Citizen journalism: The big news in citJ this week was the transfer of Dan Gillmor's Bay Area venture Bayosphere from his control to that of Backfence, the citizen start-up based in Virginia that launched last spring. But Frank Barnako at MarketWatch asks "Where's the proof that anyone cares?"

Backfence's struggles, not so much financially as in quality of content and level of participation, have been previously documented. Even Gillmor admitted that Bayosphere didn't receive the level of participation for which he had hoped.  

So where does the future of citJ lie? Barnako points to Steve Outing's new project; a citizen blog about mountain biking. This has some legs, or so Barnako thinks. YourMTB.com, as the blog is called, appeals to a certain niche and can create a community around that niche of mountain biking enthusiasts. 

But what about local news on which Backfence and Bayosphere focus? Isn't local supposed to be a sort of niche? Well, people are definitely interested in their community, but all don't have time or are interested enough to participate which could be a major reason why these sites have had rough takeoffs.

However, this just reinforces the role of local newspapers, which need to get back to their roots and become indispensable to their communities. Just look at the success that Rob Curley has had in masterminding the development of local news websites.

Search: Sticking with local, Bambi Francisco at MarketWatch thinks that big, broad search engines could face tough times in the future as people's habits become more niche. She refers to how people are beginning to be able to find videos of their interest online, some that have been pushed out of public memory for years. She asks, "It's not a one-sized-fits all Internet world, how can search engines trying to meet the needs of everyone, meet the needs of anyone?"

It is true that the major search engines have begun their own local search sites and Topix.net from the beginning strove to provide local news. But at least Google is still having some problems with local at least according to Steffen Fjaervik at Poynter. He lauds Google for adding more language to its Google News site and Google Alerts, but expresses his annoyance that English-language stories that have nothing to do with his area popping up in his alerts. Fjaervik thinks that such annoyances will cause people to cancel their Google Alerts.

International: The rapid growth of Internet journalism is not just an American phenomenon. El Mundo, one of Spain's top papers, has surpassed 8 million unique users for its website, making it the biggest Spanish speaking newspaper website in the world by a long shot.

This just shows how a website can spread a newspaper's brand. El Mundo's case can be compared to the New York Times. NYT has about 12 million unique visitors and about 1 million print subscribers. El Mundo has a circulation of about 1.3 million. Where do many of their readers come from? Outside of their respective countries, something that would not be possible without the Internet. A decent percentage of elmundo.com's readers surely come from Latin America. (I have no statistcal evidence for this but from many discussions with Latin American students and academics, El Mundo was cited as the paper of choice for its online presence. One reason for this is that for a long time, El Pais, Spain's number 1 top shelf paper charged an online subscription which seriously hindered its unique visitors and assumedly, its foreign readership).   

Also on the international front, China's robust newspaper market seems to be slowing due to growing Internet use, according to AsiaMedia. A Chinese government think-tank said newspapers are entering an "ice age." It found that last year's newspaper advertising revenues fell 15%, revenues that were growing faster than GDP up until then. On the other hand, Internet advertising was up 77%.

Advertising: Advertising Age tells us that online advertising expenditure is set to overtake that of magazines this year. Most traditional publishers might see this as a threat, but the magazine industry is not only trying to keep a smile on its face, but take advantage of the Internet. "The people who report on media like to think it's really significant," said Nina Link, president-CEO, Magazine Publishers of America, of the tipping point. "I don't. It just says there are more opportunities to reach consumers and make powerful partnerships. The powerful brands and media are going to thrive."

The transition from print: We've already mentioned that the Pulitzer Prize committee included online journalism in this year's awards. But check out what the administrator, Sig Gissler said about the New Orleans Times-Picayune's use of the Web during Hurricane Katrina: "It helped them, definitely. It is very useful if you get destroyed by a hurricane, or anything else."

Is it me or does that quote seem condescending? Internet journalism is only useful if your printing press is flooded?

Looking at Gissler's bio, he's an accomplished journalist and journalism professor at Columbia. All fine and good. But with this quote, he embodies exactly what many newspaper pundits feel is wrong with the industry; the reluctance of the old guard to welcome in what is certain to be the future of newspaper journalism; online journalism. 

Sources: Frank Barnako's Internet Daily (email newsletter), YourMTB.com, Bayosphere, Backfence, El Mundo (in Spanish), AsiaMedia, Poynter, Bambi Francisco's Net Sense (email newsletter), Advertising Age, Editor & Publisher