Editor's departure captured in just a Flicker

Call it a bit of a "video killed the radio star" moment, circa 2007: John Curley, who had been a deputy managing editor of The San Francisco Chronicle, announced that he was let go from the newspaper by posting the news on Flickr, the photo-sharing Web site.

"I leave with great sadness, but not a trace of bitterness," Curley wrote in his entry on Tuesday, which included a picture of his desk at the newspaper before he packed. "We all know what is happening to the newspaper industry, and it is not pretty."

One of the biggest things happening to the newspaper industry is that people are flocking to Web sites like Flickr, which is owned by Yahoo, for news, gossip and friendship, and turning to newsprint less often. Even Flickr, once primarily a site for swapping images, has become more of an online community: in this case, dozens of people turned out to post comments of solidarity on Curley's page.

"Off you go to something greater, man," wrote someone who calls himself Razorbern and uses as his icon a picture of a chimp in a suit and hat.