Uniques
All this talk of uniques overtaking page-views as the defining metric for online success has me worried about one thing: alienating readers. If the new edict is simply to get fresh eyeballs onto sensationalist stories, so be it. Originality is a must and it’s the only surefire way to grow readership and increase credibility. But at the same time, the relentless push for uniques has the potential to come at the expense of diluting what made some sites successful to begin with. Traditional outlets simply focused on their individual beats while aggregation sites provided readers a clearing house of the most important news in a specific topic. There’s a potential for balance between the two, but I’ve yet to see any site pull it off.
Gallagher is a racist right-wing nut-job. My 10-year-old self is disappointed. My current self isn’t surprised.
Rather than train journalists to dismiss their own experiences, what if we trained them to use those experiences to help them explain the news to their audience? Allow their humanity to shape their journalism? This isn’t some radically profound notion—it only seems that way in the context of the ridiculous zero-sum debate over the relative merits of “straight” news versus the self-absorbed nature of blogs. Maybe there is a way to combine the best of both.
Finally came up for air and took the day off to catch up on several week’s worth of reading. I’ve got two beautiful buff books sitting on my desk collecting dust, but I’m desperately in need of diversity. So here’s an assortment in no particular order:
- The Internet: Everything You Ever Need to Know - John Naughton, The Observer
- Trouble in Paradise - William Prochnau and Laura Parker, Vanity Fair
- U.S. Intelligence Analyst Arrested in Wikileaks Video Probe - Kevin Poulsen and Kim Zetter, Wired (Related)
- The Runaway General - Michael Hastings, Rolling Stone (also: Lara Logan, You Suck)
- The War Against the Station Wagon - Jamie Kitman, Automobile
- Playing Dodgeball With Gawker - and Other Cheap Thrills in the Big Blog Era - Simon Dumenco, Ad Age
- How Reddit Controls the Internet News Cycle - Robert Quigley, Geekosystem
- Clarkson On: Petrol - Jeremy Clarkson, Top Gear
- Driving the Tesla Roadster in the New Detroit - Ben Oliver, Inside Line
- On the Future of Freelancing: The Journalist as Marketer - C-Monster
- Skid Plate Racing Rules the Oval - Mike Bumbeck, Clunkbucket
- Is iPhone 4 Killing Android’s Momentum? - Walt Mosspuppet
This weekend, msnbc.com launched a sweeping redesign of the most important part of their site: the story page. The result is something unlike anything any other major news site is offering and is a bold step in a direction no competitor has gone down (yet): the elimination of pageviews as a primary metric.
Chris Harris in an FIA-Spec Historic 911 rally car. The burble is entertaining, the wail… otherworldly.
Right in the middle of a pair of busy weeks, so the latest 0-60 will have to wait until my next flight. Until I can get comfy in coach, here’s a smattering of what’s oozed through my ocular cavities in the last few days.
- Collectible Classic: 1986 1/2-1988 Volkswagen Scirocco 16V - Jason Cammisa, Automobile
- Tablet PCs Must Get Cheaper, Lighter, More Connected - Steven Levy, Wired
- Your right to comment ends at my front door - Derek Powazek
- Changing the Course at Newsweek - David Carr, NYT
- Volkswagen Polo GTI - Jeremy Clarkson, The Times UK
- Hooked on Gadgets, and Paying a Mental Price - Matt Richtel, NYT
- Steve Jobs: The Next Insanely Great Thing - Gary Wolf, Wired (2001)
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