Some of us have been writing and talking about the decline in news media for years, but a lot of people have joined the conversation late. So let’s step back a bit and see the big picture. Our news coverage at all levels is a shadow of its former self. All over the country, we have […]
Tracking media evolution is harder than it looks – and it looks pretty hard!
Originally published in Auctioneer Magazine, November 2014. Used here by permission. One headline on my favorite financial news site screamed, “Market has hit a ‘V’ Bottom – Bulls are Back!” The same day, another headline declared that “This market rally is for suckers.” You can see the same on any given day. That amuses me, […]
How to know more in less time
There’s so much stuff coming at us, from so many directions, that we can’t possibly sort it all out. So here are some ways you can make better use of your time, stay informed and avoid misinformation. Read your news rather than watch it. We can read much faster than we can watch TV, and […]
Advertising wisely starts with the right questions
I’ve been obsessed for years with understanding how we consume types of media – what’s going on in people’s lives, environment, and heads when they read, watch or listen to the things we write, produce, record, create, publish and whatnot. How do our eyes move when we the page of a book, newspaper or magazine? […]
Readers and newspaper readership
You’ll be hearing a lot this week about multi-source news readers, because Google Reader will finally go offline next week. These readers allow users to “subscribe” to dozens of news sources, blogs and even web sites using RSS feeds. Everybody seems to be getting in on the act, with Digg, AOL, Reddit and even Facebook […]
We can see the future of newspapers now. Get in the habit of paying again.
I just read my Sunday Birmingham News, the last remnant of the newspaper I grew up with. The one where I spent the first decade of my career. The one where I learned to write. Advance Publications, which owns the newspaper, also publishes print editions on Wednesday and Friday, but I dropped all but Sunday […]
Reflections on Birmingham News and AL.com 24 days after D-Day
I grew up reading The Birmingham News as a kid, I began my career there. I worked side by side with people I had previously known only as bylines — Clarke Stallworth, Peggy Roberson, Al Fox, Clyde Bolton and many others. I was in heaven. To this day it is the most satisfying job I […]
Want to be better informed? Turn off the TV and close your browser for a few days!
The shorter the news cycle, the more vulnerable it is to rumors, lies, manipulations and inconsequential trivia. A lot of stuff that seems important in the “urgency of the moment” is found to be either wrong or irrelevant by the end of the hour, the end of the day, or the end of the week. […]
Newspaper cutbacks: We’re focusing on the wrong things
It isn’t just about the paper. It isn’t even about the individuals who, after decades of loyal work at the highest levels, now find themselves unwelcome in the newsrooms they ran for so many years. It’s about the death of a proven process that brought us news we never would have known about otherwise. About […]
For years, we’ve complained about the press’s power to filter and prioritize news. But now that it’s gone, we’ll miss it.
At best, it’s never easy to discern the real strategies behind publicly discernible moves and the language used in corporate announcements. I know, because I write corporate announcements, and I’d be lying if I denied that there are times when obfuscation is a primary objective. All the same, the Orwellian language used by Advance Publications […]