Listener-supported radio news hasn’t escaped the current downturn. This week National Public Radio announced it will lay off 64 people and cancel two shows, “Day to Day” and “News and Notes.”

It’s not good times for the economy. But it’s good times for people who write about it. In the week of Dec. 1-7, two-thirds of coverage tracked by the the Pew Research Center’s Project for Excellence in Journalism weekly news coverage index was devoted to the economy – the financial crisis, the Obama administration’s plans for dealing with it and attempts to bail out the auto industry.

Time picks the best magazine covers of 2008. No. 1 is The New Yorker’s Nov. 17 cover showing a moonlit “O” shining over the Lincoln Memorial. My personal favorite is Los Angeles magazine’s cover tribute to the city’s best high schools, rendered completely in ball-point pen doodles.

WordPress rolls out its annual winter fun feature – make snow fall over your blog posts.

My thoughts: Even though daily papers’ business sections are shrinking, the need for local business news isn’t. If anything it’s stronger than ever given the effect the bad economy is having on so many different types of businesses.

Who’s picking up the slack? In some areas it’s business weeklies, in others it’s bloggers. Some regional business magazines are holding their own. Maybe all people really need is a good RSS reader. Or maybe there are opportunities to be had for Web-savvy reporters who could build a company around a local business news aggregator site.