An Article Nearly Everyone At The Star Should Read

There's an excellent article---no surprise---in today's Sunday Edition of the New York Times that, as I said, virtually everyone down at our own Kansas City Star should read. It is:

A Year of Challenges in the News Business

It's mostly all about what their newspaper---and virtually every newspaper--should do given our changes to how people are reading and accessing news and what used to be newspapers now.

One of the most pointed paragraphs:

The biggest change is probably that so many of them read The Times now not just in digital form, but on a smartphone. That means that visual journalism — including video offerings — must become more central than ever. It also means that even more journalism must be presented with digital tools at the forefront, not as an afterthought.

And this:

“We have to keep asking ‘what’s the best way to tell this story?’ ” Mr. Baquet said. That means that the newsroom itself needs to change — substantially.

Here's hoping this is the direction The Star is headed.

It doesn't seem so but here's hoping. I certainly wish them well.

Apple? That's it? That's all ya' got?

As we all know, the new Apple company--you know, the one without Steve Jobs--had yet another product release this last week.

Yes, they did.

And whoop-ti-freaking-do.

Apple unveils two new iPhones -- the 5S and 5C 

One's a cheaper model and the other offers colors.

Zounds.

Forgive me if I'm neither impressed nor dissuaded from thinking that unless things change at that company, they're going down.

Not even a bigger screen.

Seriously, Mr. Cook?

That's all y'all can come up with?

How NOT to have a newspaper go digital and into the future

Regarding The Kansas City Star and all regional newspapers:

The battle of New Orleans : Columbia Journalism Review

 

A good and important read.

It tells of the end of the Times-Picayune newspaper and its reporters.

It made me rather nauseous to read it.

It makes me fear for our future.

Where media is headed

This was breaking news yesterday:

Facebook will reportedly launch content-specific news feeds

It's yet another announcement, another development in the field of media. It seems like they come out weekly, if not more frequently. And so many companies, in it from The New York Times to Netflix to Yahoo! and Facebook, the Huffington Post and then the TV Networks and who knows who all.

And the thing is, what I don't think most people who aren't in media realize is that this is where media--all media--is headed.

All these companies see that what they need to do is to be a multi-media source for their readers/viewers and on all kinds of technology platforms. That is, computers, phones, tablets, everything. They're all headed this direction.

That is, they're all headed that direction if they realize that's where society and technology are headed.

The younger people are, the more they already are and the more they will use their personal technology--whatever it is--to access news, weather, entertainment, everything. It's already here and it's only going to get more so. It's where we're all headed, like it or not.

The time is coming, and very soon, when people will only have either a cell phone or a tablet (possibly both but likely only one) and they'll access the internet and phone calls, all through the one device. Count on it. It only makes sense.

And those media sources, be they newspaper or TV or movies or whatever, who don't realize and work for this will be desperately, pathetically, even tragically (if that's where you make your living) left behind.

Hear that, Kansas City Star?

The Star, in transition

I was pleasantly surprised, the other day, to see that our own local paper, the Kansas City Star, updated their website. It's fresher, it looks more "adult", more professional and overall, it's just a good improvement.

It still doesn't reflect the paper itself, as I think it should, but that's clearly subjective. Let's just give kudos to the change and improvement.

Then, today, I went out to get the paper--you know, the actual paper, paper--and holy cow. I know it was Monday but this thing was so light. I didn't actually weigh it but I swear it felt as though it might be as light as a whole 7 ounces. Needless to say, there was extremely little to it.

Today? Tuesday?  It may have weighed in at 10 ounces.

So this, then, is where it gets tricky, possibly outright difficult, for the local paper.

The staff has to put enough in the paper for people to want to continue to still purchase and advertise in it, both, but at the same time, they have to work hard to put enough content in to be relevant and worthwhile and even maybe necessary for the new generations, the "next generations", the younger people who would possibly go there for news, information and entertainment, while building up the online content, too.

What the Star needs to do--what I'd say all local newspapers need to do to gain readership online-- would be, among other things, to partner with area artists and videographers and writers and everyone they can think of, to come up with good, local content so the viewers will come to the site.

For example, one thing the Star could and should do that would likely get them better viewership for their website would be having a young videographer do a compilation of sites and people at at least some, if not all, of the First Fridays in the Crossroads District. It could be inexpensive, I think, for the paper but worthwhile for the person who films and edits it and then would likely draw plenty of people to their site.

It's what I've said before here, the Star needs to realize their online site needs to be a multi-media one, just at the people at the New York Times have done and are doing.

They could and should also send these same videographers to events around town like the car show, for instance, last weekend, and the different art fairs around town, etc. It could give far better coverage, quickly and easily, for the areas bigger events from Briarcliff and North Kansas City and Kansas City North to all parts of Overland Park, Prairie Village, far South Kansas City, Liberty, Independence and Blue Springs, etc.

If they don't do that, I don't know why the next, younger generations will go there. And if the readers and viewers don't go, the advertising and advertisers won't, either.

This is going to be tricky.

Very tricky.

On The Beatles, 1964

From Newsweek Magazine, 1964, when the Beatles arrived to America:

"Visually they are a nightmare: tight, dandified, Edwardian-Beatnik suits and great pudding bowls of hair.  Musically they are a near-disaster: guitars and drums slamming out a merciless beat that does away with secondary rhythms, harmony, and melody.  Their lyrics (punctuated by nutty shouts of “yeah, yeah, yeah!”) are a catastrophe, a preposterous farrago of Valentine-card romantic sentiments."

I hope the author didn't give out stock recommendations, too.

Link:  http://www.thedailybeast.com/newsweek.html

I'm so old...

...I remember when the notifications, messages and friend requests on Facebook were at the left hand top of the page.

THAT old.

Seriously, could we stop these things?

Phone books?

Come on, who uses them any more?

Let's stop cutting own trees for these things.

Beginning of the end for Apple's dominance?

Any Apple computer follower--and lots of others--heard the news last week, surely:

Apple CEO Tim Cook Apologizes for New Maps Glitches

It seems when Apple introduced its own maps feature, it didn't work.

At all.

And between this rather glaring shortcoming, combined with the last iPhone release that was, while hugely financially successful (read: they sold a lot), the phone didn't have that many new, great, new gadgets or features to it.

I think Samsung hits Apple pretty hard because of it, too, in this, their latest advertisement:



We'll see, of course.

Perhaps it's just a blip. Maybe it's not over for Apple's ascendancy.

I'm afraid, for them, it may well be.

Link: http://news.yahoo.com/apple-ceo-tim-cook-apologizes-maps-glitches-131156675--abc-news-tech.html

I'm so old...

...I remember when you could scan all of Yahoo!'s news/home page without signing in.

THAT old.

I'm so old...

...I remember when Facebook didn't always keep "refreshing" so that when you were reading something, it would stay right in front of you and not disappear who knows where.

I'm so old...

(Taken from a link from Midtown Miscreant's blog--The American Digest, to be open about it). Have a great holiday weekend, y'all.

I'm so old

 

No more drive-in theaters?

There's an interesting, if possibly sad, article out right now at the BBC site, pointing out that the drive-in movie theater may be all but dead. At the height of the drive-in's popularity--way back in 1958--we peaked at 4,063 of the buggers. Yowza. Now? We have a total of 374 sites in the US with 618 screens. Big drop, for sure. With the next shift coming of going digital, it will require approximately $112,000 per projector and housing to make the switch. The conclusion I come to, folks? If you enjoy a drive-in theater, you'd better get to it next Summer. (Pass the popcorn, will you?) Link: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-15930813

I'm so old...

...I remember all of these: 10 Brand Names Gone, But Not Forgotten Link: http://www.mainstreet.com/article/smart-spending/10-brand-names-gone-not-forgotten?obref=obinsite

I'll keep my "dumb" phone, thanks

I've wanted an iPhone since I saw them. I love the design, I love the things it could do. Clearly, it started doing things no other phones could do. Very cool. But then lots of other new phones came out and the race was on. Sure. I get that. But now? I didn't yet get one, mostly because of the prices and largely because I just didn't need it. That and the fact that it seemed like every 20 minutes, another new one--iPhones--kept coming out. Well, now I see that they aren't just a phone any more. Now they're a small computer in your pocket. And that would be okay except between the text meassages people can and do send, and pictures, and the fact that it can--and does--get your emails and facebook messages and who knows what all AND the fact that the thing "goes off" every time it gets any of this stuff, well, I just don't need or want anything in my pocket that's doing that every 10 seconds or so. No thank you. Is it any wonder people in the world are getting more and more attention deficit disorder? First it was the television set, with all it's twenty thousand advertisements coming at you, all while you're watching only one show. Now this. The phone that is nearly constantly vibrating in your pocket, telling you someone's sent you something or said something to you or--last of all--phoned you.

I'm so old...

...I remember when only Apple Computer products had a "shuffle" feature on their music.

I'm so old...

...I remember when learning how to type was a choice. "Should I take typing class?" It wasn't absolutely necessary to exist, it was an option--usually for "secretaries." Remember them? And remember when being called a secretary wasn't pejorative? Yeah, THAT old.

I'm so old...

...I remember when you didn't have to close the two boxes of options that popped up on YouTube videos, one for the RealPlayer option, the other an advertisement. THAT old.

I'm so old...

...I remember when YouTube didn't offer an "automatic play" option on our "favorites" list. THAT old. (I will say, this feature is WAY overdue. I'd looked for it for quite some time).