So, about a year after I got my Treo 650, and mere weeks before I have a kid, Palm announces a new Treo, the 755p. It sounds like a pretty good phone, albeit an incremental upgrade other than a much-improved camera as compared to my current model.
Must. Be. Strong.
I read this article in the American Journalism Review a few weeks ago, and it’s kept me irritated ever since. At first, I wasn’t sure what bothered me about the twentysomethings working at the Charlotte Observer referring to the newspaper as a “dying industry.”
Finally, it hit me: No one in Charlotte was going to say “OK, I know all the news I’ll ever need to know, no more news for me.” Charlotteans still want to read news, but the newspaper industry doesn’t want to sell it to them except in one format they’ve been using for two centuries.
(more…)
As I mentioned the other day, at least two of my high school classmates are now lobbyists/think tank … thinkers. (I have no idea what the generic job description for a think tank would be.)
Jessica has, in fact, just gotten a piece published in the online version of The Nation:
There are many things I think women will come to regret, but not the ones Justice Kennedy fears. They will regret that their doctors are no longer allowed to use an abortion method that can reduce the risks of hemorrhaging, uterine perforation, infection and infertility; that women carrying malformed fetuses will no longer be able to have an abortion procedure that lets them hold their child and mourn it; that doctors will no longer feel free to develop new techniques that might be even safer for women; that doctors will have to modify the techniques that aren’t banned to ensure they won’t be prosecuted; that women whose health is endangered by new abortion restrictions will have to fight them on a case-by-case basis, when a remedy will likely come too late.
But most of all, I think women will regret that a paternalistic government has taken away their right to make their own decisions about their family composition and their medical care. Because ultimately, isn’t freedom the right to make decisions for yourself–good or bad? Wouldn’t you prefer to regret your own mistakes rather than those of the government?
See, when you’re a think tank deep thought-production specialist, they’re not paying you to write knock-knock jokes.
Well, now I can officially say I’ve heard everything when it comes to saving money in the journalism biz:
Pasadena news site outsources local coverage to India
The job posting was a head-scratcher: “We seek a newspaper journalist based in India to report on the city government and political scene of Pasadena, California, USA.”
A reporter half a world away covering local street-light contracts and sewer repairs? A reporter who has never gotten closer to Pasadena than the telecast of the Rose Bowl parade?
Outsourcing first claimed manufacturing jobs, then hit services such as technical support, airline reservations and tax preparation. Now comes the next frontier: local journalism.
James Macpherson, editor and publisher of the two-year-old Web site pasadenanow.com, acknowledged it sounds strange to have journalists in India cover news in this wealthy city just outside Los Angeles.
But he said it can be done from afar now that weekly Pasadena City Council meetings can be watched over the Internet. And he said the idea makes business sense because of India’s lower labor costs.
“I think it could be a significant way to increase the quality of journalism on the local level without the expense that is a major problem for local publications,” said the 51-year-old Pasadena native. “Whether you’re at a desk in Pasadena or a desk in Mumbai, you’re still just a phone call or e-mail away from the interview.”
The first articles, some of which will carry bylines, are slated to appear Friday.
OK, I hear him on the whole Webcasting thing, but from personal experience, I have to say there’s no substitute for being able to clarify things after a meeting with residents, elected officials and staff. And, of course, residents coming in to vent at meetings are an invaluable source of story leads and you miss out on those entirely if you don’t go to meetings, even if you watch the Webcast of people who will never have your business card pressed into their hands.
Still, I bet this idea spreads.
