Harry Shearer writes a journalist is –among other things–
“just like the rest of us…except hes more tenacious, lazier, sloppier, got better hair, and does his best work in the comfort of the herd.”
Category Archives: Quotable & Notes
The Historian, by Elizabeth Kostova
“A teenage American girl, living in 1972 Amsterdam, comes across an ancient book in the library of her widower father, a former historian and now a diplomat. The book, blank save for an illustration of a dragon and the word Drakulya, contains a cache of faded letters all addressed to “My dear and unfortunate reader.” Thus begins a search for the truth behind the myth of Dracula, a search that crosses continents as well as generations.”
— The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova
Jeff Jarvis on “citizen media”
“…new world of weblogs and citizens’ media is all about possibilities — many of them unrealized, I grant — while the world of the big, old media is increasingly about worry: fretting over declining revenue, resources, audience, quality, trust. That is one good reason for big media to embrace the small, rather than trying to recapture the old: It’s optimistic, energetic, new, open, growing, and fun; it’s the medium in the better mood and that’s catching. In short: Bloggers make better barmates.” — Full post here
Next week at Gnomedex, I will be surrounded by lots of bloggers and new media types. I’m looking forward to 3 days of optimism, energy, fun. The future is here and I’m loving it.
Robert Iger on Disney’s New Media strategy
Robert Iger, the future CEO of Disney:
“(We will) not allow management of traditional businesses to get in the way of very, very important migration to new-media platforms.”
Hmmm. Disney probably has enough money to pull that off but I’m not sure how smaller companies (like ours) accomplish this. The landscape might look very different in a few years. [Hollywood Reporter by way of E-Media Tidbits]
Mick Jagger at 61
“That he is a sexagenarian didn’t seem to faze Mr. Jagger’s fans on nearby rooftops and around the stage as they pumped their fists in the air and watched the band perform. True to form, Mr. Jagger, 61, waved his hands in the air and jumped up and down, showing off his still rail-thin stomach. “I’ll never stop, never stop, never stop,” he sang, strutting back and forth.” [NYTimes.com]
I wouldn’t trade the sixties for an extra 10 years.
Profitable Demise
An intriguing open to a thoughtful article by Jay Rosen (PressThink). The piece (Laying the newspaper gently down to die. And keeping the spirit of journalism alive.) looks at challenges facing the newspaper business and how it is (or is not) meeting those challenges. But I believe there’s something here for all traditional media. My big take-away was a concept called “harvesting market position.” A last-resort business model for companies undermined by substitute technology.
“An industry that won’t move until it is certain of days as good as its golden past is effecively dead, from a strategic point of view. Besides, there is an alternative if you don’t have the faith or will or courage needed to accept reality and deal. The alternative is to drive the property to a profitable demise.
Drive the property to a profitable demise. You won’t see that in the company mission statement. But my favorite quote from Professor Rosen’s article came from Craig Newmark (craigslist):
“I realize I’m no news guy, not an activist; just like everyone else, tired of news that I can’t trust. My favorite irony is that Jon Stewart produces fake news that’s honest; and the White House produces allegedly honest news that’s really fake.”
Connected.
A couple of nuggets from a new Arbitron/Edison Media study (pdf) released today:
* Eight in 10 Americans have access to the Internet from any location. As of January 2005, 81% of consumers have access to the Internet from any location. This is a remarkable rise from the 50% penetration figure from just six years ago (January 1999).
* The number of people with a broadband Internet connection at home equals the number of people with a dial-up connection at home. In January 2001, only 12% of Americans with Internet access at home used a broadband connection. That figure has since quadrupled. Now, in January 2005, 48% of people with home Internet access have broadband, and 48% have dial-up service.
Flair
“People can get a cheeseburger anywhere, ok? They come to Chotchkie’s for the atmosphere and the attitude. That’s what the flair’s about. It’s about fun.”
— Office Space
Randy Michaels on future of radio
“People today are being entertained different, and that’s a problem for radio. (By the) time a profit is made, satellite radio will be eclipsed by something more profound. Namely, Internet-based radio stations available nationwide thanks to wireless broadband technology. Radio is going to be interactive, and it’s not going to be delivered just by transmitters. The next thing is not satellite, which is another form of point-to-multipoint technology. It will be interactive, two-way communication that’s available to everybody that is the next big thing. Radio companies will have no more defense in defending their business than the railroads did when airplanes came in and took their freight business.”
— Randy Michaels, former Clear Channel Radio CEO, on the future of radio
Milton Glaser’s Ten Things I Have Learned
“Never have a job, because if you have a job someday someone will take it away from you and then you will be unprepared for your old age.”
— Number Two of Milton Glaser’s list of “Ten Things I Have Learned” [PDF]