‘Top 5 Lame Things Lame Bosses Do to Increase Readership’

That's the headline on a fascinating post on TellZell, a site started by insurgent LA Times people. The LAT is part of Tribune Corp., which was bought by a non-newspaper guy named Sam Zell. The five lame things included Redesign, Community Journalism, News You Can Use, Local local, local, and The Utes! [That means the 18-y-o and slightly older crowd, people who couldn't read if they wanted to and who don't want to.]

Perhaps the saddest spectacle of all. This occurs when a group of paunchy, fiftyish news executives gets together and realizes that the kids are not reading. Thereupon follows some embarrassing effort to appeal to the 18-25 demo: a free tabloid (Pink Eye!), boosted coverage of Hannah Montana, the use of rock/pop/rave/hip hop terms in copy, i.e., “City councilmembers kicked it old school Thursday night, approving $18 million in bonds for educational facility improvements.’’

Look at the blog site here. Any of those lame dodges sounds like any paper you know?