It’s a boy! Meet my son, Daniel Mark. He was born on Saturday night, clocking in at 4.2kg, or 9lb, 5oz, and 53cm long. Mrs J did an incredible job given the task at hand!

Despite what they say about the public hospital system, I’d have to rate Royal North Shore Hospital’s maternity unit a 10. The facilities are excellent and the midwives knew just what to say, and when. Even better, it was a quiet day so we had all the attention we wanted. Oh, and get this: The bloke gets free reign of a nicely stocked fridge.

On matters of the heart, we’re thanking God that Daniel is healthy and (so far) behaving himself. New life is nothing short of a miracle, and we’ve been blessed beyond our imagination.

This yarn about PC World allegedly engaged in circulation inflating activity caught my eye today.

The suit, filed in federal court in Brooklyn on behalf of Boston-based software company Teletype Co. Inc., claims PC World and a top magazine official, Shawne Burke Pecar, conspired with defunct Valley Stream distributor Inflight Newspapers & Magazines and an industry auditing organization - the Audit Bureau of Circulations - to inflate the magazine’s paid circulation to charge higher advertising rates.

The article doesn’t state that PC World is owned by IDG Communications, my former employer. The company didn’t make any comment about the suit, but it seems to me this accusation is very much out of character with the IDG culture that I know. It’s essentially a family company, with CEO Pat McGovern owning up to 60 per cent. He’s the kind of guy who personally delivers thousands of North American employees their annual Christmas bonus, and remembers their names. At the same time, he’s got an incredible memory for figures and keeps a very, very close eye on the business. So it all just seems a bit odd to me.

But on the other side, you have this interesting dynamic where the US PC magazine market is now dominated by just two magazines, PC World and PC Magazine. In contrast, here in Australia, we’ve still got way to many: PC World, PC User, Australian Personal Computer, Atomic, PC Magazine, and there’s probably others I’ve forgotten. Anyway, the point is when there are just two publications the competition is intense. Who knows if that was a factor.

Fairfax CEO David Kirk is on the cover of BRW with the sensational line "Stop the presses!".( The union will love that one… ) Adele Ferguson has written a good yarn about the biggest challenge facing one of Australia’s most dominant media organisations. And a disclaimer, Fairfax is my employer. Sure, it’s a bit of an eyebrow raiser to see the boss of Fairfax on a Fairfax magazine, but hey, remember all the Kerry Packer tributes that graced the cover of PBL publications? Anyway, here are the opening lines (the story is hidden behind the cost wall):

David Kirk is on a mission. Five months into the top job at John Fairfax Holdings, Kirk is hell-bent on repositioning the company away from the market perception that it is a fuddy-duddy, old world, low growth, poorly managed newspaper business that has a botched online strategy and is a sitting duck to be taken over and broken up. Instead, Kirk wants the company to be seen as a vibrant, new-age digital business, combining print and online, with a solid growth story.

The basic issue, which is a preoccupation here at filtered, is how do you grow online revenues without cannibalising print revenues?

One interesting factoid that feeds this discussion is from Fairfax CFO Sankar Narayan: "We are trying to create the best possible newspaper environment and retain as much advertising as possible. This includes smart marketing and creating the right vehicles. Margins are good online. They are in the high 20s, which is comparable to newspapers."

It’s interesting because I think most pro-new media types are quick to write off newspapers because of the well-worn story that many are in circulation declines, and parts of the advertising base like car, employment and real estate ads are moving online. But the fact remains that it’s a high margin business.

Meanwhile, the article goes on to argue that Fairfax needs to focus on one major acquisition to hedge against a takeover or the sale of different business units.

Go get a copy of the magazine, or buy it online if you dare. I’d be really interested to know your thoughts on Fairfax’s ability to execute its online vision.

Australian TV media have finally woken up to the value of incorporating citizen journalism into the mix. But it’s interesting look at the approach of each outlet and what it says about their expectations for community participation. Here’s how it looks:

* The Ten Network have something called News Pics, which is an offer to be a "roving reporter" that sends them pictures via camera phones. But make sure you note the fine print: "you agree, in submitting footage to TEN to grant to TEN a perpetual, royalty-free, non-exclusive, unrestricted world-wide licence to use, and license others to use, your footage." There is no mention on the site, from what I can see, of what you gain in return for your efforts - that is, apart from paying mobile data charges. There are no guarantees the picture will appear anywhere, and if it is, whether they will credit it to you.

* Channel 9 calls their citizen journalism effort Newswatch. Like Ten, there is no promise of fame or fortune, as per the terms and conditions. They are, however, far more explicit about what you are giving away (my emphasis added): "In submitting Footage through the Footage Services, you grant to Nine an exclusive, worldwide, perpetual, transferable, royalty-free licence to use, copy, reproduce, edit, modify and exploit the Footage in any media, and to sublicence such rights to others, for any purpose whatsoever."

* The Seven Network offers a similar service that lets you send in news tips to any of their national newsrooms. I couldn’t see any obvious disclaimer about what you’re giving up. They do have a broad privacy policy, but it’s unclear how this relates to citizen journalism. What is more interesting is this big "7Listens" campaign, which has the potential to unearth some interesting stories (and some valuable marketing stats on who’s watching, what you think, and what you buy). But again, there is no clear statement on what you’re giving up or will get in return for your information. From a marketing perspective, it seems more important that you understand the bigger message that they care about you more than the other stations.

* ABC TV does not seem to offer any meaningful citizen journalism. There are plenty of RSS feeds and other goodies for the technically minded, including video on demand, but precious little in terms of community participation.

* Likewise, SBS has nothing.

The obvious conclusion to draw is that the commercial stations can see a financial benefit from involving citizens in the reporting cycle. They’re also not afraid to tell you that your content will be exploited for commercial gain with little credit given to you for your work. And so you’d have to ask why you’d bother, right?

Meanwhile, it’s surprising that the community-minded folks at ABC and SBS are behind the game on this given ABC’s embrace of digital media. And given the government’s penchant for cutting public broadcast funding, you’d think there were decent opportunities for ethical, intelligent contributions to help balance the equation.

So while we’re making some good progress, there’s a long, long way to go.

You might recall an amusing little stink Charles Wright & I created around the idea of a non-vendor A-list of Aussie bloggers. Well now it seems The Australian Index has risen up to do a proper job of listing who’s who in the ozblogosphere (thanks Trevor for the tip).

I have one quibble - aside from the fact that I can’t see my blog listed (sniff). There does not appear to be any search engine that lets me confirm I’m not listed, or put more broadly, allow the rest of the world to find out this fabulous blog is not listed (don’t ya just love the humility…). Seriously tho, a good search engine would improve on the basic state-by-state lists.

I call it the new car syndrome. You’ve just bought a new car, and suddenly you notice that everyone else is driving exactly the same model. For the last 6 months or so it seems to me that there are a lot of pregnant women out there.

You see, Mrs J is about 2 weeks away from giving birth to our second baby (or as Austin Powers would say, "number 2"). Honestly, she looks like she’s going to pop any day (and she still has the pregnant glow happening…). Sitting at home on the couch, you can literally see her tummy moving all over the place. I tell you, it’s one of the most amazing things.

So yeah, expect a little bit of light blogging for a while. Yes, I’ll be a good blog citizen and let y’all know when we’ve got some news. And yes, I do know the sex, but will save that bit of news. Anticipation is half the fun.