"We are dismantling the institution of newspaper journalism precisely at the moment when it seems to be of greatest social value." Malcolm Gladwell

Gladwell makes a good case. He reminds us that good journalism serves an important role. Read his piece Open Secrets in The New Yorker here. Gladwell's follow-on blog post Enron and Newspapers here.

"...a still bland face" Al Neuharth, Godfather of USA Today, offers his take on the WSJ redesign. Read Good newspaper is not necessarily dull here

Congrats & Cheers: Steve Safran joins AR&D as Senior VP of Media 2.0; Steve's announcement here. All the best Steve! Smart move by Jerry Gumbert and Terry Heaton, bravo!

From the people that brought you the Wal-Mart flog: Edelman PR sends "free" laptops loaded with MS Vista to selected bloggers as part of Edelman's engagement to assist MS in Vista rollout. Bad stuff ensues. In what appears to be shaping up as a classic "do as we say, not as we do" moment, nothing on Richard Edelman's blog here. Amazing. (Closed circuit to Richard - speak up! FYI - you'll benefit by having Steve Rubel involved in the planning stages of any and all blogger initiatives)

Inventing the future: Peter Smyth offers up his latest from the corner office here. Bravo Peter, well said.

Allan Stagg remembered: A moving, heartfelt memorial to the great Allan Stagg this past Saturday in Battle Creek. Allan's wife, Cathy, Allan's sons, colleagues and friends all made tributes. Fred Jacobs, Bill Bailey, Dave Lange, Ray Bollacker and folks from the Clear Channel Battle Creek crew joined friends and family to remember Allan. My thanks to Fred for his kind Michigan hospitality and for his getting me from and back to the airport. My sense is Allan has inspired a generation. In his work as a performer, teacher and mentor Allan Stagg has influenced a great many. Moreover, the best is yet to come. His sons are destined for greatness. Stay tuned.

What happens in Vegas: Staci Kramer of paidContent is providing excellent coverage of CES here and posting pics from the show here.

Top ten themes: The folks over at investment bank Oppenheimer & Co have published a report on digital media including what they consider the top themes for 2007:

1. Consolidation, Deconsolidation and Swapping continue.
2. Mobile Media: Large and Growing.
3. HDTV makes an impact.
4. Cable plant upgrades.
5. Music transitions from offline to online to wireless.
6. Advertising: New media gains enable a pushback.
7. Cable sub growth continues as satellite TV pullback persists and telcos disappoint.
8. Gaming: Restart your engines.
9. Flash - Hybrid flash hard disk drives start to pick up.
10. 3G WCDMA mobile devices will replace 2G GSM devices.

Link to the report download here. My thanks to Rafat for sharing.