getting looked at by scouts and which have verbally committed to play college football. If a team changes its defensive scheme, you’ll find out about that too.

My goal is to cover high school sports like professional sports are covered. And that means reporting about scheme changes. That means talking about scouting reports and game previews. It means posting playoff rankings every week.

None of that content takes much time to produce. If you have good relationships with area coaches, they’ll tell you when their players are being offered college scholarships. Playoff rankings are posted each week by OSHAA.Org. All I have to do is find the schools in my coverage area and post how they are doing, and that takes very little time.

Maybe you don’t win awards for this kind of coverage, but I think you can win users with this kind of coverage. This experiment is primarily about driving traffic, and the only way for me to drive serious amounts of traffic is to make my site into THE destination for local sports coverage.

Part of being a destination is about producing more than journalism. This means schedules. This means stats. It means linking to other people’s content. It means owning the conversation. It might even mean maps to area schools.

Ultimately, my goal has to be to make my site into the first place people think of when they think of sports in the Chagrin Valley area. If I can do that, I’ll also become the No. 1 place for local advertisers.

The Chagrin Valley area is a geographic fault line. It’s not in one county, but rather my coverage touches three different counties. I’m not going to cover an arbitrary geographic area, and I think that’s a mistake past hyperlocal projects have made.

I hope to eventually cover news too, but I started with sports because it is easier and less time consuming. It’s also a lot easier to build good will with solid sports coverage. Good will is very important for forging the kind of relationships necessary to have community-driven content succeed.

For instance, I am not taking photos, but that doesn’t mean I don’t want photos for my site. That means I have to forge relationships with people to provide me with what I don’t have. Almost every high school sporting event has at least one dedicated parent or school member who is taking photos.

I need to forge relationships with those people, because I don’t want to duplicate content. In fact, I can’t afford to. I have already forged a relationship with one high school in the area. I’m allowed to use whatever photos they have on their Web site for free, and they take hundreds, if not thousands, a week.

Now, how much has this experiment cost me? Nothing so far. It’s hosted on the same server as the JI, and it is running off a WordPress install with a theme I found.

I customized the theme to make it feel more local for users by randomly generating photos at the top of the page of each school. What says Chagrin Valley sports better than photos of Chagrin Valley teams playing sports?

I also focused on SEO from day one. The No. 1 search result for “Chagrin Valley sports” is my Web site. It turns out the query “Chagrin Valley sports” is a popular one, and it has proven fortuitous already that I named my site after a popular search query.

Maybe I could have thought of a sexier name or a more traditional name like The Chagrin Valley Advocate. But my name, as obvious and blunt as it may be, is an SEO gold mine. I’m already the No. 2 search result for the query “Chagrin Falls football,” behind only Wikipedia. My entrenched local competitors have ignored SEO to their own peril.

And how I am driving traffic to my site? I’m finding the online communities where people talk about local sports and becoming active in those communities. These people are interested in good content, and I need to forge relationships with them.

This site may fail miserably, but it has already been a great learning experience. Making money on the Web is ridiculously hard, and that’s why I have to find a new business model for local journalism.

This is ultimately a proof of concept for a Knight News Challenge Grant I am applying for later this year (this is a tiny fraction of what I am proposing to Knight). Whether or not Knight likes my pragmatic approach to producing Web content remains to be seen. But I’m not going to try to out-cool and out-sexy people.

I’m just going to produce lots of useful content. And I’m going to drive a ton of traffic my way.

Do copy editors have a future in journalism?

Will that role be drastically changing? Traditionally, copy editors at most newspapers had to do more than just edit copy. They also had to do page layout, fit stories to fixed spaces, write headlines, write captions, etc. Obviously, page layout is not needed on the Web, and every beat blogger should understand SEO for headline writing. And it might make sense to replace most captions with tags.

Don’t get me started on fitting stories to space either. That skill is dead. Stories on the Web should be as long or as short as they need to be. Copy editors no longer need to spend hours trying to fit a 15-inch story in an 8-inch space.

Every journalism company should have some copy editors, but the era of copy editors heavily rewriting content is over. News organizations can no longer afford to have employees whose main job is to fix the mistakes of other employees. It’s one thing to polish work, but another thing entirely to redo it.

Every beat blogger and online reporter will have to know how to write clean copy. It’s still a wise idea to have copy editors, however, but what will their other duties be?

Maximizing headline SEO? Audio and video post production? Making sure content is properly tagged?

Maybe it shouldn’t even be called customer support at Microsoft.

More like spend 2 hours of your life getting no help. No help whatsoever.

I recently purchased an XBOX 360 Elite (you know, the expensive model), and I went to redeem an XBOX Live subscription card I had lying around. I got an error when doing so.

Oh wait, I should start with my first problem signing up for XBOX Live. I got an error each time I tried to sign up with the name JIconoclast, despite it not being in use. This happened at the very end of the sign-up process, which takes some time to do.

So, after realizing that xbox.com/support was no help at all, I finally decided to call Microsoft. My first call ended after 40 minute with the rep telling me to try again later. Try again later?

How is that support? So, you know what, I tried again today. I’m a generous man.

And the same error happened.

Eventually after 35 minutes, I just decided to make a new gamertag. The rep tried to tell me that sometimes gamertags get “corrupted.” How fucking stupid do you think I am?

Just tell you me you are in way over your head. Just tell me that Microsoft doesn’t provide good training. Just tell me that Microsoft doesn’t care about its customers.

After that, I was unable to redeem my 12 month XBOX Live subscription card. It is worth $50, and it doesn’t work. Thanks Microsoft.

My problem was escalated to the highest level. Lunka (who has no superior, she claims) told me that the Live subscription card had not been redeemed. So, it should work.

But I tried at xbox.com and on my 360 to get it to work. I received an error both times.

What was Microsoft’s solution to the problem? Was it to send me a new XBOX Live card? Was it to credit my account with 12 months of a Live gold membership (the simple thing to do)?

No, it was to tell me to send in proof of purchase and my Live subscription card. Then Microsoft would mail me another card (that may not work either). Here is the problem. I received the card as a gift awhile ago.

Where am I going to get this magic receipt from? It’s not like I’m asking for a cash reimbursement (which is a justifiable reason to ask for a receipt). I just want 12 months of XBOX Live Gold.

Microsoft is unable to deliver that to me. Despite the fact that Microsoft’s highest-level rep tells me that the card had not been redeemed and should work. Why is this my fault?

Why am I being ask to find a proof of purchase for this? Why isn’t Microsoft providing me with good, honest customer support?

Microsoft has continually been the worst customer support that I have ever experienced. They are unhelpful, slow moving and very bureaucratic.

Maybe I should just return my XBOX 360 and get a PS3 (I already have the block-rocking Wii). I should mention that I’m on my 3rd original XBOX, because XBOXes are made of paper, duct tape and dreams.

Unbelievable.

Debra J. Sanders of the dieing San Francisco Chronicle recently wrote an inane column about why the death of newspapers will be the death of us all.

And I quote:

Blah, blah, blah. You need us (newspaper people, who only write for print) to keep democracy going. Blah, blah, blah we made the mistake of giving away news on the Web. Blah, blah, blah. Blah, blah, blah, people have to pay for news. Blah, blah, blah, you all should be ashamed of the fact that you no longer subscribe to newspapers. Blah, blah, blah.

You want to know why the Chronicle is losing boatloads of money? Because they waste money on columns like this!

Now to debunk the utter crap like Sanders wrote. First, newspapers make money off of ads, not subscriptions and newsstand sales. Get that straight.

I pay less than $0.50 per Sunday issue of The Washington Post. It is delivered to my apartment. Do you really think that huge newspapers, complete with Sunday magazines, delivered to me with record gas prices really cost less than $0.50? Are you out of your mind?

It’s the ads within that make money. And the real problem is that most newspaper ad and business staffs don’t know how to sell ads online. They completely and utterly suck at that part of their jobs.

And why should they be good at selling ads online? Most ad reps are paid heavily by commission. And what ads bring the biggest commission? Huge, national print ads!

What kinds of ads don’t work so well on Web sites? Huge, national banner ads! What kinds of ads have been the back bone of newspapers for years? Classifieds!

And what have newspapers really, really sucked at on the Web? Making quality classified ad systems for the Web. This isn’t rocket science.

Craigslist came about because newspapers willfully neglected classified advertising on the Web. Remember that.

You know why most newspapers are getting crushed on the Web? You really want to know why? Because most employees at newspapers — especially business employees — just don’t get it. They don’t get it.

And you know what? They aren’t going to get it. It’s not going to happen.

The newspaper business needs fresh ideas. It needs people who are willing to take risks and think outside of the box. Writing columns like Sanders does that blame readers for the fall of newspapers is the worst possible use of our time and resources.

If I was the publisher of the Chronicle, my first money-saving order of business would be to fire one Debra J. Sanders.

I’m working on some content today for beatblogging.org about the moderation of user comments on stories and blogs.

I need your help.

How does you news organization handle these moderating duties? Are your comments moderated or unmoderated? If they are moderated, who does it? Do your writers and bloggers interact with posters?

What has worked well for you? What hasn’t worked well?

For point of referrence, this blog has a policy were everyone’s first comment is automatically held for moderation. If it is deemed appropriate, subsequent comments are not held for moderation. There are some other guidelines that garner why a post might get held for moderation as well.

It has worked well for me so far, especially since I actively moderate this blog myself and interact with readers.

Because TwentySomethingJournalist.com just launched.

You know what the worst kind of journalist is? A twenty-something journalist.

You know what kind of journalist doesn’t respect the newspaperman myth? A twenty-something journalist.

You know what kind of journalist doesn’t respect the Paper God? A twenty-something journalist.

You know what kind of journalist is ruining journalism? A twenty-something journalist.

What will the kids these days think of next? A site dedicated to finding innovative ways of modernizing journalism? God Lord.