According to CNN, the company that owns the Chicago Sun-Times and 58 other newspapers and online sites said Tuesday it had filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.
The Sun-Times Media Group, Inc. said it would continue to operate its newspapers and Web sites as usual while it improves its cost structure and stabilizes operations. Tuesday’s announcement comes amid a raft of newspaper closings and cuts that has seen the end of The Rocky Mountain News in Denver, Colorado; The Seattle Post-Intelligencer, and The Christian Science Monitor.
Cue music. Dum, dum, dum, another one bites the dust.



-posted by Justin

No, not the country, the man!

According to S.I., the NBA slapped Mavericks owner Mark Cuban with a $25,000 fine Sunday for publicly criticizing the officials after Denver's 103-101 win over Dallas. Cuban used Twitter to complain after Friday's game that Denver's J.R. Smith was not called for coming off the bench to taunt Antoine Wright after he missed a shot near the Nuggets bench.

Cuban said in another posting Sunday that he "can't say no one makes money from twitter now. the nba does."



-posted by Justin

The 2009 Earth Hour will take place this Saturday, March 28th, at 8:30 pm (local time). During this event, people from all over the world are asked to turn off electronics - smartphones, computers, lights, etc. - for one full hour. This year's event organizers, the World Wildlife Fund, are hoping for 1 billion participants and have turned the 2009 event into a sort of election between Earth and global warming, saying that switching your lights off is a vote for Earth, while leaving them on is a vote for global warming. The WWF plan to present the results of the "election" to world leaders at the Global Climate Change Conference later this year.

Earth Hour first began in Sydney, Australia in 2007, when 2.2 million businesses and residents turned off their lights. During the following year, 2008, such world landmarks as the Golden Gate Bridge, the Colosseum, the Sydney Opera House and the Coca Cola billboard in Times Square all jumped on board and went dark for the hour. This year, the Empire State Building, the Acropolis and the Eiffel Tower all plan to participate, and many electronics manufactures have joined the cause as well.

According to an eWeek article, the following companies have taken action for Earth Hour:

-Research in Motion has launched a special website for their Blackberry users supporting Earth Hour.

-Belkin International released a statement reminding people of the importance of Earth hour and that they should remember to make sure to unplug devices from standby power to save the most electricity.

-HSBC will have all employees switch of all non-essential electronics, such as light, TVs and computers for the hour.

-Vodacom, South Africa's largest cellular network, will turn off its electronic billboards and shut off lights at 15 offices throughout the country.

-Suntech Power Holdings will turn off lights at its solar headquarters in China and hold an event themed "What do we do if the Earth has no electricity?"

-Con Edison will turn off the lights at the company's Manhattan headquarters and have teamed up with WWF to ask NYC resides to join the cause.

The concept is simple enough and an hour is such a short amount of time, but will you participate? Can you shut off your iPhone or TV for one hour in the name of the Earth?



-posted by Stephanie

Soon, very soon, hamsters will rule the world (and Richard Gere will say "I told you so."). This video: Phase One!



-posted by Justin

Can you explain what this is?  Couple hints.  It has to do with Twitter and is in German.  Viel Glück



-posted by Justin

According to Xconomy, Pathway Medical has scored $40 million as part of a venture funding round that the Kirkland medical device maker hopes to finalize at $55 million.  It follows a $24.5 million round that closed last April with participation from HLM Venture Partners, Oxford Bioscience Partners, Forbion Capital Partners, Giza Venture Capital and others. This is the state's largest VC deal of 2009.

Earlier this week, the company received FDA clearance to begin marketing its Jetstream G2 technology for the specific use of breaking apart and removing blood clots in peripheral arteries in the arms and legs.



-posted by Justin

Sometimes (although rarely), I like to be healthy. In those rare, fleeting moments, I often pick up a copy of Seattle's Conscious Choice magazine to learn about the latest health fads. This month's issue had a particularly interested (and disgusting) topic: Shmeat. What on earth is shmeat? Well, its also known as virto meat, cultured meat, victimless meat, vat-grown meat and various other terms to describe meat that was basically grown in a test tube. Shmeat is grown from cell culture (harvested cells from an animal) and placed in a nutrient-rich medium (like blood). Once the cells multiple, they are attached to a spongy scaffold (or sheet) that has been socked with nutrients and stretched to increase cell size and protein content. Sheet + Meat = Shmeat. While this type of meat obviously has its pros and cons,  according to Jason Matheny, director of New Harvest, a nonprofit working to develop meat substitutes, “a single cell could theoretically produce the world’s annual meat supply.” That's one pro that's hard to overlook in a world still stricken with starving third world countries. Read on to learn more.



-posted by Shawnna

This pretty much sums up the satire associated with Twitter. Enjoy.

-posted by Justin

Drumroll, please. And the WTIA Industry Achievement Award Goes to...

Some of Seattle's hottest tech companies took home top honors at the WTIA Industry Achievement Awards last night.  Our friends at AdReady (www.adready.com), a company that helps advertisers and publishers of all sizes launch and manage display advertising campaigns, took home Service Provider of they Year.  Congrats!  Click here for a list of all the lucky winners:

John Cook at TechFlash again offered up his predictions before the night commenced.  This year he hit 50 percent correct (a big improvement over last year!).




-posted by Lindsay

Just when you might be writing it off as purely just a marketing tool or way to communicate with friends/colleagues, a piece of technology is invented that could change the entire way you look at social networking micro-blogging service Twitter. Researchers at New York University's interactive telecommunications program have come up with a device that allows plants to tell owners when they need water or if they've had too much via Twitter. Read more.

-posted by Andrew

Seattle's Pet Holdings is skyrocketing! According to a recent TechFlash article, the company's comedy sites currently get more than five million page views a day.  The company's multiple sites include I Can Has Cheezburger, I Has A Hotdog and Engrish to name a few, and aims to exceed two billion page views this year. Quite a success if you ask me!




-posted by Shawnna

Everyone has heard of the term "Facebook Fired", a "verb" used to explain being fired for something you post on Facebook. Now, it’s Twitter's turn... In a recent article on MSNBC, it was uncovered that a recent tweet cost a would-be Cisco employee his potential job after posting:

"Cisco just offered me a job! Now I have to weigh the utility of a fatty paycheck against the daily commute to San Jose and hating the work.”

Tim Levad, a channel partner advocate for Cisco Alert, tweeted (responded) back:

"Who is the hiring manager. I’m sure they would love to know that you will hate the work. We here at Cisco are versed in the web."

Though the would-be "Cisco Fatty" immediately set his Twitter account to private and deleted everything from his page -- it was too late and the job offer was withdrawn. Ouch!



-posted by Shawnna

In 1999, CBS took a huge gamble that some would argue is paying off. They payed $6 billion for the exclusive rights to the NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament for 11 years.

As my old news director used to like to point out (by point out, I mean write numerous memos) these exclusive rights also prohibited anyone excluding CBS, its affiliates and its partners from even mentioning the term "March Madness." Well... that hasn't necessarily been that enforceable, but what has stuck is millions of people tuning in to watch the tournament either on TV or the Internet.

Internet viewing has skyrocketed since CBS launched MMOD (March Madness On Demand) back in 2006. In fact, Last year 4.8 million unique visitors used the service, a 164 percent increase over 2007. Advertising revenue reached $30 million this year, a 30 percent increase over last year. However, those numbers pale in comparison to the ad revenue generated by the TV games at $643 million from advertisements last year, and expecting a similar take this year.

Now the New York Times is speculating that the growth of online video may actually be problematic for CBS. True, it owns the Internet rights to the tournament and if the company can make extra money from online video while keeping its TV revenue steady, its not-very-lucrative rights contract could still turn into a moneymaker. But online revenue could come at the expense of eroding tournament revenue for the company’s cash cow, its television business. Last year, the tournament averaged 10 percent fewer viewers than in 2004, according to Nielsen. That drop in viewership could ultimately hurt its TV ad sales.

And you thought the action was just on the court. March Madness...



-posted by Andrew

Apple has announced that as of March 19th high-def movies are available for purchase via the iTunes store, beginning with box office hits "Quantum of Solace" and, of course, "Twilight." Until now, Apple has only offered HD movies as rentals, however HD television shows have been available. As Engadget points out, each HD movie purchased will come with an HD file and an iPod or iPhone-ready SD file and will cost $19.99.

-posted by Stephanie

CNET just posted some impressive Twitter growth numbers. Apparently, Twitter has grown more than 1,000 percent over the past year(!). That is incredible. Noticing the growing number of businesses using Twitter, VOXUS just published a white paper on the topic. You can get your paws on the paper by clicking here.

Also, find VOXUS on Twitter (@VoxusPR).



-posted by Lindsay

Blogger Matt Asay thinks he knows why your PR stinks. He's got one thing right – if you don't pack the "why the hell should I care about this story" punch into every size and type of PR story, you fail. Seems simple, but you'd be surprised how many press releases go without tackling this basic question in the first para – or at all.

Oh and according to Fortune readers and staff, being a Communications Manager is the number one best bulls**t job. Click here for 19 more "satisfying, lucrative and least useful" jobs.



-posted by Lindsay

Listen up all. This just in from the most wired city, our city, Tacoma!!!

From TechFlash:

If you missed the Wired report on Sunday, two English majors from UPS (University of Puget Sound) in Tacoma won the top blog awards at the South By Southwest conference happening this week in Austin.Seniors Nick Martens, 21, and Kevin Nguyen, 22, beat pro bloggers to win the best blog category with "The Bygone Bureau: A Journal of Modern Thought."

They're the two in the big photo on Wired's blog from Sunday's award ceremony.



Bygone Bureau was started in 2007 as "a journal of modern thought, specializing in travel writing and cultural criticism."

It would have been a good name for the online version of the P-I.

Pretty sure I've seen these two throwing back pints at E-9, talking about modern thingy stuff....like, "what if beer made world peace possible?"

-posted by Justin

"What should I read next?" is a question the often stumps me going in to the local library. Luckily, this very question became the answer thanks to WhatShouldIReadNext.com. The site produces book recommendations based purely on collective taste - you enter the title and author of a book that you've enjoyed reading in the past, and the site pulls together a list of 10 recommended books that are considered similar based on mass opinion. I only spent a few minutes on the site, and already have a decent list of 'to read' books for my next library excursion.

-posted by Shawnna

In honor of the final edition of the Seattle Post Intelligencer...


Watch Journalism (1940) in How to Videos  |  View More Free Videos Online at Veoh.com

-posted by Paul

The Seattle Post-Intellingencer says it will print its last edition today, Tuesday, March 17, ending a 146-year run. The paper's owner, the Hearst Corporation, said the P-I will become the nation's largest daily newspaper to shift entirely online. Hearst's decision to abandon the print product in favor of a Web-only version is the first for a large American newspaper, raising questions about whether the company can make money in a medium where others have come up short. Seattle follows Denver in becoming the second major city this year to lose a daily newspaper. The Rocky Mountain News closed after its owner, E.W. Scripps Co., couldn't find a buyer. In Arizona, Gannett Co.'s Tucson Citizen is set to close Saturday, leaving one newspaper in that city.

Sad.



-posted by Justin

Ever ate lunch at your desk, hunched over your keyboard thinking, "this keyboard is probably absolutely disgusting." Like the commercial goes, "I've been there." Now Seattle area startup Vioguard LLC is touting a way to clean keyboards without any manual labor. After use the Vioguard keyboard automatically retracts into an enclosed monitor stand to be bathed in germicidal ultraviolet light that supposedly gives the keyboard a good germ scrub-down.




From the pictures I've seen, the keyboard resembles a very "old school" type flat keyboard with a large encasing, but this isn't an aesthetic play, but very practical since it needs to be designed to roll into the hardware casing that bathes the hardware in the ultraviolet light. Vioguard hasn’t finalized pricing, but it’s anticipating an initial range between $499 and $599 per keyboard and plans on targeting the healthcare industry at first. However, the company expects the price to decline and that its will target more vertical markets over time.

Want to read more on how ultraviolet light kills germs and see a video demo? Check out TechFlash's blog entry.

-posted by Andrew

A new research report from the Centers for Disease Control shows that an increasing number of people have ditched the old land-line in favor of a mobile-exclusive lifestyle. Somewhat surprising to me was the fact that Oklahoma has the highest percentage of cell-only households and adults, with 26.2 percent of households and 25.1 percent of adults having no land-line phone. Other high-ranking states include Utah, Nebraska, Arkansas, Iowa, Idaho and Kentucky - while states like New York and California rank in the bottom half, with only 11.4 percent and 9.0 percent, respectively. As far as our home state, Washington, we are in a three-way tie with Michigan and North Carolina, with 16.3 of households adopting the cell-only rule.

While this is great news for wireless companies, this is posing a bit of a problem for data collectors and census takers as cell phone numbers are generally left out of data gathering pools - so an increasingly larger number of people aren't being reached for things such as election polls. It also doesn't help that the large majority of those that have adopted the cell-only lifestyle are part of the same demographic (younger) and therefore are underrepresented in said polls. Perhaps in the future polls will be conducted via text messages...



-posted by Stephanie

ATTENTION ALL WOMEN! Have an innovative business idea in the consumer technology, wireless, Internet or biotech industry? Entries are now being accepted to the third-annual Women 2.0 Pitch 2009: Startup Competition. The competition is open to early-stage ventures around the world, from high growth business ventures in web 2.0 to mobile and biotech, consumer clean tech to consumer hardware. Applying companies must be in beta-stage and have not received significant funding. Teams with at least ONE FEMALE in the founding team are invited to compete for a chance to win! Entries are due by April 10, 2009.

-posted by Shawnna

If your iTunes library is a mess like mine -- missing album art, song titles, etc. -- you may want to check out a company named TuneUp Media. It claims to do a thorough scrub on your library, fixing song titles, artist names and genre. It also fills in missing cover art. How awesome is that?!  The download takes a minute. I can't wait to try this at home!

Buh-bye annoying music note placeholder image:



-posted by Lindsay

I couldn't believe my eyes last night -- Apple Co-founder Steve Wozniak is a contestant on the latest season of Dancing with the Stars.  Paired with the gorgeous Karina Smirnoff, "Woz" gave the Cha Cha Cha his all -- yet was still likened to a "...TeleTubby going mad..." Check it out for yourself.

(Yes, that's him in the pink boa...).

-posted by Lindsay

Everybody loves American Idol, right?  OK, maybe not.  I don't really start to enjoy it until the contestants are whittled down to what America thinks are the best six or so (right now there are 13). Die hard fans that want more than what the twice a week show can deliver, can now go to their iPhones to get exclusive content.  According to a recent FierceMobileContent story, FreemantleMedia  and Seattle-based Zumobi have unveiled a $1.99 app that allows fans to track contestant progress, predict results show voting and watch unseen videos.

In case you're wondering, Anoop is my early favorite...

Stril out.

-posted by Lindsay

A real-time feed of people swearing on Twitter?  Radical!  Finally a Twitter application I can support. Called Cursebird it relays profane Twitter posts and even ranks the top used curse words.  It's hilarious.  Currently f*ck is the most used curse word on Twitter, followed by sh*t, b*tch, bast*rd and the dark horse of the bunch, tw*t.

Here are some of my favorite tweets:
-@getyourgeekon: your a sh*t on the sh*tter  (what does that even mean?)
-@jackfacts24: Jack Bauer doesn't watch breaking news. He breaks the f*cking news
-@theomachist: sometimes everything you need is NOT withinreach, like printerpaper, f*ck this sh*t I need somd godd*mn paper

I know what you're going to say: "what a profane blog post."  Well, kiss my *ss you c*ck sucking motherf*ckers!!



-posted by Justin

Roman Catholic bishops across Italy are urging people to go on a high-tech fast for Lent this year. Separate Dioceses and Catholic groups across the country are appealing to their faithful to abstain from everything from driving to using their iPods, text messaging or surfing the Web.

For example -- Dioceses and Catholic groups in Modena, southern Bari and other cities have called for a ban on text messaging every Friday in Lent, which began last week. The Modena diocese claims giving up texts is a small way to remember the importance of concrete and not virtual relationships.

Separately the Turin diocese has created a "new lifestyles" calendar with proposals for each week of lent which includes not watching TV, leaving cars at home and enjoying the silence of a week with the Internet or iPods.

However, this technology "abstinence" doesn't sit well with everyone. Rev. Giancarlo Angelo Andreis, a priest at a Roma basilica says. "What does giving up mean? If the use is capricious, then abstinence is welcome, but if technology is needed for work it makes no sense."

My take (despite me not being a Catholic), do it if you can and if you feel like it really is a sacrifice. It will make you look at the world an entirely new way.

-posted by Andrew

90's pop sensation and Gwen Stefani-catapult No Doubt is reuniting for a tour this summer and have introduced an interesting promotion for their ticket sales. According to a recent PC World article, fans who join No Doubt's Tour Club for $15 are offered the chance to purchase up to 4 "prime tickets" to their summer tour. For each prime ticket the club member purchases they receive a free download of the band's entire digital catalog - which adds up to something like six full albums in addition to greatest hits-type records and additional singles. Good deal! The No Doubt website mentions some restrictions - such as you probably won't get the download code until 30 days after the ticket purchase and it expires 30 days after the concert... however, when you join the Tour Club, you also get a No Doubt bumper sticker and iron-on patch, which will be perfect to go on my Jansport backpack that I use to carry my Lip Smackers, Lisa Frank folders and slap bracelets (that was an ode to other 90's kids).

-posted by Stephanie

A man accused of threatening the life of a Tacoma judge showed up at the Tacoma News Tribune yesterday. In exchange for his story, he requested a ride to the courthouse.  Check out the video interview shot in a car by TNT staffers: http://www.thenewstribune.com/topstories/story/646146.html

Now that's new-age reporting.

-posted by Lindsay

MySpace and Citi are partnering up to offer a Citi Forward/MySpace credit card! The credit card is marketed towards a younger generation (MySpace's target audience) and rewards responsible card holders by lowering the purchase interest rate by a quarter of a percent if used wisely. Card holders also receive "MySpace points" that can be redeemed for music downloads, contests, concerts, shows and other events. And card holders can accumulate additional points by participating in socially responsible acts such as using energy efficient light bulbs or volunteering. Who'd have thought one day you'd be using MySpace to get your next credit card!

-posted by Shawnna

VOXUS’ star intern, Julie Olds, wrote this blog. Julie is currently finishing up her undergraduate education at Tacoma's Pacific Lutheran University and is exploring a field in communications. Below is her experience for a job interview in the public sector. Quite a whirlwind process our Julie had!
 

You may have heard of speed dating, but have you experienced speed interviewing? In my most recent job interview, I tried out this new and exciting approach to interviewing. The speed interview had a similar format to speed dating, requiring me to jump from seat to seat to interview. Going into the interview process, I knew it would be competitive. There were nearly 600 applicants bidding for just one position, but the last thing I was expecting was to interview alongside three other people. The completion was on, but instead of finding my soul mate in a five-minute session, I was trying to sell myself to four different faces as I moved around the room at the sound of each bell. I couldn’t help but think of how it reminded me of musical chairs from elementary school. I can understand the benefits of this new technique for the hiring staff. They are searching for just the right person and are hesitant to make such severe cuts to a large number of applicants (the initial number of applicants for this job started at about 500). Speed interviewing allowed them to interview what they deemed 40 viable candidates and narrow down their search to a qualified few. In the sea of faces the hiring staff saw today, I can’t help but wonder how memorable my face or my responses were in our brief encounter. At the very least, this interview opened my eyes to an emerging technique in interviewing. Not to mention that I had fun during the process. So the next time I practice for job interviews, I’ll be preparing myself for some speedy encounters.

-posted by Andrew (and Julie)

This definitely appealed to my wacky sense of humor: a new startup, Lard Butt LLC debuted in Seattle this week.  Touted as "athletic apparel for the rest of us," Lard Butt is offering a line of clothing that celebrates folks who just can't seem to get off of the couch.  And it keeps getting better -- the company's tagline is "Get Cracking!"  So who's the genius behind this new venture?  Turns out one of the founders is Mark Peterson, formerly an exec at Marchex and now a fellow PR agency owner.




-posted by Rachel

For better or for worse, Bellingham, Washington Tatango has launched a new website that chronicles in real time via four video cameras every facet of the startups day 24/7. Here's what Derek Johnson, Tatango's 20-something year-old CEO says about the startup turned real world show; "So why broadcast everything 24/7 and let the whole world watch us? Why the hell not! If people want to watch us, let them watch us. I think we have a pretty cool story to tell with our startup, and what better way to tell that story then to watch it play out in real time, live over the internet." TechFlash recently wrote about Tatango TV and says the vice president of marketing Andrew Dumont told them the idea is not so much about live content as it is about embracing transparency for people like investors. This whole idea seems earily reminiscent of Seattle startup, Earth Class Mail's reality TV show Start-Up Junkies on Mojo TV.

Oh... and for background Tatango is a mobile messaging startup although I did notice ads in all of their streaming video which I'm assuming they're utilizing to subsidize the cost for creating and maintaining the video site.

When I logged on at about 1pm Pacific, I found a team of hungry startup employees munching on a bunch of greasy pizza. Not judging, just reporting.

My thought, expand on the 24/7 idea with separate daily "video confessionals" from various employees on what occurs at the company on a daily basis.

Would love to hear what you think.

-posted by Andrew

The Daily Show tries to tackle Twitter: 

http://www.thedailyshow.com/video/index.jhtml?videoId=219519&title=twitter-frenzy

Hilarious! 

-posted by Shawnna

I've always thought that you could find out a lot about someone's personality by looking at their music collection.  A new study suggests you can also determine a person's intellience (or lack of) with the same data Virgil Griffith, a college student who gained fame for outing anonymous corporate and government editors to Wikipedia pages, has compiled a chart that links music choice to SAT score. Here's what it boils down to: Beethoven = smart, Lil Wayne = dumb.

Check out Virgil's findings here: Musicthatmakesyoudumb.virgil.gr

Be warned that the above site keeps crashing.

-posted by Lindsay

The popular social-networking site has been hit by what's believed to be the fourth rogue app in a week or so and is investigating the spread of a new variant of the Koobface worm, according to security firm Trend Micro. The Koobface worm spreads via a message from a Facebook friend that includes a link to what looks like a video.


Read more here: http://news.cnet.com/8301-1009_3-10185517-83.html

-posted by Justin

Recently, I saw an awe-inspiring commercial for the arena spectacular "Walking with Dinosaurs," advertising tickets for the show's visit to Seattle in late April. The show is based on the award-winning BBC TV series of the same name and promises to be an experience like none other. "Walking with Dinosaurs" includes 15 life-size creatures that walk, roar, and fight each other. Ten separate dinosaur species are represented in the show, including Plateosaurus, Stegosaurus, Allosaurus and, the biggest of all, Tyrannosaurus Rex, which is a whooping 23 feet tall and 42 feet long!! Yikes! Each dinosaur requires 7 kilowatts of power from 12 truck batteries, holds 1,094 yards of cabling, and requires 24 microprocessors to control movement along with 15 hydraulic rams and 6 hydraulic motors each.

While my personal dinosaur knowledge doesn't extend much farther than a prehistoric diorama I made in the 4th grade - I am definitely going to check out this extravaganza while it's in town. I mean, the producer says "It is the closest you'll ever get to experiencing what it was like when they walked and ruled the earth." How could I miss that?



-posted by Stephanie