Writing in The Nation, Chris Hayes explains "why campaign coverage so often sucks": because reporters are terrified and confused and either keep entirely to themselves or else run in confused packs of other journalists to ensure that no one "misses" anything. Related: a poor Obama volunteer doesn't recognize and attempts to canvas the journalistic dream team of Ben Smith, Ana Marie Cox, and Maureen Dowd outside one Des Moines "media hangout." [The Nation via Crooks and Liars, Politico]

"It's easy to reduce all of what is wrong with American journalism to the near industrywide ban on booze in the newsroom. So I will." [Slate; Illustration via HuffPo]

Dear Journalists: Lucas Grindley, Operations Manager of HeraldTribune.com ("southwest Florida's information leader"), would like you to get paid like bloggers. Specifically, like us! Summing up a largely boring, wonky, Poyntery debate about the value of reporters and information and CPM, Grindley decries Nick Denton's pay model, as described by noted internet expert David Brooks, as a dangerous idea that "may favor sensationalism" (quelle horreur!). Then he decides the most fair model for our brave new media landscape is to give your content providers a set salary with page view bonus structure built in. Which sounds familiar! As Grindley says: "The point is a bonus system doesn't hurt anyone. But it might help retain top talent while also increasing page views and audience." Also possible: existential crises and mass resignations. Talent are a sensitive bunch.

No wonder Star Editor at Large Julia Allison has so much time to spend updating her Tumblr blog with daydreams about what color bike she'd like for Christmas and whether she should attend holiday parties as a Slutty Elf or a Slutty Mrs. Claus: she has fully outsourced the writing of her Time Out dating column to the denizens of Craigslist. "Hi! I'm the dating columnist at Time Out New York - and I'm doing a column on the craziest, most unique way you ever approached a stranger to ask her out on a date. Did you hear about that guy who saw a girl on the L train and made a drawing and then a WEBSITE about her in order to find her? (NYGirlofMyDreams.com) - I know him and I think he's totally brave and VERY inspiring ... But I'm sure he's not the only guy in New York to ask a girl out in a really different way ... please email me and tell me what YOU'VE done!" You know what? Don't email Julia—if you have a totally crazy and over the top story about how you asked someone out, email us and we'll make you even more famous on the Internet.

Magazine and newspaper advertising folks just don't know what they're missing! While they may have invented the advertorial ad, wherein, say, Washington Post articles get reprinted in ad space, print folks have none of the boundless freedom of online ad folks, who aren't restrained by the physical facts of editorial vs. ad space. Online ad sales is now the most creative editorial job going! Some folks call the online campaigns that get integrated into the full space of the web page a "complete takeover." That's quite an evocative phrase! This morning, this very website is in the hands of the ad department; completely taken over. We need your advice about what to do. Should the editorial department take a stand?

Some time today, ReporTwitters, the newest iteration of the future of journalism, should go live. The idea seems to be: A bunch of journalists will contribute to a centralized website via Twitter, which is a microblogging service—it funnels in text snippets sent via IM or SMS. You can try and understand more about it from the site's blog but good luck with that. No but seriously: I'm sure it's the long tail future of crowdsourcing optimized 2.0 tipping point gadget citizen's journalism experimental new hotness. And oh yes, there will be cat photos.

Lesley Jane Seymour used to edit Marie Claire. The people at Hearst made her stop doing that around this time last year, and now someone else is editing it. Today she wrote a piece for the New York Times metro regionals sections about her 11-year-old daughter Lake and her friends. The piece is about how much the girls love to go shopping, and what they're like when they walk around a fancy mall in Westchester.

"I'm worried about bloggers," she said. "(A post) starts as a rumor and within 24 hours it's repeated as fact."

Think you're having a bad week? Give a little sympathy to Ernie Schreiber, who had to cancel his vacation because he works for the local paper in Lancaster, PA, where news broke in rather dramatic fashion yesterday. Editor & Publisher profiles the the New Era in a piece that throws up a variety of odd details. For example, stories are posted to the paper's website before they hit print, which we're sure is of great utility to the local Amish. But the most interesting quote comes at the end of the piece:

Worker #3116 here.

Lucy's been outed. The lady who won Larry Page's heart was named by the New York Post as "Lucy Southworth." Sez the Post, the bright young Stanford student has degrees from the the University of Pennsylvania and Oxford. She's done medical work in South Africa and "wants to better the world."

It is, for the most part, a depressing time to be in the reporting game. Newspapers are dying quickly; magazines are dying only slightly more slowly; and the network news divisions are basically already dead. People in the business are wondering what they'll do; people not in the business are glad they're not; and those in it who are young enough, and smart enough, are making plans to get out. Shockingly, though, The Hartford Courant — American's oldest continuously published newspaper, so they've got something riding on this — has found a group of people bullish on the future of this journalism thing. Is one an upstart analyst, who's found some good news buried in a balance sheet somewhere? Nope. Is there some think-tank graybeard who actually has something good to say about how kids these days are doing journalism? Of course not. Perhaps the one working reporter who finally found employment security and a 401(k) that's not underwater? No way.

You may laugh, but we don't recall ever meeting a journalist who didn't carry a mini glitter gel pen. And trust us: If Matthew Cooper hadn't known how to use his confetti flowers, he'd be no better off than Judy Miller.

Oh happy day! Public Eye, the new non-opinionated, non-ombudsman, non-blog ombudsman blog from CBS News, launched this morning. Providing "unprecedented transparency" into the workings of a broadcast news organization, Public Eye will serve as a team of independent reporters, getting CBS correspondents, producers, and executives to talk about how editorial decisions are made within the organization, and it will also examine larger media issues.

New on Poynter, your one-stop source for one-note journalism.

Because they simply can't beat Google on the search engine field, online portal Yahoo.com has hired veteran television journalist Kevin Sites and his biceps to create original content for the website. Appropriately entitled Kevin Sites in the Hotzone, the website launches September 26 and will cover international conflicts at their source, from approximately 36 different countries.

When it is darkest, Sidney Falco sees the stars.

So maybe all that drinking is bad for us?

We don't much like panel discussions. No one says anything new, no one changes anyone's mind, and the food is rarely any good. But Court TV promised breakfast at Michael's and a crew of media bigshots who don't much like each other, and so it seemed worth showering earlier than we have in months and getting on the E train to midtown.