Category: Journalism

The Flyer — Memphis’ top alternative newspaper — turns 20 this week. Editor Tim Sampson looks back at a lost age of journalism:

It was the best of times. It was the worst of times. It was the freakin’ weirdest of times. They were fun times and they were stressful times. It was two decades ago, and we were starting this strange little newspaper called the Memphis Flyer. I was the first editor and in my 20s (for a very short time) and weighed about 50 pounds less than I do now. We didn’t have e-mail, the World Wide Web, spell-check, blogs, Facebook, Twitter, or even cell phones, but, by damn, we could — and did — smoke at our desks, and sometimes it was more than mere tobacco. We were out to change the world or, at least, Memphis. All two-and-a-half of us on the editorial staff who were putting the paper out each week. And we were nuts. Not as nuts, though, as many of the people who took to our little paper and thought that they had finally found the Holy Grail of alternative news reporting and opinion. But more about that later.

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Steven Pressfield:

When you understand that nobody wants to read your shit, your mind becomes powerfully concentrated. You begin to understand that writing/reading is, above all, a transaction. The reader donates his time and attention, which are supremely valuable commodities. In return, you the writer, must give him something worthy of his gift to you.

In a world where we all carry Internet-connected phones in our pockets, this is even more true.

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The i Mac G3 intro video:

Sorry for the low quality — it’s the best I could find.

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AFP:

The Chicago Tribune said the plan to “utilize as little content from the Associated Press as practical” was aimed at determining whether the Tribune Co., which declared bankruptcy in December, can sever ties with the AP.

The Chicago-based Tribune Co. has been looking for ways to cut costs and in October 2008 it gave the AP the required two-year notice that it might drop the service.

The Chicago Tribune said Tribune Co. television stations and newspaper websites would not take part in next week’s experiment.

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Apple kbase article HT2300:

They’re pronounced the same, but, technically speaking, there is a distinct difference between a disc and a disk.

I love it.

[ via MacUser]

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The Consumerist has posted a letter that supposedly made the rounds within AT&T regarding net neutrality and what stance AT&T has on the subject. It’s disgusting and terrifying all at once.

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This month, it goes to Dong Ngo of CNET. He benchmarked Snow Leopard against Windows 7. While the results were a mixed bag for OS X, he closed his article with this:

Third, if you can get by with just software designed by Apple and if money is not a big issue, you will be happy with a Mac. Examples of these software choices are iTunes, iLife, QuickTime, Safari, iChat, and so on (and you probably won’t need much more than those for daily entertainment and communication needs). Finally, if money is not an issue–and it definitely is for most of us–you should get a Mac anyway. It’s the only platform, for now, that can run both Windows and OS X.

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The American Journalism Review, on the gap between newspapers’ bills and income created from online ads:

Charging readers for access won’t really solve this problem, and in some respects it may make matters worse. Pay walls invariably reduce traffic. Whatever revenue a news-paper might gain by charging readers will likely come at the cost of ad revenue […] You think online ad rates are low now? Just wait until advertisers discover that the newspaper is delivering a much smaller audience after it starts charging for access.

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From a Q & A with Jim Brady and the Colombia Journalism Review:

The line I keep using is that in any newsroom structure, the Web has to be positioned in a way that it can do things that will make the print side uncomfortable. It’s got to have enough autonomy that it can push into technologies in new areas and make the newsroom go, ‘Do we really want to be on Twitter?’ You’ve got to take some risks, you’ve got to play on some new playgrounds. And when you have to run all those questions through a print structure, often the answer is no, or it takes a really long time to get to an answer.

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Ars Technica:

Bloggers will come under the watchful eyes of the Federal Trade Commission for the first time, as the agency has finalized new rules governing bloggers and the products they write about. “Consumer-generated media” outlets (e.g., bloggers) will now have to disclose if they are being compensated by a manufacturer, advertiser, or service provider when they review an item. So if a blogger gets a laptop from a manufacturer to review and gets to keep it, he or she will have to make that fact public.

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The iPhone is hurting AT&T’s image so much that the stock photo from the AP used with CNN’s story is of a jailbroken device:

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The Macalope, on the “Apple tablet will save journalism” story:

Sources at The New York Times told Lam that Apple approached the paper about putting its content on what everyone assumes will be a tablet. Lam doesn’t say what the Gray Lady’s response was, but given the current state of the newspaper business, the Macalope’s advice would go something like this: “When you’re standing on the deck of the Titanic, ankle-deep in icy cold water, and someone asks if you’d like a ride to the future in their time machine, you go.”

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