Toenail problems come in two varieties: fungus and ingrown toenails. Dr. Domke views the first as a hyped-up, false problem. Toenail fungus is not dangerous and there’s no cure. Affects about 20% of all adults. He thinks the treatment is more dangerous than the problem. Ingrown toenails a different matter. Recorded April 15, 2006
Website as newsroom apendage
Reply
Based on this memo, Miami Herald editor Tom Fieldler understands it is nut-cutting time in the news business:
“We are beyond being satisfied with incremental change and giving polite head nods toward other media platforms. We are going to execute fundamental restructuring to support that pledge. Every job in the newsroom — EVERY JOB — is going to be redefined to include a web responsibility and, if appropriate, radio. For news gatherers, this means posting everything we can as soon as we can. It means using the web site to its fullest potential for text, audio and video. We’ll come to appreciate that MiamiHerald.com is not an appendage of the newsroom; it’s a fundamental product of the newsroom. No more will some people be strictly newspaper staff and others will be strictly on-line or multi-media staff. If you produce news, you’ll be expected to produce it as effectively for the electronic reader or listener as you would for the newspaper reader. If you edit or design for the newspaper, you’ll learn to edit and design for the web site.”
Looking (from the outside) at our newsrooms in this regard, I would rank us at 5 or maybe 6 (out of 10). No higher. Reading Fiedler’s memo, it sounds like he sees no reason the Miami Herald can’t do “radio.” For us to ignore that challenge, we have to believe there is something so magical about what we do, that nobody else can do it as well. I don’t know. [Via BuzzMachine via Onsquared]
Sat radio awareness climbs; half of teens own iPod
According to a new study by Edison Media Research and Arbitron, both XM and Sirius have 61% awareness levels among American consumers. The research also showed some evidence of early use and interest in podcasting. Given a detailed description of podcasting, about one in ten people aged 12-plus said they had ever listened to an audio podcast, about half the number who had heard of podcasting. The podcast audience skews younger and more upscale than the general population. Nearly one in four Americans and more than half of teens own an iPod or other portable digital music player. [Billboard Radio Monitor] Thanks, Ben.
All we need is (another) ending
I’m probably one of the last to hear about the guy that made a bet with his girlfriend that he could make a website that would get 2 million hits. If he fails, he admits he’s an idiot. If he gets the 2 million hits, his girlfriend will do a threesome with with another girl. The guy is obvisouly not an idiot because the site he created (HelpWinMyBet.com) appealed to every horny geek on the Internet and there’s waaay more than 2 million of those. He’s passed 3 million hits and his girlfriend has conceded defeat. They’re now reviewing applicants for the trois of the menage.
The site looks legit but who knows. When Darin forwarded this link, all I could think of was the screenplay that jumped out of my inbox.
As you know, I’m a terrible casting director but I could see Jack Black (maybe Ben Stiller) as the geeky boyfriend. Perhaps Janeane Garofalo as the girlfriend. Not sure who should play the other woman but here’s my take on the story…
Starts off just like the "real" story. Guy wins the bet and starts putting photos of "other girl" candidates on his website. Which comes to the attention of a publicist for a rock (movie?) star whose career is starting to fade. The flack talks the star client into joining the threesome by putting together a movie deal that will jump-start her sliding career. (We’re talking movie-within-a-movie here, right?)
At first the geeky boyfriend is giddy with delight. He’s going to be in a movie where he has sex with his girlfriend and the star. But the star and the girlfriend become pals. Not lovers, but friends. As they begin to have fun with the whole idea, the boyfriend starts having second thoughts.
As regular readers know, this is where I run out of ideas… and my friend Kay bails me out with three or four really good, boffo endings. But you can play, too. Just click the comments link below.
PS: If this movie has already been made, let me know.
PPS: If this movie ever gets made, how pissed will I be?
PPS: Ooh, how about this. Starving (blocked) screenwriter scours the web looking for ideas. Comes across a blog where this smart, funny guy keeps posting movie idea without endings. The blocked writer is ass deep in good endings…steals the blogger’s plots…and sells them to Big Studio where they bescome megahits. The blogger recognizes his ideas on the big screen and road-trips to Hollywood to confront the (now wealthy) screenwriter. I think we might have two movies here. Any ideas on who should play me?
Mic Flags: Tiny little billboards
Mic flags are those little plastic signs that radio and TV reporters attach to the end of their microphones. It’s a little harmless self-promotion. Let’s the public know that KXYZ News or TV24 was on-the-scene. And we radio guys love it when our mic flag appears on the 6 o’clock local TV newscast or the front page of the Daily Bugle.
Now, our listeners already know we were at the big news conference because they’re listening to us. So the purpose of the mic flag would seem to be to let the TV audience or the newspaper readers know we were there. Isn’t this a little like having one of the newspaper guys come up while we’re recording an audio interview and whispering –just loudly enough to be heard– “News Scene 13!” so it could be heard in the background of our piece when it airs? No? Different somehow? Okay.
So let’s say mic flags are a good thing. How big should they be? The size of a pack of Kools? Bigger? How about, as big as possible and still fit in the little satchel with my recorder?
You see? This is why I’m not running a business. I’m terrible at self-promotion. I hate tooting my horn. And I really hate tooting my horn at someone else’s recital.
Net ad spending to overtake radio in 2008
Zenith Optimedia Group has revised it’s global ad spending outlook and now predicts the Internet will overtake worldwide outdoor ad spending next year, and will catch up with radio (which will have a 7.9% share, down from 8.5% in 2005) in 2008.
If you’re a radio station manager, you a) do not believe this forecast for one minute; b) think it might be true but have no clue what to do about it; c) don’t care if it’s true or not because you plan to retire in a couple of years anyway. [Radio Business Report]
Link from Scripting News
Earlier this year I was on a panel at the annual meeting of a bunch of PR associations in St. Louis. The hotel ball room was packed so when I got up to do my little bit, I snapped a photo. It’s been my masthead image for the last week or so. Imagine my delight to find a link and a reference on Dave Winer’s Scripting News (the blog I check first every day). The first place I ever saw this use of a masthead image was on Scripting News and I proudly appropriated the idea for smays.com. The notion that Dave Winer visited my little corner of cyberspace is just too cool for school.
Web surfers see only what they want
Certainly no surprise to anyone that designs or (in my case) maintains websites. A few specifics from recent study by Jakob Nielsen’s Nielsen Norman Group:
- Individuals read Web pages in an “F” pattern. They’re more inclined to read longer sentences at the top of a page and less and less as they scroll down. That makes the first two words of a sentence very important.
- Surfers connect well with images of people looking directly at them. It helps if the person in the photo is attractive, but not too good-looking. Photos of people who are clearly professional models are a turnoff.
- People respond to pictures that provide useful information, not just decoration.
And my favorite: When there is less on a page, users read more.
Mac Lust
Do people still get what we once called “new car fever?” A completely irrational, irresistable desire to buy a new car? I buy a new Toyota every 10 or 15 years, so I don’t suffer from this particular affliction. I am, however, suffering from Mac lust. I want one of the new MacBook Pros. I have a couple of computers at work; a year-old Dell here at home; a perfectly good ThinkPad. I do not need another computer. But I want one. I have never used a Mac. Don’t look forward to having to learn a new operating system or move back and forth between Mac and PC.
I want a Mac because they are cool. And all the cool kids have them. They are sexy. There is no logic or reason at work here. This is happening in the lizard part of my brain. I’ve thought about sneaking over to St. Louis to the Apple store and putting my hands on one of the new MacBooks. But that’s like saying I’ll just lie down on the bed next to the super-model, but we won’t “do anything.” If I walk in that store, I’ll walk out $2,500 poorer. So I’m holding on. Like a junkie trying to survive the shakes and chills and maybe in the morning I won’t want that fix.
Karl Rove: The best politics is sound policy
It’s hard to imagine Karl Rove fears any man, but we now learn it was once Jefferson City attorney Harvey Tettlebaum. Harvey is president of the Republican National Lawyers Association and was given the honor of introducing Rove when he spoke to the National Press Club (?) last week.
Disclosure: Harvey is the senior partner in the Jefferson City office of Husch & Eppenberger, and has been Barb’s mentor and “rabbi” since she became an attorney.