A fascinating study from the Project for Excellence in Journalism finds that there is strong demand for news about serious topics - if it is presented in a non-serious way. The study analyzed the content of the Daily Show, finding its choice of news topics selective. Interestingly, the show "not only assumes, but even requires, previous and significant knowledge of the news on the part of viewers if they want to get the joke."

MSNBC has launched "a laboratory for games, tools and other innovations" centering on news, called NewsWare. It includes games, interactivity, a cool visual presentation of the top news stories, and more. It has the potential to be an engaging one-stop-shop for all your news needs.

A post from Sue Factor on the official Google blog explains what makes a design "Googley." These are fundamental principles that all Google designers and researchers follow - and anyone should consider. Note that first on the list is a basic principle unrelated to design: "Focus on people - their lives, their work, their dreams."

Steve Safran writes about the newsroom culture (in this case, in TV) that is anti-change until, that is, change is required. The problem, he says, is that when changes are made this way, they are not internalized and the result is "unfocused and not strategic. [The changes] are 'Done,' but done poorly."

The latest example of success through intense customer-focus is The Week, a heavily digested weekly take on what the busy, sophisticated person needs to stay well-informed. Jon Friedman writes that The Week is gaining while Time and Newsweek are struggling "by subscribing to the most basic tenet in business: Give people what they want." He quotes general manager Steven Kotok: "It's all about utility, not achieving an apotheosis of beautiful journalism."

Editor & Publisher reports about a new Nielsen Online study that shows most newspaper Web sites did not make gains with how much time people spent with the site, year over year. Is that bad news? Depends on whether you think time is the most important metric.

Teens "disassociate e-communication with 'writing,'" says a new study from the Pew Internet and American Life Project, but "they also strongly believe that good writing is a critical skill to achieving success." The study finds that, "even though teens are heavily embedded in a tech-rich world, they do not believe that communication over the internet or text messaging is writing."