Biden was the most inscrutable choice, ever, for VP. Instead of "change" Obama brought out an old hack, who had trouble with both truth telling, even during the campaign, and with inserting his foot into his mouth. Oh, to know what kind of negotiation that was, to get him on the ticket---except, perhaps to allay terrified old white guys who feared a woman and a (half)black man on the ticket would bring on the apocalypse. #joebiden
apparently I am in the minority, but I love Joe Biden! I think he's like the lovable Steve Urkel of the White House. He comes in, says stupid stuff, knocks shit over, and is like "Did I do that?" Oh Joe. #joebiden
Joe Biden is everything thats wrong and fucked up with congress. This dope won his seat in the Senate when he was 29 and has never had another job until being VP. He has learned about as much about how the country works from his perch in DC as Palin learned about Russia from staring at it. He is walking proof we need term limits.
And he doesn't drink. I don't trust people who don't drink, unless they've already been alcoholics. #joebiden
@Motoko Kusanagi: From where I'm standing, it would appear to be a positive correlation. It's a good day when I get tripped up by fewer than five unresponsive scripts, infinite waits for comments to load or what have you. #joebiden
@Motoko Kusanagi: Oh yeah, I didn't mean to quibble. I agree that the site gets fancier all the time, but features seem to break often. I should have added before that it could well be my OS and browser causing headaches most readers don't experience. And in all fairness, I haven't been reading long enough to judge contemporary content against the past. #joebiden
Not sure what point you're trying to make, Amrita... that you think Cheney's worldview makes some sense? That Cheney was initially popular, before everything he did brought his popularity rating to a low of 28%? I love it that Biden is willing to call a moron a moron. This is a ridiculous post. #joebiden
Oh, and if you're trying to poke fun at Vice Prez Biden for weeping during the debate when he spoke about his first wife and baby daughter who died, well then, that's just messed up. #joebiden
@Conchie Birdie: One might argue that it was the worst kind of political hackdom for him to bring them up expressly to show his "empathy" side and try to squeeze a tear out of his plastic-surgeryized eye slots. #joebiden
I'm absolutely NOT a supporter of ANYTHING Dick says... but, Good Lawwd, Biden, Bin Laden will always BE a part of the issue. I'm sorry, I guess if you had the prez saying this I could understand... but, uh, Joe? Nope.
That being said, why are we posting crap from Fox News anyway - I thought we weren't supposed to take this stuff seriously? #joebiden
I, too, wanted to like it. I LOVED some of the writers, and some of the articles. But I can't forget the Ducati piece, which babbled on and on like some cheap advertorial about a motorcycle which, in the end, it declined to picture, while showcasing several of the older models, badly-photographed. NOT the way to do a sexy piece on sexy machines.
The editor was either asleep at the wheel or completely incompetent.
And what's the betting that the Journal's lame ass WSJ is next? From all the protestations from editorial that being perfect bound gave it market differentiation, it only took two issues to send it out saddle stitched (vastly cheaper & the usual recourse when you don't have enough ads to make a proper book).
Their ads are way down from projection. It's still not a monthly as promised on launch for 09.
and Gaudoin managed to lose her fashion director and art director by the second issue (apparently due to her 'eccentric' style of editing; rumor has it the Brits weren't sad to send her off across the Atlantic) and there's a persistent rumor that more are itching to get out of there.
@microtony: Use of "the writing had been on the wall" is questionable, too, because it's a hackneyed phrase.
I read the whole letter and identified with it. But there is a slight amateur quality to the complaints of over-editing and the leader not listening to the bright, young recruits. (Typical complaints.)
The point about using top names who reserve the good stuff for other mags is a good one.
The mag was doomed for failure simply because it relied on Journal hot-shots to run a consumer magazine. That and all the other reasons why so many mags are shutting down. It will not be missed because the world lost nothing by its demise.
She did tell me that--just before getting to the Gawker part of my work history. Awk-ward!
More to the point: I met with the guy who was running the website a few months after they launched to talk about maybe doing a content partnership with Dealbreaker. We were talking about media coverage and I suggested that he hire Bercovici, who was then breaking some good stuff for Radar--which he subsequently did, though probably not at my suggestion. Felix was already there, which was a good sign. He was an appropriate and excellent hire. It had a lot of potential.
The site editor then mentioned that Joanne wasn't very hands-on, and I heard the same thing from other people later, with suggestions that her disinterest worked to their advantage. But I guess since she wasn't very invested in the website, she didn't think it was important, either.
What I don't understand, though, is why Conde Nast insists on neglecting the only hedge it has against the decline of print. With the resources they have, they should be making loads of money off the web--and putting the rest of us out of business. I get that they don't necessarily *need* to (i hear you, Peter Feld) but if the opportunity is there, why not take it?
I can shed a little light here. The reason that Conde, and every other magazine co, are effectively absent from online as a cultural force is that they have a problem accepting the narrow (if any) profit margins that online media businesses return. At this point in time, readers won't pay at all and ad agencies will only pay less than they did last year (per individual).
As the job of the heads of these companies is to grow profits, not just audience, you really won't see them making the kind of websites that they are capable of until there's real money to be made.
@LuigiPashnani: That is a good analysis. To be fair to Conde Nast, few if any other print publication companies have really solved the web puzzle. They get too obsessed with making print and web "work together" when they don't, and can't - if there's one clear fact about the web audience, it's that they don't want your magazine, and if there's one clear fact about the print audience it's that they aren't interested in your website. Audiences are more stratified by media habits than they are united by common interests.
10/31/09
WeepyVP Joe10/30/09
WeepyVP Joe10/30/09
WeepyVP JoeAnd he doesn't drink. I don't trust people who don't drink, unless they've already been alcoholics. #joebiden
10/30/09
WeepyVP JoeEither this new crop of staff writers is utterly fucked, or the editorial direction has taken a nosedive, or both.
Is there some negative correlation between the quality of stories and the quality of AJAX/CSS? #joebiden
10/30/09
10/30/09
10/30/09
10/30/09
WeepyVP Joe10/30/09
WeepyVP Joe10/31/09
10/30/09
WeepyVP JoeThat being said, why are we posting crap from Fox News anyway - I thought we weren't supposed to take this stuff seriously?
#joebiden
04/28/09
The editor was either asleep at the wheel or completely incompetent.
04/27/09
Their ads are way down from projection. It's still not a monthly as promised on launch for 09.
and Gaudoin managed to lose her fashion director and art director by the second issue (apparently due to her 'eccentric' style of editing; rumor has it the Brits weren't sad to send her off across the Atlantic) and there's a persistent rumor that more are itching to get out of there.
04/27/09
WSJ.
04/27/09
04/27/09
I read the whole letter and identified with it. But there is a slight amateur quality to the complaints of over-editing and the leader not listening to the bright, young recruits. (Typical complaints.)
The point about using top names who reserve the good stuff for other mags is a good one.
The mag was doomed for failure simply because it relied on Journal hot-shots to run a consumer magazine. That and all the other reasons why so many mags are shutting down. It will not be missed because the world lost nothing by its demise.
04/27/09
04/27/09
04/27/09
04/27/09
More to the point: I met with the guy who was running the website a few months after they launched to talk about maybe doing a content partnership with Dealbreaker. We were talking about media coverage and I suggested that he hire Bercovici, who was then breaking some good stuff for Radar--which he subsequently did, though probably not at my suggestion. Felix was already there, which was a good sign. He was an appropriate and excellent hire. It had a lot of potential.
The site editor then mentioned that Joanne wasn't very hands-on, and I heard the same thing from other people later, with suggestions that her disinterest worked to their advantage. But I guess since she wasn't very invested in the website, she didn't think it was important, either.
What I don't understand, though, is why Conde Nast insists on neglecting the only hedge it has against the decline of print. With the resources they have, they should be making loads of money off the web--and putting the rest of us out of business. I get that they don't necessarily *need* to (i hear you, Peter Feld) but if the opportunity is there, why not take it?
04/27/09
I can shed a little light here. The reason that Conde, and every other magazine co, are effectively absent from online as a cultural force is that they have a problem accepting the narrow (if any) profit margins that online media businesses return. At this point in time, readers won't pay at all and ad agencies will only pay less than they did last year (per individual).
As the job of the heads of these companies is to grow profits, not just audience, you really won't see them making the kind of websites that they are capable of until there's real money to be made.
numberwrangler
04/27/09
04/27/09
[www.portfolio.com]