A few really good pieces (actually, they're all good -- but especially the digital media ones) in PRESSTIME Magazine this month. The December issue should have already arrived in your mailboxes at the office or at home, but here are links and excerpts, anyway.

Building a Better Newspaper Web Site, by Guest Editor Rob Curley, WPNI
When I started working at Morris DigitalWorks in 1998, my wife Betsy bought her first personal computer—a Mac clamshell laptop. I now watch how she uses her computer because I love to see how "regular people" use the Web. You don't even want to know how many ideas have come to me after watching my family members use their computers.  Continue reading...

20 Under 40 Profiles
This year's crop of 20 newspaper stars (under the age of 40) includes at least eight people whose position deal directly with digital media and/or audience growth and development. Continue reading...

(Re)Starting from Scratch, by Mark Toner
Remember 1997? A decade ago, publishers could breathe a well-earned sigh of relief. After much hand wringing, more than half of U.S. dailies had launched Web sites, successfully extending the newspaper franchise into the exploding online world. Flash forward a decade and nimble upstarts have chiseled away at what was once seen as a core advantage—that very same local franchise. The advice from one of those upstarts? Stop whining.  Continue reading...