Broadband up; Blackberry chains; ESPN welcomes comments

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Report: Broadband Users Now the Majority in U.S. – Yahoo! News
“According to a new report released Thursday, U.S. home broadband penetration will top 50 percent this year, the first time it has ever done so.”

Survey: Blackberry owners chained to work
Survey results showed that those who owned a Blackberry were, in fact, more likely to work long hours than those who didn’t.”

ESPN.com allows comments on every article
ESPN.com has enabled comments on every single story they post, even ones from the wires. The feature is called ESPN Conversation. You can dig into this yourself on this controversial story about some remarks made by former NBA player Tim Hardaway. This particular story has attracted nearly 1000 comments in just 24 hours. ESPN is one of several big media properties that allows readers to comment on stories. The Washington Post has also embraced reader feedback.

Majority of Americans feel bloggers play a valuable role
According to a new poll by iFOCOS and Zogby, a majority of Americans (55%) feel bloggers are important to the future of American journalism. Further, 74% said citizen journalism will play a vital role. I am not quite sure of how they distinguished the two in the poll, but the results are certainly positive. The survey of 5,384 adults nationwide was conducted Jan. 30-Feb. 1, 2007, and carries a margin of error of +/- 1.4 percentage points.

— Steve Rubel’s Micro Persuasion

Roger Gardner’s first MacBook

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My alternate headline was, “Gomer Does the Big Apple,” but the Jim Nabors reference would be either too dated or unflattering to Learfield President and Chief Operating Officer Roger Gardner, the latest Learfielder to break down and “Get A Mac.”

Like Phil and me, Roger has been flirting with the idea of buying a Mac for sometime. He’s been teetering at the precipice for weeks and finally went over the edge this week and purchased a 17″ MacBook Pro (with all the fixin’s)

In all fairness, Roger has two teenagers at home and they needed another computer and –like a lot of folks these days– couldn’t come up with a good reason not to try a Mac.

“Is radio still radio if there’s video?”

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“The nation’s commercial radio stations have seen the future, and it is in, of all things, video. Across the country, radio stations are putting up video fare on their Web sites, ranging from a simple camera in the broadcast booth to exclusive coverage of events like the Super Bowl to music videos, news clips and Web-only musical performances.” – NYTimes.com

Home delivery

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NewspaperOn the drive home this evening, I got behind the guy that delivers newspapers. He was weaving a bit as he frantically stuffed The Daily Bugle into those pink newspaper condoms before throwing them into the bushes. As I watched, I had to wonder about the future of this job, not to mention the economics. I can’t believe the job pays much and by the time you buy gas, how can the math work out?

I also wondered if the guy is a web-head like me. Does he keep up with the challenges facing newspapers (or maybe they’re doing better than we think). Is he thinking –with every paper he flings: “Man, I gotta find another gig. This ain’t gonna last.”

He probably has more important things to worry about and is happy to have the job. And this Internet thing could just be a fad.