A bientot

Off to Chicago to witness the annual flocking of that not-so-rare bird, the North American journalism professor (with a few other continents represented as well). I am traveling light, which means no portable computer, no iPhone or Treo -- no nuthin' except occasional access to the convention computers.

In short, I'm taking a few days' break. While I'm gone, some thoughts:

• Have at me in the previous post about newsrooms not owning the presses. That piece is a bit of thinking out loud, thought in progress kind of thing. So your thoughts and observations are valued.
• ChooseChicago is one of the best city travel/tourism sites. Period. The ability to sort restaurants, museums, etc., by part of town; to create a "notebook" of things you cut and paste with a click; and to print out handy maps and descriptions -- not to mention its comprehensiveness -- leave me wondering why hasn't your newspaper done this for your city? Why wait for the tourism bureau, such as it is. Make your site the destination for your destination.
• I leave you with a pretty funny post by Bryan Murley poking fun at all the angst-filled stories and "liberal media" comments about newspapers' problems. Play along by bringing your own dice. Even numbers, you pick the first choice. Odd ones, the second. (In the case of more than two choices, make up your own rules.) Have a run at it.

See you next week.