Winthrop students pay almost $1,000 each academic year for an “activity fee.” More than 80 percent of that fee goes to the athletic department. The amount going to the athletic department has also been increasing steadily:
My sincerest apologies for the sporadic updates. This is Winthrop’s last full week of classes and I have a great deal of exams and projects to complete.
The Johnsonian will be releasing a special investigative reporting issue next week. The issue will not be published under The Johnsonian’s masthead, due to a technicality involving funding. The name has yet to be decided. The issue will contain projects that took a semester of reporting to produce.
More later…
Talk of an ‘08 Fred Thompson presidential run is once again surfacing.
Never discount the importance of superficiality in American politics (for reference, see Jesse Ventura, the 1960 Kennedy/Nixon debate, or the Washington Post story on “the politics of beauty”). That aside, Thompson’s prospects - already aided by a strong speaking voice and a memorable “Law & Order” acting role - might be bolstered by his resemblance to the recently deceased President Ford. He looks presidential and recently deceased presidents are often remembered favorably.
Does anyone else see it?
President Gerald Ford:
Former Tennessee Sen. Fred Thompson:
Jim Cramer, of Mad Money fame, has nothing good to say about newspapers. According to Cramer, papers “don’t need to exist” and they missed the opportunity to capitalize on the Web. Above all, Cramer lampoons these companies for their poor financial management. Newspapers “seem to be run, frankly, by jokers or dreamers who had no idea how to deploy capital,” Cramer says.
Billionaire real-estate entrepreneur Sam Zell has purchased the Tribune Company in an $8.2 billion buyout.
In the Johnsonian’s office Monday night, we brought up a point that may be overlooked: why not alter the delivery method of print newspapers? Why not make a nice looking machine that delivers a newspaper and a hot cup of a coffee for 75 cents? It could be a great way to increase the print product’s popularity.
Soda manufacturers already experiment with vending machines. Coca Cola recognized the need to have hip machines in order to attract demographics.
Coca Cola machines have evolved over the years:
Newspaper vending machines, on the other hand, have remained relatively stagnant:
Surely someone can come up with an attractive machine that dispenses a coffee and newspaper (partnership with Starbucks in trendy apartment buildings and hotels??). Maybe it could even have a cool delivery like those Coke machines that have a mechanical arm that visibly picks up and delivers the bottle. A nice looking machine with attractive graphics and a fun delivery system might be a great way to attract a younger, urban audience.
Just a thought.
######
Herald blog continues
From the paper that brought you the Staples Center revenue sharing controversy, a new scandal has hit the LA Times.
Brian Grazer, the noted Hollywood producer, was slated to guest-edit the Times’ editorial page. Unbeknownst to readers, the LA Times’ editorial page editor, Andres Martinez, was having a romantic affair with Brian Grazer’s PR woman. Martinez’ involvement constitutes a textbook journalistic conflict of interest. You can leave Martinez your thoughts on his blog. Deadline Hollywood has the full breakdown.
PC World named Packard Bell computers as the worst PCs of all time. The company “was a perennial bottom dweller in PC World’s reliability and service ratings” and had twice the industry-standard product return rate. Packard Bell no longer sells PCs on the American market.
I actually have a soft spot in my heart for the old Packard Bell 406CD. Although it had its fair share of problems, I first learned Windows, HTML and a host of other skills on the old corner PC. Perhaps its inclusion is warranted, but I’d have to disagree with its placement at the top of PC World’s list. The corner PC, with its whopping 16 Mb of RAM and an entire 1 Gb of hard drive space, served my family well.
After so many heartbreaking losses, Winthrop has finally managed to advance in the NCAA tournament after defeating Notre Dame 74-64. The Eagles play Oregon today at 2:50 p.m.
The Seattle Times has an interesting story on the game. The story puts Winthrop vs. Oregon as a New Balance vs. Nike matchup.
Other stories:
MSNBC
New York Times
Social media Web site Reddit has an interesting discussion on Warren Buffet’s recent assessment of newspapers (Warning: the discussion on Reddit contains explicit language) in Berkshire Hathaway’s annual letter.
It’s interesting to read comments on newspapers by people who don’t work in the media world. These are the readers that journalists have to reach out to.
Here are some excerpts:
“People aren’t paying for news. They’re paying for a newspaper to get coupons, the home shopper, classifieds, tv guide, or obits. But they would never buy a paper that was JUST those things. They want news.” - hopper
“The [reputable news sources] are more heavily edited and fact-checked, but they are also pruned into banality and contain hidden biases in the facts, interviews, and events never reported at all.” - tofocsend
On community journalism, Reddit user 570 writes, “Rather than imporve their journalism and give people a reason to depend on them again, they are depending on the public to give them free content. It’s part of their freaking business-plan now!”
“Young people do not subscribe to newspapers. I know I don’t want them in my house! So as older subscribers retire, they aren’t being replaced. The Boomers are headed out and a lot of stuff that catered to them will go with them and good riddance!” - goldenhb
“and why are newspapers so great? 90% of their “A” section content is repurposed wire data. yahoo news get the same data, save yourself the walk to the curb. the only thing newspapers seem to still dominate is municipal politics. the ad content is insane in most local papers. the ad content can be weighed in pounds in the san jose merc. i’m supposed to be rooting for this? goodbye, dead industry.” - cypress-hill
