A job for you, a job for me: Suggestions flying in

Somehow, I started out reading Time's "Killing the News to Save It" - a piece about AnnArbor.com - when I was distracted by its Top 10 lists and other links scattered throughout the article. There were 10 ways your job will change and 10 perfect jobs for in a recession plus Top 10 Newspaper Movies if the search gets you down.

Then, I'm sent a link to Over on Time Out: New York,where Matt Schneiderman offers new career ideas for those (once) in media, with a paragraph on why and how to get each job.

• Publicist
• Editorial strategist
• Grant writer
• Project manager
• Private investigator

Read through the comments and you'll get two more ideas: social media marketer and ghostwriting. They are probably more doable for me then the recession-proof ideas:

1. Accountant
2. Entrepreneur
3. Police Officer
4. Network and Computer Systems
5. Nurse
6. Nutritionist
7. Physical Therapist
8. Teacher
9. Mathematician
10. Government Manager

The Time article didn't have much new to say if you've been following the story. There's the couple who miss the Ann Arbor News and would've paid more if only they knew; there's a rundown on who is gathering the news - Michigan Daily, Ann Arbor Observer, Ann Arbor Journal, Ann Arbor Chronicle; and there are the mandatory quotes from a University of Michigan professor and a resident who doesn't like the killing of the old for a bright shiny new thing.

Publisher Matt Kraner gives us the three reasons why this place, why now:

1. Ann Arbor is an extremely Web-savvy market, probably the most Web-savvy Newhouse has.
2. The market, with its high-tech industries, is very open to new ideas and new concepts.
3. The market has passion for its community.

There's even mention of how community decides which ad/deal gets top billing on the Sunday front page of the print edition.

That all helps lead to the ending:
"Whatever the ultimate outcome of the Ann Arbor community-content experiment, it's already proved one thing: the content part is easy; the community part is not."

More fun to read is the Muffin blog post from a journalist whose husband helped launch the Business Reviews in Michigan's Oakland and Washtenaw counties. Christine Kilpatrick says it's all about managing expectations with the proper explanations.

“I’ve got a homemade muffin for you. It’s just a practice muffin before I make the good ones for Benny’s preschool. It’s a pumpkin-and-chocolate-chip muffin, but there aren’t many chocolate chips because I ate half the bag while mixing the other ingredients. My oven doesn’t heat evenly, so the muffin’s kind of lopsided as if it was trying to escape its pan. Oh, and I burned it a little too.

Now, just imagine what happens when you bite into a muffin like that and it tastes pretty good. Not great, but OK. Plus, the cook already has shown she knows what she has to work on so we'll just wait for the next batch.

Still, every time I picture that post I think about the Seinfeld show on muffin tops. A former boss takes Elaine's idea of a business selling the muffin tops and dumping the muffin stumps and Kramer starts the Peterman Reality Bus Tour. It's also the one where George says:

"You know, if you take everything I've done in my entire life and condense it down into one day, it looks decent."

I'm still optimistic enough to believe that at least one of these Michigan experiments in news - Detroit, Great Lakes Bay Region formerly known as Flint-Saginaw-Bay City or Ann Arbor -will turn into something satisfying given enough time.

I'm glad Free From Editors led us to this gem written by a woman who was delighted to return to Michigan and equally happy to leave despite a rough start in California.

Another peek over there found a Booth Newspapers version of Camelot that includes these lines:

"Back then we never worked too late on Friday
At 37-and-a-half we stopped
The benefits and pay were sweet in my day
In Camelot.

All layoffs were forbidden till forever
They never had to fear a union shop
Our health-care would be paid for, ending never,
In Camelot"

OK, I'm supposed to be working on two projects that never end. How busy am I? I didn't even know Twitter was gone or Facebook was slow until it wasn't.