@raincoaster: But who got drunk and told everyone off? My money is on creepy Bert, but you can't count out Oscar. (Grover seems like more the laid back stoner type.)
@Ryan Tate: But everyone would expect it of Oscar. Bert FTW. Grover would get into the sherry (fortified with a slug of vodka) and get maudlin and weepy about the great future he had behind him. Grover Is Bitter!
On the Internet, my crazy uncle asked me "how come his videos ain't working." and sent me a link to the exact video he was trying to watch. Needless to say, things were hairy. Really fucking hairy. It's the future people, shave your bush.
Really a masterful series of insights here. Maybe I just set my sights too high after that great party post yesterday. Then again, maybe I didn't. Some posts are going to be better, just like some are going to be worse. Having high hopes could have led to me getting smoked. Then again, I thought it was worth the gamble.
But you never know. How much would I pay to read Gawker right now? I don't have an e-reader. But am I less likely to come back? Changing that dynamic is what Gawker needs to worry about.
Ha: "Today, four prestigious magazine publishers, and News Corp..." Appreciate Murdoch's not in the mag biz, but still qualifies as a veiled swipe in my book - er, tablet/slate/e-thingy.
I only know what's in the post and under the link and yes, my initial instinct was to make a Pathfinder joke.
But I don't see why this couldn't complement a publication's website and perhaps provide them with some extra income.
Off the top of my head - A lot of magazine sites don't include the pretty pictures and this appears to let them to publish in the original layout.
Right now it's just the big boys, but if they open it up to smaller publications, it could be a boon for them.
I know that I sometimes see something on Hulu that's on a network, I don't get, so I'll sample it. The same could be true with this service, though it may sound a little like Pathfinder, but a one-stop electronic newsstand could introduce someone to a tiny publication from a regional source.
And though it may not be part of the current thinking, but if they make some of the additional advertising location-aware, they'll have another source of income, they can't access right now. Not to mention that adding location info to their formally static ads could give their sales a needed boost.
(For example, A Starbucks ad could include a map to the nearest location or a Holiday Inn Express advertisement could list those on the road ahead.)
@Magister: PS) Location-aware advertising could also open up untapped ad markets. Right now, there's not a lot of supermarket ads in magazines because supermarkets are regional, but if the magazine knew where you were in the country, they could serve you whatever Kroger division is nearby.
(Though of course, your e-reader would have to know where you are)
Ryan, come on. "Journalist" is not a synonym for "columnist"; you must be aware of this.
Julia Allison (btw, Baugher is her last name, not Allison) writes opinion pieces, not articles involving research or interviews with actual human beings. Just because she has been paid to write a series of words in a weekly newsmagazine does not mean she is a journalist. If that's the case, then Anna Quindlen should stop yammering on about her family and start reporting on the goings on in Afghanistan.
Calling her and those like her journalists -- which Gawker does a hell of a lot for no real reason -- is demeaning to people who have actually earned degrees in journalism and have pursued careers in this field.
One more thing: If journalism is now being defined as copying and pasting from Wikipedia, someone had better order a few million press hats for anyone with a Tumblr account.
The granddaddy of all aggregators is the inimitable, much-imitated Herb Caen of the old Chronicle Way Back When. He called it three-dot journalism, and it was simply a string of items phoned into his office each day and it was the premiere column in all North America probably so everybody wanted to appear there. He had his stable of regular contributors, but he'd take amateurs if they were good. He was a one-man clipping service, and he lived the dream of Willie Loman, whose idea of the perfect saleman was one who opened his suitcase in his hotel room in any town and the buyers came in droves.
@Tremonius: Great point. Walter Winchell worked in a similar fashion. Actually, may have taken it further: Publicists would actually write whole items, some of which were good enough to run unedited. He had a longtime editorial assistant ( name escapes me at moment), employed by him not his papers, that would do any further rewrite and do items of his own.
Not to say Winchell didn't do his own items but many were delivered to him whole, not just the facts but the actual words.
Caen, from what I gather, took info and tips from outside and wrote them up himself, right? Or did they come in whole?
Anyway, just goes to show, lazy does not always mean inferior. To the contrary.
@Ryan Tate: Was Winchell the model for J J Hunsecker in Sweet Smell of Success? I don't know much about him, only that he was one of the Walters represented in some novel I don't recall; Winchell as the flippant superficial sort whereas the penetrating substance was represented by Lippman.
I'm curious about the time when the writer becomes the brand and others take over the tedious work of composition for them. Fitzgerald in Hollywood and his cups, it was reported, would call on his gofer, a teenager named Billy Warren (a creator of Gunsmoke in his latter days) to put the mess in order. (Of course, Fitzgerald wasn't around to refute Crazy Sundays so it may have been just another episode of résumé padding.)
One of the Trumpettes was in classic company when she signed a contract to deliver a murder mystery and placed a notice for a writer to do it for her. Most, like Palin, are more discreet.
To the best of my memory, Herb Caen strung out items from contributors, and he made no claims of originality. He reported the charge he was merely taking dictation, and never denied it. Seemed he was on perfect terms with the process, as were we all.
@Tremonius: Actually, Hunsecker was modeled on Winchell; it's amazing how utterly forgotten Winchell is given the power of his column and radio broadcast back before television came around (his TV show never took and Winchell entered a long sad and well-earned comeuppance).
Fitzgerlad is interesting, though I thought his Hollywood period was pretty dark; which Trump was that?
Ya, I read Caen when I first moved up here in 94, though if I recall correctly they were already starting to re-run old columns some day (very confusing). He was great. Still unmatched.
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12:36 AM
[www.zeroboutique.com]
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I gave them a nod.
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But you never know. How much would I pay to read Gawker right now? I don't have an e-reader. But am I less likely to come back? Changing that dynamic is what Gawker needs to worry about.
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But I don't see why this couldn't complement a publication's website and perhaps provide them with some extra income.
Off the top of my head - A lot of magazine sites don't include the pretty pictures and this appears to let them to publish in the original layout.
Right now it's just the big boys, but if they open it up to smaller publications, it could be a boon for them.
I know that I sometimes see something on Hulu that's on a network, I don't get, so I'll sample it. The same could be true with this service, though it may sound a little like Pathfinder, but a one-stop electronic newsstand could introduce someone to a tiny publication from a regional source.
And though it may not be part of the current thinking, but if they make some of the additional advertising location-aware, they'll have another source of income, they can't access right now. Not to mention that adding location info to their formally static ads could give their sales a needed boost.
(For example, A Starbucks ad could include a map to the nearest location or a Holiday Inn Express advertisement could list those on the road ahead.)
12/08/09
(Though of course, your e-reader would have to know where you are)
12/08/09
12/08/09
Julia Allison (btw, Baugher is her last name, not Allison) writes opinion pieces, not articles involving research or interviews with actual human beings. Just because she has been paid to write a series of words in a weekly newsmagazine does not mean she is a journalist. If that's the case, then Anna Quindlen should stop yammering on about her family and start reporting on the goings on in Afghanistan.
Calling her and those like her journalists -- which Gawker does a hell of a lot for no real reason -- is demeaning to people who have actually earned degrees in journalism and have pursued careers in this field.
One more thing: If journalism is now being defined as copying and pasting from Wikipedia, someone had better order a few million press hats for anyone with a Tumblr account.
12/08/09
12/08/09
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Not to say Winchell didn't do his own items but many were delivered to him whole, not just the facts but the actual words.
Caen, from what I gather, took info and tips from outside and wrote them up himself, right? Or did they come in whole?
Anyway, just goes to show, lazy does not always mean inferior. To the contrary.
12/08/09
I'm curious about the time when the writer becomes the brand and others take over the tedious work of composition for them. Fitzgerald in Hollywood and his cups, it was reported, would call on his gofer, a teenager named Billy Warren (a creator of Gunsmoke in his latter days) to put the mess in order. (Of course, Fitzgerald wasn't around to refute Crazy Sundays so it may have been just another episode of résumé padding.)
One of the Trumpettes was in classic company when she signed a contract to deliver a murder mystery and placed a notice for a writer to do it for her. Most, like Palin, are more discreet.
To the best of my memory, Herb Caen strung out items from contributors, and he made no claims of originality. He reported the charge he was merely taking dictation, and never denied it. Seemed he was on perfect terms with the process, as were we all.
12/08/09
Fitzgerlad is interesting, though I thought his Hollywood period was pretty dark; which Trump was that?
Ya, I read Caen when I first moved up here in 94, though if I recall correctly they were already starting to re-run old columns some day (very confusing). He was great. Still unmatched.