Monthly Archive:: October 2013
08 Oct 2013
To boldly go where no reader has gone before
If we’re going to Save Journalism, it will be helpful to figure out exactly what we’re trying to save. I was reminded of one of the key elements when listening to a recent episode of “This American Life.” Michael Lewis reported on … a man named Emir Kamenica, whose path to college started with fleeing
05 Oct 2013
In defense of viral bullshit (sort of)
Follow the bouncing meme: T-shirt seller FCKH8 posts a photo it says it got from a supporter, supposedly of a man’s letter to his daughter, disowning her for disowning her gay son. Photo of letter starts to go viral, triggering post by Gawker. In comments underneath, Gawker owner Nick Denton and editor John Cook disagree
03 Oct 2013
Why news is a fungible commodity, and why that matters
News is a fungible commodity. That is to say: News of the sort provided by daily metro newspapers consists in large part of information that readers can easily replace with similar or identical information obtained elsewhere. This has dire implications for many of the models for saving newspapers. Let’s look at a common counterargument: Newspapers
02 Oct 2013
On Chris Powell, blaming customers, and newspapers’ mission from God
Chris Powell, managing editor (at least for now) of the Journal Inquirer in Connecticut, says illiterate, immoral, indigent single parents are killing newspapers. He’s not 100% wrong. Sure, as Slate’s Amanda Hess points out, his facts are wrong. And the contempt Powell packs into one sentence does tend to suggest sour grapes: But newspapers cannot
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