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By Daron Letts
Northern News Services
Published Tuesday, January 13, 2009

A new web-link is spreading through e-mail inboxes at English-language newsrooms around the planet this winter. Stuff Journalists Like is a satirical blog that takes jabs at journalism culture – and lack thereof.

Two ex-newspaper reporters from Northern Colorado launched the website in October. Christopher Ortiz left the industry about a month ago and his blogging partner David Young was laid off from the same newspaper about a year ago.

Pictured here is a journalist depicted by Colorado-based South Park creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone. Colorado satirists Christopher Ortiz and David Young launched a blog poking fun at journalists late last year. The site is making the rounds through local media newsrooms this week. - photo courtesy of South Park Digital Studios

They mine their experiences at various American daily newspapers and their college journalism educations for hack-related humour.

"It seems like journalists are all cut from the same cloth," Ortiz said. "We all have the same tendencies and the same stories."

Borrowing a template and concept from similar sites, Stuff Journalists Like logs a list of characteristic practices, preferences and proclivities common to many news rooms.

The list of stuff enjoyed by journalists, who are also referred to by the authors as "keyboard monkeys," includes #3 – Free Food, #10 – Drinking, #69 – Dating Other Journalists and #116 – Twitter.

"I think journalists have to have a good sense of humour," Ortiz said. "If you can't laugh at what you're doing then you're probably not doing the right thing."

The majority of the feedback received from working journalists arrives in the form of editing notes correcting small typos and spelling mistakes on the site, he said.

"Journalists love correcting other journalists," Ortiz said.

Ortiz and Young encourage writers to contribute their own lists of stuff journalists like. They can be contacted through their blog at www.stuffjournalistslike.com.