Stanford has an interesting data visualization dealing with the history of newspapers across the country, beginning in the late 1690s. It’s interesting to look at the number of papers in the early 1900s compared to the present. You can see a lot fewer ‘small town’ papers now, as most publishers are centrally located in, or near, large metropolitan areas.
This summer I spent some time searching for data visualization tools. I realize creating maps like Sanford’s takes manpower and programming, but there must be some basic visualization tools out there. So far, R has basic visualization functionality, as does Pajek. Both are open source and free, but with that comes a somewhat steep learning curve and limited support. Does anyone know of others?