"Reax Quotes"

Oct 31 2009 ∞
“

Wistful thinking, seat-of-the-pants supposition and wild-ass guessing are hardly the ways to address the multibillion-dollar business problem underlying the journalism crisis that threatens the health of our democracy.

No competently managed business would think of taking such a haphazard approach to a challenge as potentially devastating as the press is facing today.

It’s time for editors, publishers, academics and foundations to pony up for serious, in depth and disciplined study of what consumers want, what they need and how journalists and media companies can provide it.
—

One of my favorite media critics, Alan Mutter, takes a hatchet to yet another conference tasked with finding new business models for journalism, this time at Harvard.

It seems like the conversation about the future of media has been the same for the last 5+ years.

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WaPo: Does Twitter Et Al Make Us Wittier?

Good article by Monica Hesse. I wish I had a funny one-liner in response — to my own question above, no less — to drive the point home that it probably does.

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Oct 30 2009 ∞
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The very talented Mo documents in a single photo why I likely frighten children.

(The backstory: I was attempting to show her how I liked to play ‘peek-a-boo’ with my niece when she captured this candid photo. She’s crafty, this one.)

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Oct 26 2009 ∞
“

The way Marcus Brauchli describes it, his job as executive editor of The Washington Post these days sounds a lot like being on a NASCAR pit crew.

“We’re changing the engine of a car when it’s on the highway,” Brauchli said in a recent interview with Politico. “And we’re changing the tires. And while we’re at it, we’re modifying the trim so it looks better, too.”

But the real challenge for Brauchli — to carry the automotive analogy a little further — may be making sure the wheels don’t come off while he’s busy fixing something else.
— Via Michael Calderone at Politico today. Seriously, I know exactly what Brauchli’s talking about.
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The latest from the Muppet Show’s Swedish Chef!

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Oct 25 2009 ∞
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adamiss:

Letting the days go by/let the water hold me down
Letting the days go by/water flowing underground
Into the blue again/after the moneys gone
Once in a lifetime/water flowing underground.

(via ilovecharts)

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Oct 20 2009 ∞

Datamation: "Do You Have 'Offline Stress Disorder'?"

After reading this article, I believe I do. Sigh.

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“ The hardcore business viewers are people tuned into Bloomberg, the really professional trading types watch CNBC and the rest of America, who are interested in the economy, have FBN.
—

Fox Business Network anchor Eric Bolling tries to differentiate his audience in a great Mediaite column yesterday. What I don’t get here is that he describes his competitors hitting specific (and very narrow) niches and his own channel’s targets as being a great deal wider (ie. the entire U.S.). Those competitors are also waylaid by the ratings system, which does not capture those viewing at trading floors and financial firms.

So, that begs the question: If that’s the case, why does the network lag so much in the ratings?

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Oct 19 2009 ∞

Slate: "The Young Couple and the Sea"

I’ve mentioned my love for the British Virgin Islands before, but I am looking forward to the forthcoming chapters of this Slate.com series, written by two quasi-sailors (novices, really) chartering a boat down in this particular paradise. Ah, memories.

I must say, though, that it reads like this could become a sequel to “Open Water.” Really hope they avoid the squalls that sometime creep up on sailors.

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Using Box Scores, Intelligent Computer Can Now Write Baseball Game Recaps

As David Carr notes, “the project, called Stats Monkey, might have some sportswriters reaching for the bottle of Tums at a time when newspapers are reluctant to send reporters on the road to cover a team.”

Click the link for an example of the October 11th Angels-Red Sox game— it’s actually better than what I have read in some second-tier newspapers, sadly.

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“ I can only speak for myself, but I don’t think any of the writers at Gawker are concerned with getting on the cover of any magazine, unless we can get airbrushed. Heavily.
— Gawker’s Foster Kamer, preaching.
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Oct 15 2009 ∞
“ From day one of his administration, the left has held Barack Obama’s feet to the fire way more than the right ever did to George W, Bush — at least until Bush’s nomination of Harriet Meirs to the Supreme Court. Put another way: the diversity of opinion about Obama and his presidency among activist Dems far exceeds early Bush-era diversity of opinion among activist GOPers.
— This is a great, but often unspoken, point made by Marc Ambinder in The Atlantic here.
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