512 Pixels

Derek Thompson at The Atlantic:

Call it creative if you want, but this is what economic destruction looks like. Print newspaper ads have fallen by two-thirds from $60 billion in the late–1990s to $20 billion in 2011.

[…]

So the reason newspapers are in trouble isn’t that they aren’t making lots of money – they still are; advertising is a huge, huge business, as any app developer will try to tell you – but that their business models and payroll depend on so much more money. The U.S. newspaper industry was built to support $50 billion to $60 billion in total advertising with the kind of staffs that a $50 billion industry can abide. The layoffs, buyouts, and bankruptcies you hear about are the result of this massive correction in the face of falling revenue.

Joshua Topolsky, for The Washington Post:

Mike Daisey is not a hero, but I’m not sure he’s a villain either.

He leaned into his lies to sell tickets to a show, to get on network TV, to make money and get famous. But along the way — either on purpose or by accident — he opened a lot of eyes.

And that’s the truth.

Apple’s Supplier Responsibility reports are factual and easy to understand.

Daisey’s show and media interviews may have helped raise awareness ¹ about the issue, but now that he’s been outed as a serial liar by Ira Glass, I think the net outcome is more harmful than helpful.

via The Loop

Dave Calao and Aaron Mahnke have launched a new podcast, titled “Home Work.” On it, they discuss working from home, and offer tips and advice on how to do it well. It’s a must-listen, even if freelancing isn’t your full-time gig.

As those who follow me on Twitter know, we’re in the hospital with our oldest son this week. I’ll catch you awesome people in a few days.

This week on the 512 Podcast, Myke I discuss the This American Life thing and the new iPad.

This episode was made possible by TextExpander.

Reuters:

New York Times Co said on Tuesday it will halve the number of free articles readers can view on its NYTimes.com site.

Starting in April visitors to the website will be able to read up to 10 free articles a month, down from 20 free articles previously. The change comes one year after launching the paid digital subscription, which now has 454,000 paid subscribers.

To The Loop:

The new iPad delivers a stunning Retina display, A5X chip, support for 4G LTE plus 10 hours of battery life, all while operating well within our thermal specifications. If customers have any concerns they should contact AppleCare.

As I noted in my review, this new iPad is the first I’ve owned that gets warm at all, but it isn’t bad at all. I don’t think I’d ever consider it hot, even after an hour of gaming.

My friend Patrick Rhone has written a new book, titled Enough.

Now, I haven’t read all of it, despite having a copy of for over a week. Why? Because it isn’t the kind of book you simply sit down and read. Enough is a collection of essays, and each one has spurred thought and introspection.

I don’t think I’ll finish the book for some time, and that’s precisely why I wanted to link to it. This book is about making you think, and that’s a good — and increasingly rare — thing.

You owe it to yourself to get this book. Seriously.

TextExpander is an excellent example of a great OS X tool. If you have stuff you type more than once, TextExpander is well worth the money. You’re wasting time if you aren’t using it. It can be can be as simple or as geeky as you need.

I have all sorts of things in TextExpander, including:

• My email addresses (including my 37 character work address)
• Typos I commonly make
• HTML and Markdown snippets I often use
• The standard copy in my podcasts’ show notes

Whatever your level of experience, there’s a TextExpander tip for you:

Getting Started: Make a snippet for your email address. You’ll be amazed at the keystrokes you’ll save not having to type that over and over.

Intermediate: Add one of the Predefined Groups, like HTML/CSS snippets or instant URL shorteners. There’s even an AutoCorrect group to fix your typos.

Advanced: Try fill-in snippets, which have multiple variable fields. For example, you could have a form letter with blanks for name, product, company, etc. Type your abbreviation, fill in the fields and you’re done.

Even More Advanced: Create your own AppleScript and shell script snippets.

Check out a free demo. Don’t miss the 20% off special discount. Use the coupon code SYN0312 in the Smile store (Expires March 31, 2012).

Ellis Hamburger at the Verge:

Hot on the heels of This American Life’s Mike Daisey takedown, Apple has revised its Supplier Responsibility homepage to reflect its latest monthly update (as promised) about working conditions at its suppliers’ factories. The company says that over 500,000 workers actually worked less during a peak iPad production month thanks to rules laid out in its Supplier Code of Conduct. Instead of 60-hour work weeks like they’d been accustomed to (the maximum inside Apple’s Code), workers actually averaged closer to 48 hour work weeks during February 2012.

You can view the updated report on the company’s website.

Sounds great.

Wait, is that the right word?

The Apple PR Machine:

Apple today announced it has sold three million of its incredible new iPad®, since its launch on Friday, March 16.

[…]

“The new iPad is a blockbuster with three million sold―the strongest iPad launch yet,” said Philip Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Marketing. “Customers are loving the incredible new features of iPad, including the stunning Retina display, and we can’t wait to get it into the hands of even more customers around the world this Friday.”

That’s just four days.