Much of the big shift in our culture right now is a re-ordering of power. For the past 50 years, mass culture, fueled by TV, has been a dominant power. When success is measured in millions of eyeballs (or ears), quality is a secondary commodity. Mass culture has permeated the ways we think about all […]
Archives for 2009
Inviting The Audience In (And Letting Them Use You How They Want)
At a time when the American newspaper industry increasingly considers ways to lock down its content and put it behind pay walls, the ever-innovative Guardian newspaper is flinging wide its gates and making it easier for others to take and use its content. Last month the paper announced something it’s calling “Open Platform”, which is […]
More Evidence AP Needs Better Advice on the Internet
Hot on the heels of AP saying it will go after news aggregators: A country radio station in Tennessee, WTNQ-FM, received a cease-and-desist letter warning from an A.P. vice president of affiliate relations for posting videos from the A.P.’s official Youtube channel on its Website. You cannot make this stuff up. You cannot make this […]
The Romance Of A Really Big Audience
While the recession might be hard on some publishers, the romance novel genre is booming, reports the NYT. Harlequin Enterprises, the queen of the romance world, reported that fourth-quarter earnings were up 32 percent over the same period a year earlier, and Donna Hayes, Harlequin’s chief executive, said that sales in the first quarter of […]
Arts, Sports, And Ticket Prices
The new $1.5 billion Yankee Stadium is lavish in every way: Each locker is equipped with a computer that will deliver scheduling and practice notes as well as an Internet connection. Players will enjoy a chef to cook them breakfast along with world-class whirlpools and training equipment. Not least of all the ticket prices: Premium […]
Why don't arts organizations have critics in residence?
Lots of arts organizations have blogs on their websites. Most aren’t very good, and they’re difficult to maintain well. There are many out-of-work critics. And less and less arts coverage in local press. So why not critics-in-residence? Yeah independence. But let’s suspend for a moment the idea that criticism’s highest calling is simply to inform […]
Why the internet works
“We always tried to design each new protocol to be both useful in its own right and a building block available to others. We did not think of protocols as finished products, and we deliberately exposed the internal architecture to make it easy for others to gain a foothold. This was the antithesis of the […]
Voice Mail – Another Innovation Bites The Dust
I gotta admit – sometimes it’s days between times that I check my voice mail. I resent how cumbersome vm is. Way more cumbersome than texting or email. When it was introduced in the early 1980s, voice mail was hailed as a miracle invention — a boon to office productivity and a godsend to busy […]
Half-Way Strategies That Appeal To No One
The hottest show on cable news right now is Glenn Beck’s program, which debuted on Fox News a few months ago. If you haven’t seen Stephen Colbert’s send-up of him, check this out: The Colbert Report Mon – Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c The 10.31 Project comedycentral.com Colbert Report Full Episodes Political Humor NASA Name Contest […]
AP Throws A Tantrum (But Tantrums Do Not A Successful Business Model Make)
AP says it will “take action” against web aggregators that don’t pay fees for linking to AP stories. Taking aim at the way news is spread across the Internet, The Associated Press said on Monday that it will demand that Web sites obtain permission to use the work of The A.P. or its member newspapers, […]
When Technology Blows Up Your Strategy
Often when people talk about using technology, what they’re really talking about is platforms. A blog is a platform. A Facebook page is a platform. A YouTube channel is a platform. They aren’t technology strategies. Platforms are constantly changing, and if you’re locked into one, it’s difficult to keep up when the next one comes […]
Anatomy of The Downfall of a Critic
Cleveland Magazine has the details about how the Cleveland Plain Dealer took longtime music critic Donald Rosenberg off the Cleveland Orchestra beat. Rosenberg is now suing the orchestra and the newspaper, saying that he was unfairly muzzled. The portrait is of a critic who cares deeply about his job and how he covered the orchestra, […]
A Bad Symphony Orchestra Story (And A Cautionary Tale?)
A dreadful story coming out of the Phoenix Symphony. And I hear the orchestra is asking for major salary concessions from the musicians.
My newspaper won't leave me alone
Back in January I finally canceled my subscription to the daily newspaper. Tough (and symbolic) thing to do. I’ve always subscribed to the local paper. My paper had become thinner and thinner as the stories I used to buy it for drained away with cuts in space and staff. Many of the stories were now […]
The Next Newspaper Casualty?
The latest newspaper to teeter to the edge of existence is the Chicago Sun-Times, which has just filed for bankruptcy, joining a half dozen other major papers: The company has one significant creditor — the Internal Revenue Service. The IRS has said Sun-Times Media Group owes up to $608 million in back taxes and penalties […]