Multimedia musings: A video on saving newspapers, a Copy Editor's Lament, and some weary journalists to entertain

Life is far too mysterious to be serious all the time, so thanks to Flint Expatriates and the Gannett Blog we can enjoy some outside-the-box revenue generating ideas in the Saving the Newspaper video.

That reminded me I never shared the Copy Editor's Lament (The Layoff Song).

The video is an adaption of song #79 from Jonathan Mann, who set up a goal of a song a day.

"The music is the same, but I enlisted the lip-dub and acting chops of my friends down at the East Bay Express, the local alt-weekly here in the East Bay. Yay!"

Express editor Stephen Buell, who has collected and framed final editions of newspapers since 1982, shares more revenue ideas in New Practices and Revenues for a New Era in Journalism.

"We're not just whining about our finances like the Chronicle. We're doing something about them" says Buell.

The Copy Editor's Lament (The Layoff Song) is from Christopher Ave, political editor at the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. He explained on his blog that copy editors struck him as having the most under-appreciated job in the newsroom.

Here are a few of the words:

'm a human safety net
I double-check the facts and vet
assertions before they are set in type.

I can provide punctuation
appropriate for publication
make the capitalization right.

I was there to fix your grammar
when you thought it wouldn't matter
cut all your extraneous blather down.

Listen to the MP3 for the rest. We'll wait.

Kurt Greenbaum shared a video from some colleagues tagged "Got rest ye weary journalists" back in December. It's seasonal, but I think as long as we're singing I'll share it.

May your day be merry and bright.