Job Market

How to Handle the "Weakness" Question on a Job Interview: It involves being honest about non-fatal weaknesses and stressing what you've done to improve them.

Economics/Geekonomics

The Domino Effect of Georgia Bank Failures: The financial crisis in that state (to date, 21 banks there have collapsed this year) is, among other things, crushing small businesses. Definitely worth a look if you live in that state or were considering relocating there.  

Publishing

A German magazine publisher is proposing a newspaper/Google paid content partnership, under which users searching news content would pay to watch video clips and real articles, a sort of iTunes approach to accessing news. It's aimed at helping newspapers survive in the digital age (and also a response to Rupert Murdoch's threats to pull NewsCorp content from Google), but probably not the best solution to newspapers' long-term dilemma (Heart's digital magazine platform still looks like the best option).

Layoffs Coming at New York Times: No surprise, since they've already said they'd have to go in that direction if they didn't get enough voluntary buyouts

Anime/Manga/Jrock

Crunchyroll news again, and this time they're expanding into the J-Rock arena, striking deals with several labels to bring clips by bands such as Girugamesh, Hangry & Angry, MUCC, Vamps and Vistlip to the service.

East meets West: Gossip Girl is being adapted into a manga - or, rather, a manhwa. The English adaptation will be carried by Yen Press, which publishes manhwa adaptations of other Western North American young adult novels, such as James Patterson's Maximum Ride. It's interesting to see these properties being translated through an Eastern prism and then back through a Western one – knowledge of North American teen culture could actually help when it comes to getting a job at a company doing one of these adaptations. (And, yes, a Twilight manga is in the works. No word on whether sparkly ink will be used.)   

Technology

Apple Buys LaLa: This is a streaming music service, and reports are that the company is trying to retain its dominence in the digital music industry in the face of competition from services like Last.fm and Pandora. The fact that Apple is getting involved means that streaming music is moving to the center of distribution for that industry.

Google May Buy Social Media Search Service Aardvark: A $30 million price tag is involved, which means that seeing a need and filling it can pay off very handsomely. (Ironically, the company was started by two ex-Google employees).

Amazon Denies Rumors of a Physical Store: Apparently, rumors were flying that they were going to open a brick-and-mortar shop in the U.K., but they say they have no plans for a physical store anywhere in the world - which makes sense, as their business model has put them ahead of brick-and-mortar bookstores (not to mention a physical store would make little sense with content going increasingly digital). 

Video Games

Is the Canadian Government Buying the Gaming Industry?: The huge rush of companies opening studios north of the border may be the result of them getting assistance from the Natonal Research Council of Canada Industrial Research Assistance Program. Canada is definitely a fruitiful area right now if you want to go into this industry – Quebec alone has 85 studios.

Open-World Action Game Infamous a Hit: The PS3 title has sold more than 1.2 million units since October, and its creators are now considering making it a multimedia franchise, with a possible movie deal in the works. Another example of a game that quietly built a big following – good word of mouth seems to be better marketing than massive hype in the gaming industry nowadays. 

Gamasutra's Weekly Jobs Roundup: Companies looking include Blizzard Entertainment, THQ and TimeGate Studios. You know what to do. 

- Bonnie