Monday, January 24, 2005

N&R sports forums for area college programs. 7:39:15 PM    comment []

One of the nicest things I can imagine saying about a person is that he was a good neighbor. Jon Sims was a good neighbor. He died this morning at his home, next to which we moved a dozen years ago. Jon was an ad man. He spent years at big agencies in New York before moving to North Carolina, where he worked for several firms, including Long Haymes Carr in Winston-Salem. He was an idea guy, someone who could relate to people but see the business angle too -- but despite the hours we spent in his driveway talking about our intertwined professions, that isn't really who Jon was to me. He was a friend, a confidant, an advisor on grass-seed and a fixer of hot-water heaters and a lender of tools, a raconteur and voice of experience and encouraging counselor. Jon was 61 when he died, a half-generation older than I am; his youngest son, my friend Charlie, is a half-generation younger. Sometimes I felt like a bridge between them, and sometimes more like a middle child. Jon was a constant and reassuring presence for our own kids, who are incredulous that he is so quickly gone. Jon was the husband of Pat, father of Andrew, Holly, and Charlie, a grandad and father-in-law and decent damn human being who deserved better than a wildfire bout with cancer and an early grave. Good fences may make good neighbors, and certainly Jon respected the invisible line between his domain and ours, but it was a line we crossed frequently and with pleasure. Rest in peace, my friend. 7:21:29 PM    comment []

An article on the Rhino Times from blogger Mark Tapscott (via Greensboro101). I've always thought the Rhino was clever to position itself as an editorial competitor to the N&R, while operating as a business in the free-weekly market. Willy is right that the N&R's blogs and town square give it a new editorial voice to compete with the Rhino, which I've cited here before as the most blog-like of print pubs, but where he sees validation for his paper I see danger. A sharp, personal N&R, and the online alt-media evolving from the cumulative output of local independent bloggers, diminish the Rhino's uniqueness. Of course, a vibrant online community would also send a lot of traffic and attention the Rhino's way...if the Rhino had a web presence that didn't come straight out of an episode of VH1's I Love the '90s. Meanwhile, the areas where the Rhino does compete with the N&R for business are among those most vulnerable to competition from the web, including classified ads and real estate ads. The looming danger goes far beyond some aggregated blog media and the N&R. Craig's List is a disruptive agent that threatens local papers, large and small. When it gets to Greensboro, publications that haven't prepared for it in some way could be in a world of hurt. I said yesterday that the Rhino business model might be safe for a while, but complacency is a killer. They may not need to start blogging tomorrow --  entertaining and beneficial to the local blogworld as that would be, it may not have a short-term business benefit -- but they ignore this stuff at their peril. 2:06:48 PM    comment []

Tie Social Security benefits to gender and race? Perhaps this bad idea fits into some clever master strategy to sell Social Security reform to the public by making the eventual proposal look better by comparison. 1:25:20 PM    comment []

Atrios: "blogging's great, but get over yourselves." Related, from Pandagon: "How dumb do you have to be to declare that you're reporting something faster than the people you're getting reports from?" 1:09:00 PM    comment []

Chris Nolan says Kos is a journalist when it suits him. Maybe we need to broaden the definition of journalist. Things are getting complicated, and I'm not sure the old categories can hold. Say GSO councilman Tom Phillips goes to a national convention of City Council members, then reports on it at his weblog -- should he have worn a press pass that day? 1:06:24 PM    comment []

N&R adds some public forums to its website. And then adds some more. 8:27:21 AM    comment []

NYT on the growth of online advertising: "(N)ews and information sites, long thought to be dot-gone relics of 1999, are making a big comeback in 2005." Media companies are buying web businesses "not just because of the growing online ad business but because, like Dow Jones, they are worried that their current Web sites will not be able to keep up with demand." The article by Eric Dash quotes Larry S. Kramer, a founder and chief executive of the MarketWatch site just purchased by Dow Jones after a bidding war with three rivals: "The existing old-line media companies, which have a big stake in where people advertise, have to recognize this medium...it's not just revenue they are going to pick up. It's revenue they are going to lose." 8:19:41 AM    comment []

Political Strategy is a blog co-authored by UNC Greensboro prof Bonnie Yarbrough that is "dedicated to providing political strategies, ideas and tactics for local progressive campaigns," and to "daily analysis, critique and exposure of current events." 8:14:10 AM    comment []

Andrew Sullivan in the NYT book review, on the scandal and investigation of Abu Ghraib: "I confess to finding this transparency both comforting and chilling...Comforting because only a country that is still free would allow such airing of blood-soaked laundry. Chilling because the crimes committed strike so deeply at the core of what a free country is supposed to mean." Read the whole thing. 8:08:42 AM    comment []