A dress made of stories - actually newsprint - showed up courtesy of my ongoing search for use of newsprint.
The bonus is its from a woman who left her job at Michigan's Grand Rapids Press after 11 years to devote more time to her CraftSanity podcast, make art and do freelance career writing.
Jennifer Ackerman-Haywood is the creator. Head to her blog post to see the flowers around the waist and details on how she made the skirt.
(That'll teach me to clear out those craft posts from the readers without reading.)
A new publisher in Alabama, a just-released interview with the blogging leader of AnnArbor.com and the Microsoft-Advance Internet partnership ensures more folks will know about the Newhouse-owned companies today.
Al.com reports that Ricky Mathews, former publisher of the Sun Herald newspaper in Mississippi, is now president and publisher of three Advance Publication newspapers: Mobile Press-Register, Baldwin Register, and Mississippi Press. He picks up oversight of the Birmingham News and Huntsville Time in the new role of president of Advance Alabama/Mississippi.
One last item - an editor from one of former Conde Nast magazine is out on the road. Ruth Graham explains. why she's taking to traveling now that "her" magazine Dominos has closed.
When I return to New York in the fall, I’ll be looking for a full-time job. But for the next few months, I’ll have the luxury of seeking out historical homes, small protestant churches, big national parks, excellent burritos, local-history museums, and quixotic lifetime projects like the world’s largest ball of twine.
Ben LaMothe finally posts his Q&A with Ed Vielmetti, AnnArbor.com's blogging leader. The interview includes answers about about Ed's role, how local businesses are affected by the closing of the Ann Abor News and how Ed's background in economics, not journalism, helps him approach AnnArbor.com (Ben, a native Michigander who graduated from Central Michigan University in May 2008, wrote this for Econsultancy, which has its headquarters in London.
(While I'm chatting about Ann Arbor, Joe Grimm interviews Mary Morgan about her online ventures since leaving the Ann Arbor News in his ongoing series of what journalists do after newspapers.)
Kevin Anderson, who worked for mlive.com in 1997-98, focused on Doctor's conclusion that newspapers are losing the local online advertising market in his post for The Digital Content blog.
The move expands the growing emphasis that the newspaper sales force can help local firms grow their businesses on the best medium, offering marketing solutions beyond print. It is one more tool for the newspaper sales representatives who became sales consultants - at least in title - at least five years ago.
Doctor - the first to report the agreement - also says the partnership gives Advance access to Microsoft ad technologies such as behavioral targeting and the ability to follow customers as they move about on the web.
He also says the deal means that Advance will replace its Google ads with Microsoft text ads through its paid search and contextual-reading ad products. Doctor also talks about Advance Internet's effort in search engine marketing and what this all means in his post.
msnbc.com, which is a joint venture of Microsoft and NBC Universal, says EveryBlock, which now offers information in 15 cities, will continue as an independent brand. The web-based application lets anyone type in an address, neighborhood or ZIP code to access to public records, news articles and web content.
Knight Foundation funded EveryBlock's first two years , but the Knight News Challenge grant ended in June.
All good news for Microsoft and I think good news for Advance Internet newspaper sites. Here's hoping it becomes easier for local businesses people reading their local news sites to contact local sales consultants. ( See Advertising wraps Oregonian front page for more on that rant.) Do you think the partnership increases the chances of the *.live.com sites getting the EveryBlock application into its sites?)
The groundbreaking ad placement in the Sunday newspaper even merited an editor's column, complete with a mandatory mention of hard times.
Oregon Media Central sends us to The Oregonian's executive editor Peter Bhatia Editors' Blog for an explanation about the Advance Publication's first front-page spadea ad, which is an ad that folds around the spine of a newspaper.
Bhatia says such ads "will become more regular" on the front page, after having long been featured on comics pages. .
Oregon Media Central pulled the graphic here as a sample illustration from the Advertiser Resources section of The Oregonian's website, which describes the ads as "printed on both sides, covering half of a section's front page and all of the back," combining "impossible-to-miss, front-page positioning with full-page merchandising."
In his column, Bhatia says this type of ad is "becoming more common in newspapers," and that "ads like these pay for the news staff." he is careful to explain that such ads don't take away from the newshole.
I first wrote "Coming to a newspaper near you, I am sure." But then I thought I'd spotcheck some other Newhouse newspaper sites to see if that advertising product was available. The June 2009 Flint Journal ratebook lists rates only for a comic spadea. The Jackson Citizen Patriot's online ratecard does not list any spadeas. I couldn't get the Grand Rapids Press advertising products page to open. I. couldn't find advertising rates for the Muskegon Chronicle. Over on the east code, I don't think The Syracuse Post Standard or Star-Ledger offer spadeas. I can say without a doubt that the average small business owner wanting to place an ad in a print newspaper via an Advance Publications web page would need a lot of determination and time to figure out how to do it. That's a shame.
It was interesting to see how many sources differed on what I would consider basics - the name of Bill Cahir's wife, when he became a Marine, when he was overseas and his employers.
It's a shame that Cahir's family will miss many of the wonderful messages left online. I know of tools to aggregate what I've said across the Internet or find comments with a key phrase. I've yet to discover the tool that pulls together all comments from all that's been written about Bill since he was killed this week.
I don't understand why online operations replace accurate content with newer content in the same space? One Pennsylvania news site, for instance. changed its story at the same web address at least four times. There was one quote that was only in the first and fourth versions. I'd prefer separate stories with links back to the older stories or at least a note saying updated.
At least those sites were updated. I was surprised to learn that some newspapers in the Advance Publications system still wait until the print edition hits the streets. That meant some of the best stories about Bill Cahir lost potential links from other sites.
I'm shocked at how many sites didn't include links to the best coverage on the web, much less links back to their previous stories about Bill.
Since Bill worked for Newhouse, why wouldn't the Newhouse sites have links to a joint photo gallery, Bill's first person account of boot camp, columns from those who worked with him, a July 14 Associated Press that included quotes from Cahir, and a basic bio or timeline. There even was the opportunity to link to some of Cahir's work, some of it now in the paid archives.
It's a line from Bill Cahir, and the column is about Six' anger about Cahir's death and the war in Afghanistan. Jim and Bill worked together for about 10 years through Gloucester County Times, part of the Advance Publications network, publishing on nj.com
In his latest column, Six asks "Why are the Afghanis not more involved in fighting for their right to vote, or to rid themselves of the totalitarian Taliban? You have to ask after awhile, why are U.S. and NATO commanders tying the hands of their warriors and painting bull's eyes on their camo uniforms? "
But do not peg Six as antimilitary. He had just written about an upcoming picnic for veterans in Recognizing another hero.
The NBCWashington interview that includes a reporter speaking with Bill's father and Deborah Howell, one of Bill's bosses at the Newhouse News Service bureau in Washington D.C.
Bill Cahir did not slide through life. The Marine sergeant who worked for the Newhouse Washington D.C. bureau, let passion drive him into politics, into journalism, into the military, into politics and to a company whre he hoped to make change happen. He didn't always win, but he kept doing what he thought was right.
Co-workers shared memories online in news stories, blog posts and on Facebook, recalling the 40-year-old's high journalism standards, his passion for politics and his personal mission to do what is right. It was hard to stop following the links, to stop reading, to stop smiling even while knowing his family and friends are grieving.
Bill almost enlisted three times before finally joining the Marine Reserves at age 34 in Oct. 2003 He served two tours in Iraq. He didn't have to be in Afghanistan. But he was.
No decision made easily
The Pennsylvania native talked to a lot people before he left politics in 1995 for journalism, before he joined the Marines in October 2003, before he left journalism in January 2008 for an unsuccessful run for Pennsylvania's 5th Congressional District.
I suspect there was a lot talking before he and Rene E. Browne, a business litigation lawyer in Washington D.C., married three years ago, and again when they learned they were expecting twin girls.
He talked, he listened and then he made up his own mind.
David Wood, who started working with Bill in 1999 in Washington D.C., posted this:
"Bill Cahir struggled so openly with the conflicting responsibilities of home and family, and service to his country. With painful honesty, he went hard at the difficult issues that many of us choose to ignore."
Jim Barnett, who started working with him in 2000, wrote this in a post that talked mostly about the goodness of a traditional journalist who worked for many bosses and asked the right questions:
"When we last talked at length, shortly before his announcement to run for Congress, I was surprised, but also not. He was unhappy with the conduct of the war, and he wanted to do something about it. This was Bill's new mission, and he was doing it his way - at the front line, working passionately and methodically."
Back to politics
The Harrisburg Patriot-News profiled Cahir when he resigned to run for the Congressional seat in 2008. Brett Lieberman, who had worked in the same office with Bill for eight years, explained that running meant a move from northern Virginia back to his birthplace Bellefonte.
"I think as an Iraq veteran, I offer a unique perspective. As a journalist, I've covered federal education, transportation and health care issues in detail, and I'm opposed to the tolling of I-80. I want to stop the tolling of interstates in Pennsylvania and across the country.... I am personally energized."
Loss leads to consulting
LeHigh Valley Live caught up with him after he lost in the three-way primary race to find out what was next. His answer:
"My journalism career is over. I'll talk to the Marine Corps and see what they want me to do and talk to my wife and see what she wants me to do."
David Woods wrote:
"He didn't win, but he didn't sulk, and after it was over he landed a job as a consultant in the private sector (Booz Allen Hamilton) while remaining in the Marine Corps reserves. Bill Cahir found nobility in military service and exulted in it."
"...other recruits would taunt him at boot camp for being a decade older than them. ... drill instructors would give him a hard time for being a college graduate and ... newspaper reporter... "
Politico and the Washington Post interviewed Deborah Howell, Cahir’s bureau chief at Newhouse before she left for the Post. She recalled how the Sept. 11 attacks inspired Cahir to enlist in the Marine Reserves at age 34.
Politico wrote it this way:
"Howell called Cahir's determination to enter the Marine Corps a late calling in his life. Despite her attempts to talk him out of it, she said Cahir was steadfast in his decision to enlist.
"He just had to do it. And finally, you know, you just have to say I understand you have to do this," Howell said. "He regretted nothing."
Howell told the Post about attending Bill's wedding several years ago, remembering how touched he was by the gift his fellow soldiers gave him, a sword to wear with his dress uniform.
Running for answers
David Wood recalled Bill's dilemma, discussed during lunchtime runs:
"Clearly, the excitement, adventure and camaraderie he imagined of military service attracted him. He felt deeply that he owed something to his country. He wanted to be part of a measured American response to Islamist extremism, and he could think of no way he could better contribute than joining the military."
Yet Bill knew, as he shared in a first person account of boot camp published in his former newspaper on July 4, 2004, that he'd be a private first class facing a pay cut, taking orders from younger men and almost certainly heading to the Middle East.
Cahir almost joined the military after college, after working a few years and after the Sept. 11 attacks in 2001.
"In October 2003, the recruiter asked the decisive question: In the future, would I look back and regret my inaction if I didn't enlist?"
Former Marine knew Bill's challenges
Paul McHale, who Bill had covered when he was a congressman and then former assistant secretary of defense, recalled Cahir discussing the idea with him and how they grew to become friends. McHale, clearly shook by the news, knew that Bill "was in a particularly tough area in a particularly tough region." Bill's job as a civil affairs officer also was challenging. McHale told the Express Times:
"He was a community organizer while carrying a pack and a rifle.
The Express Times's interview with McHale helps me understand more what Bill faced on his latest tour. It's also an illustration of the rich relationships that can develop as a result of a reporting relationship.
When you read all the comments left on blog postings and articles, you learn that Bill did what had to be done, changing direction when necessary.
The Pennsylvania native, who once was a newspaper carrier, left the Capitol to start his journalism career. After graduating from Penn State in 1990, Cahir worked for Sen. Robert Kennedy and the Senate Labor and Human Resources Committee, helping on the Family and Medical Leave Act. In 1993, Cahir joined Senator Harris Wofford's staff, where he worked on health care reform legislation until the Wofford's retirement in 1995.
Moving into journalism
He worked for the The Southampton Press for a year before moving to the Education Daily before moving to the Newhouses' Advance Publications newspapers and news services in 1999.
Bill left the Newhouse Washington D.C. Bureau in January 2008 to run for Congress; long before the bureau's closing was announced in July, before the actual closing on Nov. 7, 2008.
His current civilian job was senior consultant for organization and strategy at Booz Allen Hamilton, a strategy and technology consulting firm based in McLean,
The Washington Post also wrote about Andy Rosenberg, who met Bill working on Kennedy’s Senate labor committee (Bill was one of Andy's groomsman) now the spokesman for Bill's wife, his parents Mary Anne and John Cahir, two sisters and a brother.
"Bill was an extraordinary person in every respect and truly exemplified the very best of our country. Every part of his life was devoted to helping others, and he ultimately gave his life in this pursuit. Bill will be missed terribly by his loving wife, his wonderful family and his many, many friends."
He'll be missed by many. Reading about Bill and his decision making helped me understand a bit more about my brother who is a Marine and a nephew now in the Air Force. The beauty of the Internet.
The most unusual letter - a rejection letter - came to this household.
Unfortunately, it is the letter and not the rejection that is unusual in a household where three people have sought jobs in the last eight months Why is that? Why is it that potential employers can't, don't or won't take the time to even say "Thank you for applying. We have filled the job."
If I have applied online, how difficult is it to send me an email? If you had me come in, I'd be happy to get a postcard. You can even slip it in with your paper application, I'll address it and you can check the appropriate line:
___ We filled the position with someone else ___ We decided we can't afford to fill the position
The silence is especially perplexing to me if we have had a past relationship. I don't expect that just because we have worked together before means I will get the job. A simple "we found someone" would be so polite when we've worked together, served on committees, shared projects and pasts.
Instead, I learn of rejection via LinkedIn, Twitter, press releases and news stories. At least I know to stop waiting in hope of a positive response.
This post from JibberJobber Learn How To Say You Are Unemployed talks about a friend who is in a job search. The friend is mad, hurt, wounded, depressed, sad, and feels incompetent.
But really, he's MAD - mad at the people responsible for his need to seek a job. That could make his search difficult, dimming his chance for success, the writer says
JibberJobber explains how to talk about being unemployed, the last job and why you were let go:
Be concise.
Be positive as you tell "your side" of the story and talk about your former boss..
Make an impression about YOU.
That's my summary of the JibberJobber post in a blog I have found helpful in this change of life.
Fortunately, I am surrounded with family and friends. A lively discussion on the radio recently started when a woman revealed a first date went flat when she learned the engineer was laid off.
She was careful to say he was upbeat, good looking, and more. But unemployment wiped out all of the pluses despite the fact that this. couple lived in Michigan, unemployment capitol of the nation. She had no interest in sticking around to see if he found a new job, got called back or could live on his assets without a job.
I wondered if he should have waited to say he was laid off - I have watched the sparkle leave a person's eyes when they learn you are not collecting a regular paycheck. But I admire his honesty. I am what I am what I am.
Still, after reading "how to say I am unemployed" I wondered if he had been "concise, positive, and focused" on who he is besides unemployed. Oh well, at least he did not read of his rejection online. I hope he didn't have the radio on.
I'd written of the early struggle in Citizens won't let newspaper stop printing and 5 Bs still hoping so I enjoyed hearing more about the effort's success and the possibility of some of the newspaper's online content pushed behind a you-must-pay wall.
The American Business Journals quietly kicked up its work on the now-online-only Portfolio, a business magazine that until this spring was part of the Conde Nast organization. J. Jennings Moss, the former deputy editor and new editor, announced the start, though some postings had continued even after one part of the Advance Publications family had pulled the plug. (Portfolio had posts about the death of the chairman of the business journals and his son stepping into the top role.)
We're promised that the new Portfolio will "dig deeper into selected industries—health care, technology, banking and finance, advertising and marketing, media, aviation, and more—and will present a wider range of stories from across the nation."
Grand Rapids Press editor Paul Keep tells how a mother listening to her son ensures the news organization was on top of a story in a column about "Keeping our eyes and ears open for a good story."
While I'm over at NJ.com, I remembered I never shared that columnist Kathleen O'Brien is off on a leave. However, she's also blogging as energy permits in "We'll know more on Monday." It's a phrase familiar to those waiting diagnoses. In this case, O'Brien has cancer and you'll want to start with "my blog, my breast, my rules."
Gordon Young, a freelance journalist who blogs as The Flint Expatriates, gives four hints to help The Flint Journal help its readers know the difference between a blog post and an article that happens to be online.
Perhaps his distance will encourage staff to think about shaping the blogs into blogs.
Young suggests:
Hire a blogger or two to comment and aggregate on what the reporters are doing. I'd amend it to to aggregate what the community is saying, too. I prefer drinking filtered water, not fresh from the river at times, and had high hopes that Blogging and Talking would continue.
Make the blogs look different from the rest of the online site. In other words, let the personality shine through.
Stop running hard news in blogs. In some cases, I think a blog can break hard news if the blogger has developed the story. At The Flint Journal, there's a better way to present news. I think that even the name of some of the blogs indicates the lack of a clear vision for what to expect.
Let bloggers use news from all sources. Actually, from what I can tell the bloggers are using all sources. I'm just not sure they know how to mine the Internet efficiently. There's even less time available to learn what others are doing, or to pick up skills like linking and condensing what others say.
The ideas of the altering the site's looks are out of the hands of even the upper management. Young, of course, is not the first to criticize the site for its navigation problems and looks. At least four Advance Publications were heavily criticized in June in "Rating the Top 25 Newspaper Websites" for their template-driven problems.
The Cleveland Plain Dealer, for instance, was given a D+. That grade was partly because "The editors seem to be throwing darts to decide what content takes priority."
I'll even take some of the blame for the news organization's site since I pushed using the blogging software to get all of the content online instead of sticking with the previous shovelware methods.
Don't expect changes soon. There's a software upgrade in the works, judging by the items I'm stumbling into because of my past work with the news organization.
By the way, it's also good that Gordon didn't see a recent print editon that had a blog post right in the middle of a newprint page. Doubletake time when an unbylined article started out like this: "We'll have to wait to find out more about Joe Serra's potential involvement in the new Saturn. "Online, it was posted in a blog.
Head to the Young's post as I merely summed up his points.
There are lots of folks talking about the effect of content behind paid walls affecting the quality of Google's content.
That's why this cartoon stopped me when I started meandering while checking some blog stats - Cartoonist blogged up energy to save print had a lot folks looking at it recently. That led me to a cartoonist site where I found this Google search cartoon, illustrating a post on the Association of American Editorial Cartoonists site.
"It began Tuesday morning with an angry mother claiming we ran a photo of her deceased daughter in Monday's newspaper."
Yet Pines, the news organization's public editor, could find no photo caption with that name. She learned the photo, provided by the police department, was in a column that is about individuals are being sought for probation violations or failure to appear at court hearings. Pines learned that the photo accompanying the item about Kawanna Earlean-Denise Nabors was her sister Terecita Smith.
Unfortunately, the correction repeated the mistake. You can learn more about how that happened and what the newsroom learned in its investigation.
At least in Flint, the recent photo mixup was buildings, not people. The story was about the US Army Reserve armory that a local college bought for $1. The photo was of the Michigan National Guard armory. This is an old postcard of an armory.
A laid-off editor teaching students to edit seems ironic. But Christofer Machniak, who worked at The Flint Journal for 11 years before accepting a buyout, has turned the experience into three articles up on Nieman Reports.
Chris expected to keep working for the newspaper. He had just become the interim opinion editor, he had been blogging, he was picking up new skills. But two days before Christmas, he learned those skills, those attributes were not enough.
"I was valued, but there wasn’t going to be a chair for me when the music stopped. If I didn’t leave voluntarily, my boss advised, I’d come to regret it."
That notice came just weeks before he was to become an adjunct journalism lecturer. You can read about his experience, including the struggle of managing two jobs for awhile.
The Michigan State University graduate is working toward a master’s degree in English at the University of Michigan-Flint and will return to the classroom. He will even teach the News Editing class again, the one that included this blog.
The blog was part of Chris' expectation that he had to do something different:
"I knew I couldn’t teach them a curriculum based solely on Associated Press Style, editing a newspaper story and crafting a snappy, yet accurate headline."
Yet, he found teaching was harder then expected:
"Looking back, given my lack of teaching experience and the long hours I was still putting in at work, my ambition exceeded my grasp. Teaching turns out to be way more work than one imagines in preparing for it, and it demands more time (not to mention energy and persistence) than one budgets in the beginning."
I admire the work and the thought that Chris put into the class. The articles explain some of the process and I encourage those thinking of teaching read them.
I stumbled across the editing blog in March, uncomfortable that the editing students were getting extra credit for finding typos and other mistakes on the websites of local media.
After reading Nancy Nall who was in the midst of a website design and shared a milestone in journalism to explain her frustrations I understood better my reaction to the class assignment.
Nancy remembers how a breaking news story showed her something important had shifted:
"In olden times, the top editors would come out to the city desk and stand behind the editor as the story was written and polished, reading and making suggestions. Then one day I looked up and they were all standing behind the design editor, watching the page being laid out. Their main interest in the story was how long it would be, if we could break out the background grafs into a sidebar and whether we had a locator map."
"Design is a package. The package must be attractive or no one will pick it up and unwrap it. But equal attention must be paid to the contents of the package, and that got pushed aside during this era."
The newsrooms reflect society where looks becomes more important then what's inside.
It is fairly easy to find the surface errors, the wrong word, bad grammar, etc. But a computer program can find typos and even grammar mistakes.
I want editors who know when a story leaves unanswered questions, too little explanation or heaven forbid too little background.
(Updated 8/30/09 - I was wrong to use this example: ... For instance, in my back yard a restaurant, Blackstone's, opened in what once was a clothing store. In between, the building housed the Greater Flint Arts Council.
I want editors who can coach writers and reporters, who can add links to archived coverage on and off the home site, who recognize a trend while wading through a variety of sources.
I want editors, not computers. Instead of searching for typos, let them look for the holes, suggest ways to appeal to multiple audiences or reflect on the timing of a story (Was this story published at the right time? Why was this story published now?)
Nancy Rommelmann shares the puzzling mindset that paralyzes - what to do when something bad happens to those we once knew in the Monstrousness of Empathy.
"I decided I could not send the coffee, because every time her father drank the coffee, he might think, I am drinking this only because my child has been murdered. I couldn’t do that. I couldn’t impose myself. "
Yet, she wrote. She wrote a powerful piece. She shared a powerful line about what happened to a daughter who was murdered, that many mothers can relate to:
“makes me want to put my own daughters back inside my body.”
And she thinks about of punishment, of grief, of intrusion in an excellent arrangement of words you should read. Really.
There's so much chatter going on around us that sometimes it is hard for us to listen to what's being said in a meaningful way. The conversations erupt around us as white noise. We nod knowingly as we catch drifting words that seem to merit a response.
I'm in the midst of catchup, a lull in my daily routines allowing me to sort through overflowing inboxes for email, blog posts and that stuff delivered by the postmaster.
What I've discovered is the clutter created by volume and change means I've missed some messages I normally would have heard. The bigger problem is how can I create systems so that I don't miss messages I need to hear.
Beth Kanter just presented a workshop on listening at a conference with a theme of "Making Media Connections." She suggested in a post titled Are You a Listening Organization? that there are three models for organizations.
Former Flint Journal reporter Matt Bach has taken on the role of centralized listener for Flint, looking online for all mentions of the area on blogs, news sites and other web pages. He shares his finds via email with a group of people who are interested in the community's image.
Another centralized listener that I know of is Carol Lee Spages, who runs an email list called Green Blood News that frequently features articles about Girl Scouts.
Email and mailing lists are tools I know. I've been challenging myself to learn more about Publish2, a tool designed for collaborative linking. I've been playing with it, trying to find ways to expand the team listening for news about Michigan news or Advance Publications. As I've watched the media-watching blogs collapse,I 've been thinking of what can be used to help watch the watchdogs.
Beth Kantor, of course, goes beyond that simplicity of three models. She shares 58 slides that are a step-by-step to Listening Literacy. The presentation walks you through key skills, essential tools, the art of responding, and "listening in a blizzard." It's a lot for one workshop, but her slides will help guide anyone hoping to listen.
Then, I'm sent a link to Over on Time Out: New York,where Matt Schneiderman offers new career ideas for those (once) in media, with a paragraph on why and how to get each job.
Publicist
Editorial strategist
Grant writer
Project manager
Private investigator
Read through the comments and you'll get two more ideas: social media marketer and ghostwriting. They are probably more doable for me then the recession-proof ideas:
The Time article didn't have much new to say if you've been following the story. There's the couple who miss the Ann Arbor News and would've paid more if only they knew; there's a rundown on who is gathering the news - Michigan Daily, Ann Arbor Observer, Ann Arbor Journal, Ann Arbor Chronicle; and there are the mandatory quotes from a University of Michigan professor and a resident who doesn't like the killing of the old for a bright shiny new thing.
Publisher Matt Kraner gives us the three reasons why this place, why now:
Ann Arbor is an extremely Web-savvy market, probably the most Web-savvy Newhouse has.
The market, with its high-tech industries, is very open to new ideas and new concepts.
The market has passion for its community.
There's even mention of how community decides which ad/deal gets top billing on the Sunday front page of the print edition.
That all helps lead to the ending: "Whatever the ultimate outcome of the Ann Arbor community-content experiment, it's already proved one thing: the content part is easy; the community part is not."
More fun to read is the Muffin blog post from a journalist whose husband helped launch the Business Reviews in Michigan's Oakland and Washtenaw counties. Christine Kilpatrick says it's all about managing expectations with the proper explanations.
“I’ve got a homemade muffin for you. It’s just a practice muffin before I make the good ones for Benny’s preschool. It’s a pumpkin-and-chocolate-chip muffin, but there aren’t many chocolate chips because I ate half the bag while mixing the other ingredients. My oven doesn’t heat evenly, so the muffin’s kind of lopsided as if it was trying to escape its pan. Oh, and I burned it a little too.
Now, just imagine what happens when you bite into a muffin like that and it tastes pretty good. Not great, but OK. Plus, the cook already has shown she knows what she has to work on so we'll just wait for the next batch.
Still, every time I picture that post I think about the Seinfeld show on muffin tops. A former boss takes Elaine's idea of a business selling the muffin tops and dumping the muffin stumps and Kramer starts the Peterman Reality Bus Tour. It's also the one where George says:
"You know, if you take everything I've done in my entire life and condense it down into one day, it looks decent."
I'm still optimistic enough to believe that at least one of these Michigan experiments in news - Detroit, Great Lakes Bay Region formerly known as Flint-Saginaw-Bay City or Ann Arbor -will turn into something satisfying given enough time.
"Back then we never worked too late on Friday At 37-and-a-half we stopped The benefits and pay were sweet in my day In Camelot.
All layoffs were forbidden till forever They never had to fear a union shop Our health-care would be paid for, ending never, In Camelot"
OK, I'm supposed to be working on two projects that never end. How busy am I? I didn't even know Twitter was gone or Facebook was slow until it wasn't.
Welcome to this collection of thoughts. The focus has changed with most posts now on quilting, embroidery, and crafting. The change comes as my life changes -- an exit from the formal, full-time workforce, an entrance into grandparenting, and an acknowledgement that all things eventually end. I still will write sometimes about other aspects of my life, like multiple schlerosis, freelance work and the Internet,. Mary Ann Chick Whiteside, aka mcwflint
A dress made of stories - actually newsprint - showed up courtesy of my ongoing search for use of newsprint.
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