Local journalism isn't a hot Web 2.0 field. Journalist Dan Gillmor learned that the hard way when he had to sell his unsuccessful citizen journalism site Bayosphere to a similar venture, Back Fence, which itself has barely grown past a few communities in Maryland and Virginia. Turns out people get their local news from old outlets just fine, or they turn to specific blogs. That makes sense; why would I need my local news to share a platform with everyone else's local news? The only way to add value is to aggregate already-existing local news and let the user pick the geographic and topical scope they want. That's exactly what EveryBlock, which launched this week, aims to do.

In solidarity with the Writers Guild of America, with Conan and Letterman and with Katie Holmes we're growing a strike beard. Our Solzhenitsyn-like beard has been growing since November 5th, the first day of the strike. Let's see your strike beards. Send them to tips@gawker.com

TMZ's been operating a live feed from the corner of Mercer and Prince, an intersection that they describe as "right in the heart of SoHo, the once-artsy, now-ritzy downtown district absolutely teeming with celebrities, both resident and guest." Josh just went by to say hi!

Are these quotes from the historically-telescoping N+1 article about Gawker that allegedly semi-prompted the resignation of my co-worker Emily Gould—or from the upcoming Sony horror film Untraceable?

"My boyfriend just texted me that he was standing in Bryant Park when he heard a loud noise, looked up and saw a bunch of scaffolding plummeting down to earth from what he described as 'a great height.' It's a 'tall building opposite the corner of the park.' I know that's not particularly descriptive. He said people went fucking nuts. Not sure yet if anyone is hurt."

"Citizen journalism" — journalism with the participation of its audience and community — is an ideal easy to support, but it's not so easy to build a business based on idealism. Dan Gillmor, ex-journalist and leading promoter of citizen journalism, citing his lack of business skills, wisely jettisoned Bayosphere, the Bay Area community journalism site, to Backfence earlier this year. Now Backfence is "ceasing operations within the next few days" for all of its communities (the site is still live, but the closure notice is posted on each area's community page).

The latest mind-gurgling innovation in the Dentoniverse is the launch of Gridskipper Maps. You might remember Gridskipper as our "decadent urban travel guide." Now it is the "Decadent Urban Travel Guide. Mapping the globe's best chic hotels, hot restaurants, sweet nightlife, and pretty people." What does this mean for you?

So! The Tribune Company's finally (almost certainly!) been sold, praise be, and the LA Times has decided to ask its readers what they think about the sale. Perhaps this is that vaunted "citizen journalism" everyone's been yammering about lately? Or maybe they're really looking for some useful tips!

A story that has been unfolding like the petals of some delicate flower on the Williamsboard.com message boards since Sunday afternoon has finally reached its conclusion. "Selena," who started the thread with the simple words "I have a tampon stuck," has been delivered of her cottony stopper, with the aid of many helpful suggestions ranging from "maybe make a speculum out of spoons" to "not vaseline, now that will fuck up yr ladiness." Apparently, the removal was finally effected with the aid of a "friend and lube." But why was Selena seeking medical counsel from the internet in the first place? Why couldn't she go, as one person suggested, to the "fee-mergency room?" Well, she is currently uninsured. If only that New York magazine article about Young Invincibles had not already been written!

Not long ago, both the NY Times and the LA Times opened the golden gates of their movie review sections to You, the person of the year. Oooh, it's Web 1.34! Well, Your reviews are in—and You totally suck! You suck even worse than Stephen Holden!

Citizen journalists! Throw off your chains. And put on these nice new chains provided by Reuters and Yahoo!, who would like to absorb your content for free into their You Witness News aggregator. Submit photos (via Yahoo's Flickr) or video, and perhaps Yahoo! will incorporate them into their newsfeeds. Reuters might even do the same if your pics and flicks are really good. And if everyone agrees, maybe they'll even deign to pay you a little bit of something. No particular ideas on how any of this might work, though there's a poignant quote from just-defenestrated Yahoo! exec Lloyd Braun in this New York Times article from earlier in the week. Two days after launch, YWN hosts barely a dozen photos harvested from Flickr, plus a couple slideshows. Judging by the similarly anemic CNN effort ("Exchange"), it looks like "citizen journalism" suffers from the same disinterested malaise afflicting citizens in general. May be a clever ploy by Reuters to destroy citizen journalism by handing it to meme-killer Yahoo, in which case we say, good job.

Ex-journalist Dan Gillmor is selling citizen-journo site Bayosphere. He says his talent is less, you know, running a business and more "looking at lots of disparate elements and connecting the dots" — which technically means that Dan Gillmor is the Internet. Maybe he should drop the citizen journalism and get back to the, um, real journalism.