I'll be brief.
Hard to complain about the loss of the dingbat from the masthead, nor the heavier play of the New York Times. There is nothing wrong with a global edition of the New York Times, provided they mean by that not a newspaper for American readers of the NYT, but global readers of the NYT and/or the IHT.
How then a piece about baseball in the Netherlands (where I lived for 3 years) got more play directly next to an article about a cyclone in Burma that has killed around 100,000 people is a little hard to follow, but let's put this down as a Day 1 aberration.
As to putting chess, comics, crossword etc all on one page - well, there is a heck of an idea that has been floated at edit since about 1901 I would guess. Certainly in my time there, it persistently came up, and one wonders why the ancien regime fought so hard to obstruct such simple ideas so clearly beneficial to the structure and order of the book. But no matter, finally it is done.
As to that army comic going, Blondie and Dennis the Menace, how that could have taken so long to arrive I can't imagine. People started finding these comics unfunny before they even drew the same conclusion about Art Buchwald, so really they were house guests who had long over stayed their welcome.
As to the redesign, I'll come back to this another time, but it falls into the steady but incremental change school of newspaper redesign, an approach favoured by the cautious and confused. I doubt their post bag will be bulging with complaints, save about type size as opposed to font. IHT readers are so damn old you see!
I think some definition of what audience we intend to serve as the Global Edition of the NYT would be helpful for readers; perhaps one exists internally.
There was once a line written by someone (was it me?) that the IHT should be cognizant of all its international readers and favour none (i.e Americans) and that American coverage should be proportionate to the relevance of the USA in the world, not a reflection of the interests of a minority audience (still sizeable) wanting lots of American news (Americans).
The biggest concern is where this Global Edition is run from, beyond the cosmetics of a Paris newsroom, and who writes for it and edits it. Because one thing is for sure. The average NYT-Manhattan centric NYT employee is anything but global. Less of a problem for the foreign news desk, a big potential problem for op-ed and features.
Their overall information hierarchy and information 'type' model is still flawed, but then which newspaper isn't?
So no spitting out my coffee moment, at least not for now, although I was extremely annoyed to find my wife 'playing' one of those ridiculous numbers games they have now put in; so engrossed was she that she was unable to reply to a question and chat with with me until she had finished.
You see millions of people, who could be reading BOOKS, doing these things all over the place. I have an absolutely non-mathematical brain, save armed with my reliable Excel spread sheets, so it is of little interest and some annoyance to me, but I suppose this is what the people want; bread and numbers games they can do on their way to the office.
My wife however tells me Sudoko (sic?) isn't a big media conspiracy to distract people from the sheer horror of commuting by public transport in rush hour, but in fact, very good for the brain, especially as one ages.
So, for IHT readers, it will be of particular benefit.
Thursday, 22 May 2008
Wednesday, 16 April 2008
Libby Rosenthal
Here's a question that popped into my head the other day when the global food crisis story finally, finally gained global MSM traction with the food riots in Haiti.
IS LIBBY ROSENTHAL OF THE IHT TO BIOFUELS AND THE CREDIBILITY OF THE IHT, WHAT JUDITH MILLAR WAS TO WMD AND THE CREDIBILITY OF THE NYT?
Someone really ought to go back and do a big examination of everything she has written on this, despite being based in Rome right next door to the UN's FAO. (And despite having a travel budget that is rumoured to be bigger than Roger Cohen's.)
Did she buy hook, line and sinker the biofuels spin? Was she over-excited and swept away?
You can find a posting on this blog about Rosenthal's problems with balanced, fact based reporting on the Business of Green.
IS LIBBY ROSENTHAL OF THE IHT TO BIOFUELS AND THE CREDIBILITY OF THE IHT, WHAT JUDITH MILLAR WAS TO WMD AND THE CREDIBILITY OF THE NYT?
Someone really ought to go back and do a big examination of everything she has written on this, despite being based in Rome right next door to the UN's FAO. (And despite having a travel budget that is rumoured to be bigger than Roger Cohen's.)
Did she buy hook, line and sinker the biofuels spin? Was she over-excited and swept away?
You can find a posting on this blog about Rosenthal's problems with balanced, fact based reporting on the Business of Green.
Sunday, 13 April 2008
www.aplaceintheauvernge.blogspot.com
I've concluded the International Herald Tribune is in deep trouble. I think I know why and what to do. I've offered my services, I haven't received a reply.
What's taking up a part of my creative day is something that any lover of the International Herald Tribune really ought to visit, because it hints at the sorts of directions the IHT needs to go in.
At www.aplaceintheauvergne.blogspot.com I very, very rarely write myself.
Instead I practice what I call 'Information Ebru', connecting the dots, leaving space for the reader to either escape to or write their own story about Earth.
This blog is a destination for those who spend most of their lives 'inside', be it their office, airplanes, their own country or their own local media perspective of Earth.
It's a place to escape to, to go 'outside', perhaps to dream.
It's also a destination for people who want to understand what on Earth is going on, but who don't have the time to do so.
I try to filer the already filtered.
Every information source has is its problems (Noam and others, I know); in the time I have available I can only use the one I trust the most in the world - the Paris-based newspaper, the International Herald Tribune, owned by the New York Times.
Their talented editors have already compacted the day's events into 20-odd pages. I think they use something in the region of 1% of all the articles that they have access to and which their editors study every day.
What I then do is to take that 1% and post about 1% of that on this blog. (Some of what I post I agree with, some of it appals me. You too can draw your own conclusions.)
However, what I don't do is follow the traditional main stream media (MSM)information hierarchies (with their distinct pages of news by geographical region, opinion and editorial and their sections on business,culture, sport etc.).
My premise is that (MSM) is parochial and uses information hierarchies, and time lines, which serve as barriers to understanding our world. (This is why MSM is in trouble, which is a shame because the better ones, and the better news agencies, are our eyes and ears and they need to be paid. I hope readers click on to the links I provide to www.iht.com and explore their website and earn them money.)
I then juxtapose pictures of the very simple life I lead along side the Information Ebru, because to understand the narrative of the 6 billion it helps to follow the narrative of just one of them.
I find it humanizes and gives a framework of reference to a story that is otherwise too vast to get a handle on.
Since the beginning of April, I have been regretfully spending virtually all my days inside, at my computer, working on the PR for the publication of the paperback of my book, A Place in My Country, which comes out on 1st, May 2008.
It has not been pleasant: working virtually in 'The Shop', the confinement, the lack of time for my family and friends. It reminds me of a life I once led and will never return to, but all that is better explained in A PLACE IN MY COUNTRY.
Again, if you haven't visted www.aplaceintheauvergne.blogspot.com you will also know that it is equally rare for me to make a posting of great length.
However, the edited article (paragraph breaks on this blog normally indicate where I have edited a piece down) from The New York Times Magazine and in the IHT of Saturday, April 12, 2008, seemed to capture so many of the ideas and stories I am interested in.
(It's interesting to note that its web reference is under anthropology, although the IHT ran it as their lead Business section story. Ebru, a Turkish art form, has been used by an anthropologist as a metaphor for society.)
As it also deals with, inter alia, how we communicate - what I have been doing all month - it also seemed a good note on which to announce that www.aplaceintheauvergne.blogspot.com is officially on holiday until the beginning of May.
It's the kids' holidays as of Friday evening, for two weeks; I have to go to Paris next week for a medical RDV, then return briefly before leaving The Valley and heading to 'The Shop'.
I have also learnt that closely studying, every day, world news, and carefully and slowly comparing other people's experiences with the enormous good fortune of myself and my family, can be a harrowing experience.
I very much want to stop.I won't for at least one full calendar year, but I will enjoy this early spring break.
This coming August - if I make it - will be the third anniversary of our time here in the Auvergne, and the first time since I was seven when I will have lived, more or less continually, in exactly the same spot for more than three calendar years.
This is my place now. Please go and explore it at www.aplaceintheauvergne.blogspot.com while I'm gone.
My story for the year thus far?
If 2007 was the year when the world finally took on board climate change, 2008 will be the year when the world finally takes on board the global food crisis.
Land and water, energy, population, industrialisation, migration, inflation.
I pose the question like this:
6 billion to 9 billion by 2050 = WHAT?
IF YOU RUN A NEWSPAPER OR NEWS SITE AND WOULD LIKE TO LEARN MORE ABOUT MY THEORIES ON HOW YOU CAN SURVIVE, PLEASE WRITE TO ME AT INFO AT IANWALTHEW DOT COM. IT DOESN'T SEEM THE IHT/NYT IS GOING TO, AND ON MY RETURN AND I AM GOING TO TURN TRAITOR AND START CONTACTING OTHER NEWSPAPERS WHO MIGHT LIKE TO LISTEN, UNLESS I HEAR FROM THE IHT.
What's taking up a part of my creative day is something that any lover of the International Herald Tribune really ought to visit, because it hints at the sorts of directions the IHT needs to go in.
At www.aplaceintheauvergne.blogspot.com I very, very rarely write myself.
Instead I practice what I call 'Information Ebru', connecting the dots, leaving space for the reader to either escape to or write their own story about Earth.
This blog is a destination for those who spend most of their lives 'inside', be it their office, airplanes, their own country or their own local media perspective of Earth.
It's a place to escape to, to go 'outside', perhaps to dream.
It's also a destination for people who want to understand what on Earth is going on, but who don't have the time to do so.
I try to filer the already filtered.
Every information source has is its problems (Noam and others, I know); in the time I have available I can only use the one I trust the most in the world - the Paris-based newspaper, the International Herald Tribune, owned by the New York Times.
Their talented editors have already compacted the day's events into 20-odd pages. I think they use something in the region of 1% of all the articles that they have access to and which their editors study every day.
What I then do is to take that 1% and post about 1% of that on this blog. (Some of what I post I agree with, some of it appals me. You too can draw your own conclusions.)
However, what I don't do is follow the traditional main stream media (MSM)information hierarchies (with their distinct pages of news by geographical region, opinion and editorial and their sections on business,culture, sport etc.).
My premise is that (MSM) is parochial and uses information hierarchies, and time lines, which serve as barriers to understanding our world. (This is why MSM is in trouble, which is a shame because the better ones, and the better news agencies, are our eyes and ears and they need to be paid. I hope readers click on to the links I provide to www.iht.com and explore their website and earn them money.)
I then juxtapose pictures of the very simple life I lead along side the Information Ebru, because to understand the narrative of the 6 billion it helps to follow the narrative of just one of them.
I find it humanizes and gives a framework of reference to a story that is otherwise too vast to get a handle on.
Since the beginning of April, I have been regretfully spending virtually all my days inside, at my computer, working on the PR for the publication of the paperback of my book, A Place in My Country, which comes out on 1st, May 2008.
It has not been pleasant: working virtually in 'The Shop', the confinement, the lack of time for my family and friends. It reminds me of a life I once led and will never return to, but all that is better explained in A PLACE IN MY COUNTRY.
Again, if you haven't visted www.aplaceintheauvergne.blogspot.com you will also know that it is equally rare for me to make a posting of great length.
However, the edited article (paragraph breaks on this blog normally indicate where I have edited a piece down) from The New York Times Magazine and in the IHT of Saturday, April 12, 2008, seemed to capture so many of the ideas and stories I am interested in.
(It's interesting to note that its web reference is under anthropology, although the IHT ran it as their lead Business section story. Ebru, a Turkish art form, has been used by an anthropologist as a metaphor for society.)
As it also deals with, inter alia, how we communicate - what I have been doing all month - it also seemed a good note on which to announce that www.aplaceintheauvergne.blogspot.com is officially on holiday until the beginning of May.
It's the kids' holidays as of Friday evening, for two weeks; I have to go to Paris next week for a medical RDV, then return briefly before leaving The Valley and heading to 'The Shop'.
I have also learnt that closely studying, every day, world news, and carefully and slowly comparing other people's experiences with the enormous good fortune of myself and my family, can be a harrowing experience.
I very much want to stop.I won't for at least one full calendar year, but I will enjoy this early spring break.
This coming August - if I make it - will be the third anniversary of our time here in the Auvergne, and the first time since I was seven when I will have lived, more or less continually, in exactly the same spot for more than three calendar years.
This is my place now. Please go and explore it at www.aplaceintheauvergne.blogspot.com while I'm gone.
My story for the year thus far?
If 2007 was the year when the world finally took on board climate change, 2008 will be the year when the world finally takes on board the global food crisis.
Land and water, energy, population, industrialisation, migration, inflation.
I pose the question like this:
6 billion to 9 billion by 2050 = WHAT?
IF YOU RUN A NEWSPAPER OR NEWS SITE AND WOULD LIKE TO LEARN MORE ABOUT MY THEORIES ON HOW YOU CAN SURVIVE, PLEASE WRITE TO ME AT INFO AT IANWALTHEW DOT COM. IT DOESN'T SEEM THE IHT/NYT IS GOING TO, AND ON MY RETURN AND I AM GOING TO TURN TRAITOR AND START CONTACTING OTHER NEWSPAPERS WHO MIGHT LIKE TO LISTEN, UNLESS I HEAR FROM THE IHT.
Wednesday, 9 April 2008
NYT News Alerts and Integration
I had signed up to the NYT news alerts.
Here's how they describe their breaking news alert, which is the one I picked:
NYTimes.com editors will send you Breaking News Alerts when, in their judgment, significant and important news breaks anywhere around the globe.
Here is a recent example cluttering my inbox of a "significant and important news break from anywhere around the globe" that NYTimes.com editors judged significant.
Breaking News Alert
The New York Times
Tuesday, April 8, 2008 -- 10:49 PM ET-----
Tennessee Defeats Stanford, 64-48, in the N.C.A.A. Women's Championship Tennessee dominated Stanford, giving its coach, Pat Summitt,her eighth national championship.
I'm pretty up to speed on global news but I don't know who Pat Summitt is, couldn't tell you what NCAA stands for without guessing, and couldn't care less. Who would, except Americans and perhaps international alumni of American colleges?
The day before? News that the congestion charging south of 60th street in Manhattan had been voted down. Now if that isn't the perfect metaphor for NYT Manhattan centric-ism then I don't know what is.
That is just plain parochial.
Not an uninteresting story, but a breaking news alert of significant importance from anywhere round the world? Get real.
It's worth remembering that it is NYT editors who are shaping the future and editorial content of the IHT.
Two names to watch: Marty Gottlieb and Tom Redburn.
The buzz word in Paris right now: INTEGRATION.
Sounds ominous doesn't it? If that means intergrating the NYT's view of the world into the IHT's then what we will get is the NYT's which, as illustrated by the above, isn't quite the same.
Already seeing much more US content after an intelligent pullback over recent years, and I'm not just refering to the primary coverage (which I happen to think the IHT editors have got way out of whack in terms of column inches devoted thereto. Yesterday's paper, I think it was, was particularly US-centric.)
Watch this space for some analysis about what that word INTEGRATION MEANS when deployed by NYT editors in Paris.
Here's how they describe their breaking news alert, which is the one I picked:
NYTimes.com editors will send you Breaking News Alerts when, in their judgment, significant and important news breaks anywhere around the globe.
Here is a recent example cluttering my inbox of a "significant and important news break from anywhere around the globe" that NYTimes.com editors judged significant.
Breaking News Alert
The New York Times
Tuesday, April 8, 2008 -- 10:49 PM ET-----
Tennessee Defeats Stanford, 64-48, in the N.C.A.A. Women's Championship Tennessee dominated Stanford, giving its coach, Pat Summitt,her eighth national championship.
I'm pretty up to speed on global news but I don't know who Pat Summitt is, couldn't tell you what NCAA stands for without guessing, and couldn't care less. Who would, except Americans and perhaps international alumni of American colleges?
The day before? News that the congestion charging south of 60th street in Manhattan had been voted down. Now if that isn't the perfect metaphor for NYT Manhattan centric-ism then I don't know what is.
That is just plain parochial.
Not an uninteresting story, but a breaking news alert of significant importance from anywhere round the world? Get real.
It's worth remembering that it is NYT editors who are shaping the future and editorial content of the IHT.
Two names to watch: Marty Gottlieb and Tom Redburn.
The buzz word in Paris right now: INTEGRATION.
Sounds ominous doesn't it? If that means intergrating the NYT's view of the world into the IHT's then what we will get is the NYT's which, as illustrated by the above, isn't quite the same.
Already seeing much more US content after an intelligent pullback over recent years, and I'm not just refering to the primary coverage (which I happen to think the IHT editors have got way out of whack in terms of column inches devoted thereto. Yesterday's paper, I think it was, was particularly US-centric.)
Watch this space for some analysis about what that word INTEGRATION MEANS when deployed by NYT editors in Paris.
Friday, 28 March 2008
Newsweek helps out New York Times Travel Section.
Whoops.
Not sure we'll be reading about B.A, Argentina in the International Herald Tribune anytime soon.
According to an Argentinian blogger, 'in an apparently well-researched article', a NYT travel editor riffed off (oris it ripped off?) another media as Mike Oreskes would say. Similarities between a piece about Buenos Aires in Newsweek and the NYT are startling.
Look, I do it all the time, so I appreciate the problem of just nicking people's material and using it but I am, I hope, up front about it.
To avoid doing it, I wont cut and paste and instead direct you to check out the link below which has riffed off the blogger.
http://www.mediabistro.com/fishbowlny/newspapers/did_the_new_york_times_travel_editor_steal_a_story_from_newsweek_80946.asp
Not sure we'll be reading about B.A, Argentina in the International Herald Tribune anytime soon.
According to an Argentinian blogger, 'in an apparently well-researched article', a NYT travel editor riffed off (oris it ripped off?) another media as Mike Oreskes would say. Similarities between a piece about Buenos Aires in Newsweek and the NYT are startling.
Look, I do it all the time, so I appreciate the problem of just nicking people's material and using it but I am, I hope, up front about it.
To avoid doing it, I wont cut and paste and instead direct you to check out the link below which has riffed off the blogger.
http://www.mediabistro.com/fishbowlny/newspapers/did_the_new_york_times_travel_editor_steal_a_story_from_newsweek_80946.asp
Wednesday, 26 March 2008
Abraham H. Foxman
Abraham H. Foxman is back in the letters pages of the International Herald Tribune today.
Mr. Foxman is the New York U.S. national director of the Anti-Defamation League.
A quick search on www.iht.com shows he has about 3 letters published a year.
One observation, one question:
a) Observation: Like most of the letter writers to the IHT, he is not a one-off contributor. Most IHT letter writers have appeared before, so in this respect, there is nothing unusual about his regular appearances.
b) Question: is there a pro-Palestinian organisation, or even a Palestinian letter writer, who has about 3 letters a year published in the IHT?
I don't know the answer to my question but I think the IHT should check that if there is, they get the same exposure as Mr. Foxman.
If there isn't such an organised Palestinian voice, I would say it reflects badly on the public relations infrastructure of the Palestinian people, and perhaps they need some help.
Mr. Foxman is the New York U.S. national director of the Anti-Defamation League.
A quick search on www.iht.com shows he has about 3 letters published a year.
One observation, one question:
a) Observation: Like most of the letter writers to the IHT, he is not a one-off contributor. Most IHT letter writers have appeared before, so in this respect, there is nothing unusual about his regular appearances.
b) Question: is there a pro-Palestinian organisation, or even a Palestinian letter writer, who has about 3 letters a year published in the IHT?
I don't know the answer to my question but I think the IHT should check that if there is, they get the same exposure as Mr. Foxman.
If there isn't such an organised Palestinian voice, I would say it reflects badly on the public relations infrastructure of the Palestinian people, and perhaps they need some help.
Tuesday, 25 March 2008
Looney Tunes at www.iht.com
Has anyone had a careful read of who and what is being posted on the "B.Hussein Obama, he's a pinko, Commie, American-hating, sodomite loving, racist, grandmother-throwing-under-bus SOCIALST LIBERAL!" discussion group at www.iht.com?
http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/03/23/america/liberal.php?d=1#comment?d=1&m=1
Has any iht.com discussion board attracted more comments (soon approaching 600) with so few from IHT readers outside the USA?
It's a Hannity Fox-fest.
Bring it down man. It's just too weird.
And who's moderating this stuff? If you wouldn't publish it as a letter in the IHT why let some of this stuff get posted?
I'm not talking about free speech, I'm talking about quality of debate.
http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/03/23/america/liberal.php?d=1#comment?d=1&m=1
Has any iht.com discussion board attracted more comments (soon approaching 600) with so few from IHT readers outside the USA?
It's a Hannity Fox-fest.
Bring it down man. It's just too weird.
And who's moderating this stuff? If you wouldn't publish it as a letter in the IHT why let some of this stuff get posted?
I'm not talking about free speech, I'm talking about quality of debate.
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