[A later, edited version of this appeared in the Wall Street Journal, 26 October 2016 under the title "Newspapers are social media"] Digitization exposes weak links. Then it breaks them. So much so that it makes you wonder what people were thinking in the first place. And, according to Harvard Business School professor, Bharat Anand in …
The NYT needs a mathematics editor
The other day, the New York Times published an opinion piece by Adam Grant. Grant is a professor of management at Wharton and an incredible academic star. His output is incredible but apparently he is into procrastination now. He has a new book out called Originals: How Non-Comformists Move the World. This is a pretty …
Hosting Content on Facebook is about Ad Tracking
News came through recently that Facebook will host news sites’ content. Apparently, Buzzfeed and the New York Times are first off the block for this. While we don’t know precisely what it will mean, there is much consternation about news sites losing their distinctive brand and eventually being beholdent to Facebook. John Gruber even invoked …
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HuffPo and the Loss of Trust
You may not have noticed, but recently the Huffington Post has been the poster child for lack of journalistic integrity. The actual details may appear to be small to many people, but not to me. HuffPo has made a sloppy journalistic error, publishing a historically inaccurate story, and on a claim many experts have proven …
One paywall model to rule them all
A few years ago I wrote a post that I was quite proud of. It was entitled "Is Paul Krugman Click Worthy?" Here's an excerpt: The New York Times has just proposed to turn us all into Seinfeld‘s Elaine Benes. In episode 119 of the classic sitcom, Elaine’s preferred method of contraception is revealed to be the sponge. When the …
Disruption from the inside: NYT Edition
The New York Times Innovation Report that was "leaked" last week is a fascinating document. It covers the struggles the NYT is facing in many respects. Well, I say in many respects because while the report was at a solid level explaining trends with a few graphs one cannot help but wonder what is being made …
Digitopoly 