In your optimistic Wednesday media column: Alt-weeklies stabbed by the internet, a Rolling Stone buys a website, college reporters fight The Man and win, and a job available!

Alt-weeklies are having trouble selling ads, naturally. The Creative Loafing chain is cutting executive pay up to 15%, a decision that was live-blogged by Washington City Paper editor Erik Wemple under the honest headline "Shit— My Pay Just Got Cut!", which immediately triggered a comment from a laid off Creative Loafing staffer saying "At least you are still employed, you ungrateful whinny bitch." The internet is truly enabling a wondrous new age of communication.


Recently deceased environmental magazine Plenty has former writers angry about the lateness of their paychecks, but now they'll have somebody new to complain to: The Rolling Stones! Keyboardist Chuck Leavell's 'Mother Nature Network' just bought the Plentymag.com website, for some reason. He surely won't be the one responsible for paying the old writers, but still, good excuse to write a letter to the Rolling Stones.


Staffers at the University of Oregon's independent student paper The Daily Emerald decided to go on strike to protest a plan to hire a publisher affiliated with the school who would have had oversight powers over their content. Which led the proposed publisher to withdraw his nomination. They point is, hey, a college student protest that actually worked! Cheers to everyone involved.


CBS does not want to merge its news operations with CNN, okay? Just forget it.

What's this, jobs? HDNet's Dan Rather Reports is hiring correspondents. That's like an actual reporter job, in the media, now hiring! Any fewer than 6,000 applications means the media doesn't understand economics.