Comic relief for the stressed-out media industry
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Amid the strain of dwindling and stressed editorial staffs, a few snarky websites and Twitter feeds have sprung up to take the edge off of a tense industry. Here are three mocking-journalism success stories that have often added a needed dose of laughter to my day:
Overheard in the Newsroom: This blog and Twitter feed compiles funny (and often inappropriate) quotes heard throughout various newsrooms. Those who spend their time around those who produce news will relate to quotes such as:
- #5937: Editor: “If you’re still at work and they’re vacuuming, you know you’ve made the wrong career choice.”
- #6041: Editor to new reporter: “Doing all that fancy work isn’t gonna get you any high fives around here. I know you’re excited, but just do what I tell you to do.”
- #3222 Multimedia Editor: “I was thinking this Red Bull tasted weird, but I think it’s because there’s no vodka in it.”
Inspired by Overhead in New York, Kevin Cobb, a news designer in Florida, started this blog in early 2009. It soon launched to fame in the journalism community and was voted “Best Site for Journalists” at Mashable's Open Web Awards in 2009. "I started the project just to learn some basic web skills and social media skills and it's grown beyond anything I could imagine,” Cobb says in a video on the blog.
Obviously he struck a chord: It now has more than 32,000 Twitter followers and more than 95,000 Facebook fans.
Stuff Journalists Like: From “press passes” to “procrastinating," this blog humorously chronicles the coffee-fueled culture of a journalist. Started by a couple of young newspaper reporters, the "list" includes other cherished attributes and actions by journalists such as: 
Fake AP Stylebook: The only thing better than copy editing is making fun of copy editing. The Fake AP Stylebook Twitter feed was started in 2009 by a group called The Bureau Chiefs and grew to 40,000 followers in two weeks. It now has more than 170,000 followers. 
It's like The Onion's version of the AP Stylebook, mocking the sometimes neurotic conventions of editing. Some good tweets include:
- phone numbers: Use proper numbering. 215-421-5170 is two-hundred-fifteen four-hundred-twenty-one five-thousand-one-hundred-seventy.
- "Controversial" is a legal term meaning "probably wrong, but we can't be bothered to check."
- Don't worry if you use an en-dash instead of an em-dash. There are pills for that now.
- The correct plural forms are as follows: surgeons general, brothers-in-law, Spiders-Man.
If you want to read more but can't be bothered to follow them on Twitter, have no fear, the book is coming out in 2011.
It turns out the last couple of years of turmoil in the media industry led to stardom for some ― and enjoyable procrastination for the rest of us.
Join the discussion
Has anyone found the twitter feed for the new and improved "Editor & Publisher" magazine? Oh, wait, I think they are changing their name to "& Publisher"