"America: Now, slightly Socialist-leaning"

According to a new Rasmussen Reports survey, only 53% of American adults believe capitalism is better than socialism

Moved to Wordpress

It's just cleaner ...

see?

well, that and i'm a sucker for pages, tabs, categories, etc.

watch this space -- no crumbs

Distriction: Head's Up

Wisdom in the weirdest places -- and the most apropos times

... it made my week nonetheless

watch this space: the cynic in me has to point out the riot control/opiate-of-the-masses angle of inspirational adverts on the ever-"moving-momentarily" Metro car -- points for PR and practicality

All-Time Vilest Villans in Pop Culture ... Honorable Mention: MTV

Really? Well, seeing as it is pop culture I've got a few honorable mentions after the jump ...


"Honorable" Mention(s):

Ringtones:


Now anyone can be an artist -- I'm looking at you Soulja Boy


Obviously no culture there, but I think I can hear the Pop -- wait, no ... no, that's just what's left of his career -- thought I had something there, alas

Tweens:



they dictate the next big thing in pop culture -- and are every marketer's dream demographic ...

Tweens. They're a hot market, they're complicated, and there are two in the White House: Sasha and Malia Obama. What do tweens consider cool? Music was at the top of the list, followed by going to the movies. "Being smart" ranked third tied with video games followed by electronics, sports, fashion and protecting the environment, according to a report.

so, i guess be on the lookout for vampires that protect humans, are really cool, and are immune to garlic, wooden stakes to the heart, and sunlight


MTV:


case rested. Reality TV -- my bad "Reality Drama," thanks MTV! Just what I wanted ... like the gift, that keeps on ... keeps on giving ... and taking

Case not rested, MTV deserves more than that. MTV is the baddest most vilest villain on the Pop Culture block; it owns the block, it's bigger on the block than Jenny -- and that's big. That said, the state of pop culture reflects on MTV; the state of pop culture now is about bank statements, not making statements. Thanks MTV.

Watch this space: someone call Andy quick, and better call Edie for backup; Pop is only a few weak fads away from life-support -- well, that or a permanent conservatorship a la the one and only ...

Distriction: Day Tripper Deluge

No better time or place to people watch than right now in DC ...


Watch this space: Hold the phone, we may not need Cheney's cardiologist just yet; DC is showing signs of life again

Twitter, you're a lifesaver! -- Literally.

So now it saves lives too ...


and that's why Google and the Times are paranoid

Don't discount the power of people who follow stars on Twitter.

A woman who used the micro-blogging network to announce her plans to commit suicide by tweeting actress Demi Moore was later found by authorities and taken in for evaluation after followers of the actress reported the incident to police, who said this is an unprecedented use of the network.

Watch this space: especially if you are a paramedic -- and as if you're not already

The Silver Post

The big 5-0

I'm up there like Madge


Cent ...

and the cops ...


Watch this space: until the Golden Anniversary

Rolling Stone: Bringing you the hottest artist -- of 2008 ... finally

Rolling Stone finally managed to get arguably the most fascinating figure -- of last year -- on their latest cover ...

it only took Lil' Wayne 3 Grammys, 1 million copies of Tha Carter III sold -- in a week ... in 2008's music industry, and 10 years in the game to get the cover. It is difficult to live up to the Jonas "Clean Teen Machine" Brothers and Taylor "Very Pink, Very Perfect" Swift though -- which is why they got their first covers months ago?

I must admit, the most disappointing part of the long-overdue cover is the lack of originality -- per usual Rolling Stone-as-of-late. Print media is suffering, but it doesn't take millions of dollars to portray an artist's persona ...



Watch this space: Rolling Stone: still gathering moss

(News)paper Chase: From downsizing to digitizing

The ongoing saga of how to sell the story -- resuscitate the ad revenue lifeline for print media -- is more often than not becoming the story itself.


While the newsprint and newsroom personnel downsize ...

“In 2009 and 2010, all the two-newspaper markets will become one-newspaper markets, and you will start to see one-newspaper markets become no-newspaper markets,” said Mike Simonton, a senior director at Fitch Ratings, who analyzes the industry.

[...]

Nearly every large paper in the country prints fewer pages and fewer articles, and many have eliminated entire sections. Bureaus in foreign capitals and even Washington have closed, and papers have jettisoned film criticism, book reviews and coverage of local news outside their home markets.

[...]

The steady trickle of downsizing that sapped American papers for almost a decade has become a flood in the last few years. The Los Angeles Times still has one of the largest news staffs in the country, about 600 people, but it was twice as big in the late 1990s. The Washington Post had a newsroom of more than 900 six years ago, and has fewer than 700 now. The Gannett Company, the largest newspaper publisher in the country, eliminated more than 8,300 jobs in 2007 and 2008, or 22 percent of the total.

online expansion is a window of opportunity for companies looking to transition in the technological age -- to adjust and adapt to, instead of avoid, the digital domain ...

The death of a newspaper should result in an explosion of much smaller news sources online, producing at least as much coverage as the paper did, says Jeff Jarvis, director of interactive journalism at the City University of New York’s graduate journalism school. Those sources might be less polished, Mr. Jarvis said, but they would be competitive, ending the monopolies many newspapers have long enjoyed.

though it may not be greeted with the warmest welcome ...

Many critics and competitors of newspapers — including online start-ups that have been hailed as the future of journalism — say that no one should welcome their demise.

“It would be a terrible thing for any city for the dominant paper to go under, because that’s who does the bulk of the serious reporting,” said Joel Kramer, former editor and publisher of The Star Tribune and now the editor and chief executive of MinnPost .com, an online news organization in Minneapolis.

“Places like us would spring up,” he said, “but they wouldn’t be nearly as big. We can tweak the papers and compete with them, but we can’t replace them.”

the transition is seen as an inevitability

A number of money-losing papers should “have the guts to shut down print and go online,” he said. “It will have to be a much smaller product, but that’s where we’re headed anyway.”

Industry executives who once scoffed at the idea of an Internet-only product now concede that they are probably headed in that direction, but the consensus is that newspapers going all digital would become drastically smaller news sources for the foreseeable future.

Again, the print media needs to break down the barriers between itself and online news media. Print needs to start from the ground up in the digital sphere, and that begins with interacting with online journalists -- and yes, bloggers -- to get acclimated to the new world of online news journalism.

Even Howard Zinn can attest to early Pilgrims' alliance with Natives in the U.S. That collaboration was integral to the settlers survival -- much like an alliance on behalf of the print media with the online news media community is integral to the newspaper's survival.

Naturally, as the settlers gained manpower, capital, a manifesto, and regained enough sanity to remember why they ventured here in the first place, they went from friends to forefathers of a new nation built on the backs of Nativ-- I mean morals and ideals of true Patriots. I see print doing the same; I see print's future relying on a collaboration with bloggers, online journalists, etc., to gain the basic grasp of this new medium. More importantly, I see that as the "cut losses" in time and revenue before rebranding and rebuilding the corporate print news empire online.

Print media needs to start from the ground up. Many companies -- obviously the increasingly paranoid, but rightfully so, New York Times -- take the fear-of-the-unknown route and choose to valiantly play on the sinking ship. There's nothing wrong with humbling yourself and starting from square one; for the print media, they've got nothing -- and so nothing to lose.

Watch this space: especially you advertisers, it's for sale -- still