“Irving R. Levine, NBC’s reserved, bow-tied business reporter during the ’70s and ’80s, has died, partly of old age and partly of shame at the way his former beat is being covered by tools.”
—Yeah, Gawker’s John Cook is using hyperbole here, but still: He has a point. RIP, Mr. Levine; get better, TV journalism. (Via Alex Balk)
March 2009
9 posts
Bachmann Bill Would Prohibit Global Currency. →
politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com
squashed wrote:
What political superhero has the courage to stand alone against the shadowy advance of One World Government? Minnesota’s Rep. Michele Bachmann! … Global currency—like the Robot Wars—is theoretically possible (and, some might say, inevitable) but it’s a long, long way off. Bachmann is jumping at shadows.
Well stated. This economist once described to me a global currency as “every economist’s wet dream,” but today, it’s little more than a fantasy. Let’s agree on a global standard on how to measure height and weight first.
“Karl Marx said that when the means of production in a system change hands, then a revolution has begun. I can describe today’s media sphere as nothing less.”
—From my take on what companies that are troubled by the weakening mass media should be doing to help themselves. Full article here.
“This is one of the most complex patterns of migration change in a short period that I have seen in 30 years.”
—Kenneth Johnson, a sociology professor, regarding recent shifts in population. And we’ve not yet seen the affects of high unemployment on migration.
“Suddenly, the nation couldn’t get enough of the 6-foot-tall [lesbian] who put douchey white men in their place on a regular basis.”
—Bitch! magazine profiles Rachel Maddow’s seemingly ‘meteoric rise’ in the news biz. Still, between her and Jon Stewart, TV news might just have a future.
“We can say that this recession is “the nature of the system” but it may be fruitful to inquire a little bit deeper. We made this system, didn’t we? We didn’t intentionally build in recessions. The system has taken on a life of its own. When the monster tears its bloody path through the city, we can say, “Thus is the nature of monsters,” but hopefully there’s some guy, somewhere, with a chainsaw, asking some tough questions about the sanity of stitching together lifeless specie into an unpredictable, uncontrollable abomination.”
—This is worth reading. I tend to agree with the writer quoted: pull-backs occur naturally in efficient markets, but not like this.
“Google can’t possibly “own the code” in any sense other than having patents on the concept. It is unclear who might have any applicable patents, but I doubt any such patents exist. Obviously, if Twitter and Brightkite exist along with dozens of other mobile networking services, and there is no licensing situation, then I doubt Google has enforceable patents. Third, Foursquare is a web application and an iPhone application, neither of which would be proprietary to Dodgeball (which didn’t have an iPhone-specific component, since development on the project was abandoned before the release of the iPhone platform).”
—Regarding an awful Gawker post about Foursquare, which I got all screamy about as well. (Via)
“I call [mark-to-market accounting] ‘Alice in Wonderland’ accounting, after Humpty Dumpty’s claim in that book that ‘When I use a word, it means just what I choose it to mean, neither more nor less.’ After Alice protests, he replies, ‘The question i, which is to be master—that’s all.’”
—Floyd Norris in today’s New York Times. Jump-hed in the print edition: “Bankers Say the Problem Is the Rules”.
February 2009
8 posts
Bloggers Manage To Talk About Their Craft Without Being Too Insidery About It!
Mashable’s “Future of the New York Blogosphere” last night at 92YTribeca really was worth going all the way downtown for. (See my coverage here, and additional write-ups here and here.)
But, here’s what I didn’t hear but would have liked to, in a blogger-friendly listicle:
Any references to Tumblr being an “echo chamber,” or views about the ethics of seemingly-arbitrary censorship.
How the easiest way to get an upward spike in web traffic is to write a screed about how loathsome publicists are. That’s because they’re more likely than anyone else to send your post around to friends and colleagues, usually prefaced with a bunch of expletives! See this type of linkbait here, here, and here.
Why most bloggers and journalists alike either 1) Don’t seem to understand, or 2) Choose to ignore, the basics of how valuation works.
John Shankman, regional sales manager at Federated Media, asked a question that the responding panelist, I thought, needlessly dismissed as trivial. Shankman wanted to know if marketers or corporate communications units – people who aren’t reporters or editors – can use new media to effectively publish stuff about themselves.
Responding, Bryan Keefer, director of products for The Daily Beast, brought up something about audiences responding to authenticity.
My attempts to read in between the lines lead me to interpret that response as such: Social platforms are off-limits because marketers don’t know how to be transparent. Except for, uhh, that they aren’t off-limits to anyone. No one needs a license to blog, and when companies feel their messages aren’t being covered well or understood correctly, marketers will use social platforms to circumvent the Fourth Estate. Ideally, they’ll do so with an eye toward transparency and full disclosure of their reasons for blogging.
Poll: What Is The Future Of Local Newspapers?
Patch, a new, online local news provider that mixes professional, original reporting with user-submitted events listings and news briefs, recently launched in beta in several New Jersey towns. It seems to be a response to the bleak outlook for local dailies.
The financial fundamentals of local newspapers are terrible. Not only is social media altering the ways that news is distributed and consumed, today’s recession has decimated many local advertisers. The unfortunate response? Seemingly every paper has cut personnel—or, in worse-case scenarios, bought out the contracts of their most-skilled reporters who promptly find work somewhere else.
The big papers are in trouble too – during the weekend, the Philadelphia Inquirer and New Haven Register filed for bankruptcy protection – but saving those papers would require different solutions. Saving local and regional papers isn’t receiving as much attention, but it should.
So, the question:
(poll here.)
'Booze-Fueled Event Ironically Raises Money For Water' →
nyconvergence.com
My coverage of the NYC Twestival for NYConvergence. The party raised $18,000 for charity: water.
I’m really looking forward to tonight’s New York Twestival (guestlist here) because, from everything I can tell, it’s a legit fundraiser for charity:water, which seeks to bring clean water to people in developing nations. And you know what I think about water.
And what better way to raise funds than auction off “dates” (lacking a better word here) with some of New York’s most attractive techettes, Julia Roy and the Nonsociety ladies?
So, with that:
January 2009
27 posts
You're Going To Be Talking About This: Citigroup Uses Bailout Money To Buy $45m Jet. →
nypost.com
(Image via Bill Barfield / Flickr)
Judging by this New York Post article, Citigroup has trained its employees very well on how to not talk to reporters about its new, $45b, taxpayer-funded corporate jet. Bravo to Citi’s crisis comms folks.
And now, writing as a taxpayer: Die. Inna. Fire.
(Via)
Was (Allegedly): $10.50. Is (Currently): $300. →
spiers.tumblr.com
“An acrylic and oil painting of Gawker Media entrepeneur Nick Denton with pancakes on his head.” The e-bay auction ends in nine days. I’m betting it goes for two grand.
