Sunday, January 24, 2010

Don't Miss

...NPR's story on the Bail Bonds industry. All kinds of interesting!
Thnx PP

Also interesting: NYT on transgender name-changes. I wonder at what point, according to MD law, does someone undergoing a sex change officially become the other gender?
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6 comments:

ppatin said...

I thought I should point out that Laura Sullivan used to be a reporter for the Baltimore Sun before she went to work for NPR. What's that line from The Wire about Marimo, he doesn't drive talent away, he casts it away? Sometimes I feel the same way about our town's dying newspaper.

Sun Jan 24, 11:23:00 PM EST
Maurice Bradbury said...

Yeah, the last canaries are "Tweeting" in the coalmine. I don't doubt there was a lot of weiner-y management at the Sun, but ultimately the world has shifted away from newsprint, and there was/ is no real revenue model for Internet information. Someone needs to invent a micropayment system and multiplatform information delivery system and rebuild the paper daily into a 24-hour paying stream from the ground up elsewhere.

We need investors-- I think a co-op model could work, and I think it would not be hard to get together a group of people who could do it.

Anyone know how to write a business plan? Anyone know anyone who knows anyone who can code for phones and whatnot?

Mon Jan 25, 09:47:00 AM EST
Cham said...

I'm not sure I want the Baltimore Sun rebuilt. When you have one organization controlling the newsprint that means you have one person somewhere controlling which news stories get coverage. One is too low a number. When you have several Internet sites providing coverage, and the ability to leave links in comments, that means information comes from many source. I like to decide what I know, not some organization out of Chicago.

Tue Jan 26, 09:36:00 AM EST
Maurice Bradbury said...

if you want many sources of news, then you have to pay many sources to gather it-- the time and expense of listening and recording and interpreting events and putting them in context has to be borne somewhere.

Tue Jan 26, 10:40:00 AM EST
ppatin said...

Cham:

I basically agree with what MJB said. Websites are a great way to distribute content, but someone still has to go out and do the legwork if you want good stories. David Simon (sometimes a crank, but still a man with tremendous knowledge and insight) wrote a column about this a year or two. He pointed out that for real journalism you needed reporters who had spent years developing contacts, who were willing to go spend hours talking to police officers, judges, attorneys (this was in the context of crime reporting) etc. Blogs have their place, for example I think that this one is a great place to collect stories and for people like me to rant about how car thieves should be given the chair, but very few blog writers produce good original content. They generally link to their stories, or just spout uninformed, biased BS.

Tue Jan 26, 11:38:00 AM EST
Maurice Bradbury said...

the organization of information is important.. but there has to be information worth organizing.

Tue Jan 26, 11:47:00 AM EST

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