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I'm watching the Networked Journalism Summit conference on GroundReport TV.

As a J-school grad and blogger I'm interested in newspapers and what they do on the web, but usually what I try to glean from conversations like this is the related issue of what magazines -- especially verticals -- are doing on the web. That twist never gets talked about as much. Rex Hammock covers it better than others I'm aware of. He's there in NY today.

Later: It doesn't look like GroundReport is covering the conference wall to wall. I'll try to locate a service that is.

Still later: From the chat box on GroundReport:

Drew Geraets: hi, i'm drew with the cuny graduate school
of journalism...we'll have afternoon sessions held here
at the school webstreamed...that link will be posted on
newsinnovation.com later on

Jordan: this is Jordan from GroundReport-- we've had
some technical issues at the Times and will resume our
broadcast this afternoon at CUNY

And

According to a tweet from Dave, there's an IRC backchannel on irc.freenode.net -- join #netjny. I don't get using IRC these days. Why not web chat? Sometimes I think when I see Wikipedia powerusers or developer groups using IRC they're using it like a black box. In this case, I guess it's just the traditional backchannel medium?

Howard Owens says "Let's stop putting the entire newspaper online."

Especially check out his list of what a better community news site would look like. He includes lots and lots of multimedia. I don't work on a local media site, but on a trade vertical and I agree. What you want to put online (OK, in addition to articles) are things a reader can't get on paper.

To Owen's list of videos, blogs and databases, I'd add maps and quizzes and things that let a user do something, not just read something. Let 'em click those mice, not sit on their hands like zombies. Use the medium.

I like eWeek's slideshows. This one's called "Online Sharing Dons Pinstripes." Catchy title that probably appeals to its audience though not so much to me.

Business Week and other magazines and news sites are doing this more and more to summarize articles. I think people like to page through short bits of copy and pictures. When I make them I always let the user have control rather than letting them run automatically, believing that people don't like to have the speed at which they read dictated by anybody else.

The only other complaint I have about the eWeek method of displaying is the show is I'd rather have it open in a new window. That way you don't have to scroll down each time you advance the slide. Annoying.

Since Sarah Vowell is one of my favorite humorists, I was sure I would like her state of the union address when I saw it had made her name one of the most searched on Technorati. Lots of blogs are posting it for the benefit of netizens who don't pay $50 a year to read columnists in the NYT. In Sarah's case, she's a guest columnist. Fills in for Maureen Dowd. Same firewall.

Seems like if a particular piece catches the fancy of the internet, they'd just put it out there for free. Or plan to be light on their feet and offer us a free day or two when such an item catches fire. Think of it as a promo opportunity.

The column is funny and cute and biting at the same time, as usual for Vowell. I gotta say, with all the attention it seemed to be garnering, I expected more of a riproaring zinger from her. Maybe she got edited. Or do they try not to go in for that much when it comes to columnists. I don't know.

Here's my favorite Vowell contribution to This American Life: Teacher Hit Me with a Ruler in act 2. It's a discussion of the Battle Hymn of the Republic, devoting a lot of time to whether the line should be "Let us die to make men free" or "Let us live to make men free." She brought down the house when she clinched it with the rhetorical question, "What would Jesus do?" [Long pause and laughter from the audience members who knew what was coming...] "Die!" Only Sarah can pull something like that off and make it funny.

Here's an excerpt from her book, Assassination Vacation.

Speaking of TAL, now it's to be adapted for TV on Showtime. That shows good taste on Showtime's part.

Read it online or listen to the podcast. I'm going to pry myself away from the comupter (look at all these posts today), and listen to it right now. I have been enjoying these covercasts.

Business Week's getting in to podcasting in a big way. This is the first time I've seen a mainstream magazine create a special podcast to accompany a cover story. I like it. I like the way it marries the media, each handling what it does best. It's what educators have been telling us for years about differing learning styles creating a need to develop information to be ingested in varying ways.

The exec editor and two writers participate in the 15-minute podcast, which starts with a commercial. Seems like they might have announced the name of the program first.