a blog about soybean cake and other essential topics
These past few days continue to be a bit busy for me – and there’s nothing wrong with that. I just haven’t had as much time to devote to new posts.
Thoughts still circulate in my head and I will set time aside for new items. This idea, though, caught my attention as I was glancing at Web sites:
The short-selling of stocks – especially of companies that inflate their status or profile – to fund investigative journalism?
First, before I get to the video above, I want to say that my thoughts are with the people of Haiti.
And now this: I never realized who Roger Black is until I came across his 8-minute video clip posted on the Society for News Design.
As a journalist, my job was to chase information and news events, probe, analyze and then file my writing for the Web and paper. Many paper products, as we know, have faded into history.
So, I was out of the loop with leading designers in the United States, such as Black.
Actually, it might not be a “huh?” moment – given the state of print journalism and advertising.
But it’s still news because Editor & Publisher is one of the companies to chart the big-picture and nuanced story of print journalism over the years, including the shocks in the past two years or so.
Now, the publication is set to go out of business.
The company’s Fitz & Jen blog has a quick note. But Poynter has the full note from parent company, Nielsen Business Media.
Ask any journalist in a mainstream organization and you’ll likely hear that reporters and editors often would review Editor & Publisher’s list of the top newspaper Web sites in the country, as well as comparisons to the year-ago period and time spent on sites.
I know: Insider stuff.
In Anyang, a city in China's Henan province, steel furnaces mark the skyline in 2008. Photo credit: Copyright Lu Guang
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I’m Chinese American. My grandparents left China’s Guangdong province in the 1910s and 1930s.
These images of pollution in the Middle Kingdom from Chinese photographer Lu Guang nearly made me ill.
These days, when you hear about a big-name print publication that will close because of money problems, it is still noteworthy.
And certainly, when the Conde Nast name is attached to a publication – as is the case with the soon-to-end Gourmet magazine – people perk up.
But sadly, not all the closings are necessarily surprising.
In international affairs, add the Hong Kong-based Far Eastern Economic Review, which launched on Oct. 16, 1946, to the list of media outlets that will grind to a halt in 2009.
It will stop publishing in December, according to a Wall Street Journal article. Dow Jones, which is owned by News Corp., publishes both brands.
Chinese President Hu Jintao stands in a Hongqi, or Red Flag, limousine on Oct. 1, 2009 as part of the celebrations for China's 60th anniversary of communist rule. Photo source: Xinhua
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As I stood in a retail store in Seattle, I glanced at my BlackBerry Curve to get a summary of news headlines.
I spotted one describing the grand parade in the People’s Republic of China on Oct. 1 to mark 60 years of communist rule.
The Associated Press story carried this topper about the Beijing celebration: “Communist China marks 60 years with tanks, kitsch.”Â
China has changed dramatically in its 60 years under its communist leaders. The economy has surged. More people have better lives, including home and car ownership, traveling to other countries and sending their kids overseas for college.
As analysts pointed out to the media, the parade’s spectacle of floats, soldiers, military equipment and fighter jets was geared toward a domestic audience. It pumped people’s pride.
Of course, the entire world watched – including analysts in capitals around the globe.Â
But kitsch? Was that the most accurate word to use in this context?
The media alliance known as UNITY: Journalists of Color, Inc. announced Thursday that the news industry has lost 35,885 jobs since Lehman Brothers collapsed on Sept. 15, 2008.
Those cuts cover broadcast, newspaper and magazine positions and outpace the national job loss rate by three to one, the group said in its report.
From September 2008 to August, journalists experienced an average monthly job loss rate of 22 percent compared to the national one of 8 percent.
“The news industry has been hemorrhaging jobs long before the economic crisis began last year,” UNITY executive director Onica Makwakwa said in a statement.
“These numbers confirm that the economic downturn has hit the news industry very, very hard.”
Jeff's Pirates Cove remains a popular bar and restaurant on Guam. Photo source: Copyright Neurostim.NET's flickr photostream
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When I spotted Amritha Alladi’s article in The Pacific Daily News about dining options for vegetarians on Guam, I perked up.
Not only did it talk about tofu but it also reminded me that, thanks to the international dateline, this is where America’s day begins – the story is dated Sept. 10, 2009.
I worked for the newspaper for about a year or so back in the late 1990s.
Over the years, many people in the continental United States have asked: What’s life like on Guam?
It’s a place full of rich history and intriguing stories.
In 1990, Ralph Lauren owned this 1938 Bugatti Type 57SC Atlantic. Photo source: Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance
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There used to be a thought that when news broke, you’d go directly to a large media outlet, such as The New York Times, to get insight, images and updates.
The company invests heavily in journalism and does spectacular work on most days. But for more information these days, it’s just as easy, as we know, to go to other sources.
I say this because of the recent coverage by The New York Times of the Monterey County, Calif. classic car show, Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance. I’m glad the company covered it. Otherwise, I wouldn’t have heard about it.
What surprised me was that the Times didn’t include an image gallery featuring the half century of classic cars that had won honors. The expensive cars have curves, bug-eye headlights and other design features worth seeing.
Nichi Bei Times, which launched after World War II to help “reconnect” Japanese Americans returning from internment camps, will publish its final edition Sept. 10, the company announced this week.
The 63-year-old newspaper has been suffering years of advertising and circulation losses, the company said.
But some Nichi Bei Times staff members and Asian American community leaders hope the formation of the nonprofit Nichi Bei Foundation will enable them to receive grants and donations to continue the newspaper.  Â
If the publication ceases, it would mean the loss of Northern California’s oldest Japanese American newspaper. It reportedly has about 8,000 subscribers.
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