For the last 14 weeks I’ve dedicated every Friday to arguing for the release of Josh Wolf, an activist and freelance videographer who spent 226 days in jail for refusing to turn over outtakes of the video he took of a demonstration in San Francisco.

Last week he was released but before I give up on my habit of wondering about his whereabouts on Friday, I visited his web site and learned he is having a fundraiser in San Francisco on Monday night (April 16) to celebrate his release.

His freedom leaves a gap in my blog schedule and I rather like the idea of using Friday to howl at the moon. But not today. Because, for now, I’ve pretty much had the blog knocked out of me.

It’s my own fault. I made an error this week that required the retraction of a story. Implicit in writing this blog is the notion that I have something to say. But at the moment all I can say is that I am truly sorry and will learn from this mistake.

Meanwhile, the professional world turns, and I hope to continue observing the changes in my craft and industry. For instance, the Newspaper Association of America has announced a campaign to show how print news is reaching young readers who get it online. Calling newspapers “The Multi Medium” the NAA says:

“This latest report shows that during the second half of 2006, unique visitors to newspaper Web sites averaged 57.3 million visitors a month or one in three of all Internet users, a 15 percent increase over the same period a year ago (49.8 million) . . . newspaper Web sites have contributed to a 13.7 percent increase in total newspaper audience for the coveted 25- to 34-year-old demographic and a 9.2 percent increase for 18- to 24-year-olds.”

In a related development, MediaPost reports that USA Today online has experienced a 21 percent growth in unique visitor rates since a redesign in February added “video, blogs, dynamic content-sharing and recommendation tools” to its website.