So, we're all learning lessons about this here Internet thingee.

The folks who run The Salt Lake Tribune, the Denver-based Media News Group, recently issued a memo to employees - which immediately was posted on Jim Romenesko's journalism-industry blog, for all to read - about where newspapers are going in the online world.

If you can read through the official-sounding linguistic opacity, the upshot seems to be that the company wants to find ways to get Internet users to pay for stuff on the web site. Take this passage:

We are not trying to invent new premium products, but instead tell our existing print readers that what they are buying has real value, and to our online audience (who don’t buy the print edition), that if you want access to all online content, you are going to have to register, and/or pay. If a non-subscriber wants the newspaper content in its entirety online, they will be directed to some sort of registration or pay vehicle (and if they are a print subscriber, they will have full access at no charge).

Encouraging Internet users to pay for content - after they have grown accustomed to getting what they want for free - may feel like stuffing toothpaste back in the tube. So I wish my corporate overlords luck in their endeavors.

But if the news industry is learning hard lessons about the Internet, so are politicians.

Take the example of Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff, who apparently thought messages he sent out on the social-blogging site Twitter were only being read by one person - not by anybody in the world.

This is how Shurtleff, as the Tribune's Robert Gehrke reported today, accidentally announced to the world that he will be running for the U.S. Senate seat now held by fellow Republican Robert Bennett. (This news isn't much of a surprise, as Shurtleff has been hinting about a primary challenge to Bennett for awhile now.)

Shurtleff quickly deleted the "tweets," but not before public-radio station KCPW-FM got a screen capture of them.

Oopsie. Gotta be careful on the web - but as the guy who oversees the state's prosecution of Internet crimes, Shurtleff should know that.

Labels: internet, journalism, Mark Shurtleff

Today's the deadline for Americans to get their federal and state tax returns mailed in - which usually is accompanied by the tradition of TV news reporters standing outside a mailbox to capture the oh-so-telegenic sight of a line of cars.

This year, though, we have something else to celebrate - thanks to the AstroTurf (that's fake grassroots) movement, mounted by right-wing lobbying groups and Fox News Channel, to launch "Tax Day Tea Parties" across the country.

As the Tribune's Cathy McKitrick reported today, several such events are scheduled in Utah - the biggest being one at noon at the Federal Building in downtown Salt Lake City, where Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff, and U.S. Reps. Rob Bishop and Jason Chaffetz will suck up to, er, rally the eager (and, one hopes, waterproof) crowd.

What are the "tea party" enthusiasts - or "teabaggers," as they have unfortunately dubbed themselves - protesting? Are they protesting the Obama administration, which is planning to cut taxes for most Americans? Are they protesting government bailouts, most of which were started under the Bush administration? Are they protesting because they can't come up with anything better? Are they protesting because Fox News told them to?

The nature of the protest, MSNBC's Rachel Maddow said Tuesday night, is "amorphous," but "the adoption of their teabag as their symbol - now that is plain as a one-two punch to the face." (Seriously, as any lesbian received as much enjoyment from "teabagging" as Maddow has this last week?)

Here's the web site listing Utah events, and here's a response from the Utah Democrats.

Labels: Jason Chaffetz, Mark Shurtleff, politics, Rob Bishop, television