Buttermilk & Molasses

McSweeney's Unveils Another Future for Newspapers

I suppose it's appropriate that I'm sitting down tonight with 320 pages of original news content, pondering how the future of journalism might actually be contained in the redesigned, re-imagined format of newsprint and ink.

Even as I sit and ponder, dozens of Richmonders have gathered to hear several local news experts talk about the future of news at the recently reopened Infuzion in Scott's Addition. That's appropriate and ironic, since the host of that event is Aaron Kremer, who successfully launched Richmond's only online business publication last year and was taken to task this week by some of the town's Twitterati for his "Why I still hate Twitter" column.

Appropriate, and timely, too, that much of the media talk this week has been about ways in which the poorly named iPad will save the book industry, the magazine industry and, possibly, the Chinese manufacturing industry.

It's no secret the media world is in a swirl, but I find quiet pleasure when I sit down to discover that some talented, smart people are playing around with ways to craft a different future for it.

Which brings me to McSweeney's. If you know them at all, it's most likely for their hip online site filled with bits of news, satire, good writing and powerful essays. Or for McSweeney's Quarterly Concern, its experimental publishing concern. It's less likely that you know McSweeney's for its writing and tutoring centers, named 826 and located in seven cities around the country.

Someone on Twitter (Jeff Kelley or Jason Kenney, or maybe it was Simon Owens) alerted me to the existence of McSweeney's San Francisco Panorama, the massively dense and oversized attempt to produce an interesting, relevant and well-designed newspaper. I promptly sent away for my copy, ponying up $16 on a hope and a prayer.

It arrived today, and skimming through a few of its sections and one of its glossy magazine inserts, I have to say, I'm impressed. The brainchild of author Dave Eggers, founder of McSweeney's, the Panorama is an amazing handful of news, stories and design.

A bit big to read on the bus, but a nice read, nonetheless.

Nice enough that the entire print run sold out on the streets of San Francisco in 90 minutes when it was released on December 8. (Newsies sold the 320-page newspaper on the streets of San Francisco for $5.)

I'm not the only one. Here's what the San Francisco Chronicle had to say about the San Francisco Panorama:

"We started this six months ago with an eye to reinventing the form," said best-selling author Eggers, who fell in love with papers and print while working on his college newspaper. "When I was hearing about the death of newspapers, it hit me viscerally: What if I don't have a newspaper in the morning? If newspapers are going to survive, they're going to have to do things the Internet cannot do."

As newspapers across the country grapple with a bad economy and changing media landscape, retrenching in size and staffing, Panorama is a celebration of print. Big (at 15 by 22 inches), bold and colorful, with a mix of experimental graphics and serious journalism delivered in a literary style, the one-day, one-time-only paper is intended to get people to think about the centuries-old medium in new ways.

"This is a time to roar back and assert and celebrate the beauty of the printed page," said Eggers, whose book "A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius" made him a literary sensation when it was published in 2000.

So, what's in this celebration of the printed page? Lots. Here's how TIME magazine describes the broadsheet:

"We wanted to remind people of what newspapers can do that the Internet can't," Eggers explains: the format excels at long articles, photographs and comics and can be read anywhere — "even in the bathtub."

To that extent, the Panorama achieves its goal. The publication is a graphic designer's dream, with full-page charts on everything from "The Crisis in the Congo" to how to butcher a lamb. It is easy to read and aesthetically pleasing, and there's just no way people would get through Porterfield's 22,000-word investigation into the jumbled finances of the San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge if they read it on the Internet. Every piece of reporting is factual and accurate, and McSweeney's tendency toward honesty — the Congo is "confusing," the bridge's funds "impossible" to track — give it a we're-on-your-side tone rarely seen in print. Currently, none of its content can be found online. "The point is to have readers pay for what they read," says Eggers. "Imagine that!"

If I were the editor of a daily paper, I'd order a copy for everyone in my newsroom, give them a week to read through it and take notes, and then organize a full-day retreat to pick it all apart and figure out what brilliant ideas could be repackaged for our newspaper.

And if I just loved news and information and the feel of a newspaper, I'd order my own copy and enjoy it while a blizzard rages outside my window. Which is exactly what I'll do this weekend.

Local Boys Done Good: Congrats, Martin Agency

They threw a party down at Richmond's Martin Agency this afternoon. You can bet that few people in the Shockoe Slip headquarters imagined a year ago that they'd find a reason to celebrate 2009.

That was before the Richmond-based agency landed 14 new gigs, boasted a 12 percent net gain in revenue and garnered a coveted U.S. Agency of the Year Award from AdWeek.

The Pizza Hut win capped off an aggressive new business run for The Martin Agency, Adweek's U.S. Agency of the Year, as it posted an estimated 12 percent gain in revenue to $129 million. A double-digit gain would be noteworthy in most any year, but it's particularly impressive in a year when "flat is the new up" became a common, if wishful, refrain among agency executives.

In addition to Pizza Hut, the Interpublic Group agency won Expedia, Sun Life Financial, the United States Tennis Association, Microsoft retail, ChapStick, 1-800 Contacts and Manpower. While continuing to turn out work that lent heart to Walmart's money-saving strategy, laughs for Geico, memorable musical numbers for Freecreditreport.com and a minute-by-minute digital re-creation of the 1969 Apollo moon landing for the JFK Presidential Library and Museum and AOL, Martin's creative prowess also attracted projects from ProFlowers, Moen and Rosetta Stone.

"I haven't worked this hard since my thirties," cracks Mike Hughes, the 61-year-old president and co-chief creative officer of the 45-year-old agency. Hughes, a soft-spoken, well-respected copywriter by trade, has served as the agency's creative leader for the last 28 years and has proudly fostered a collaborative culture that is as supportive as it is dedicated.

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Now that so many of the relatively large local businesses in Richmond have closed shop, it would be a great time for the Martin Agency to step out of the shadows to become a strong, active voice for the region.

Twitter. Breathing. You Either Get Them, Or Not.

I was a bit amused by this morning's column by Richmond BizSense editor Aaron Kremer. It was titled, "Why I still hate Twitter." My first reaction? "You needed a column to tell us this?"

Kremer is notorious in certain circles of Richmond for two things.

First, he has successfully launched Richmond's first online business news publication.

Second, he acknowledged that he hated Twitter last year -- in front of 350 people who were obsessed with Twitter and the role of social media tools in marketing and communications. (For the record, I think I was the panelist who was tweeting.)

But I am open to new ideas, so I tried it for a few months. I am in the business of knowing what’s happening, so I should be a good case study of Twitter’s supposed power. And as a small-business owner, I am willing to do pretty much anything I have to to make the business thrive – even more so now that I have four employees who rely on me. That is, I capitulated.

I followed about 50 people and checked their updates at least once a day. I had about 200 people following me – but very few were our target readers. I tried to post three or four updates a week. Most were related to stories we were writing. I couldn’t bring myself to post inane details.

“My dog just burped. He’s so cute.”

My study is complete, and it’s just as I thought: a waste of time and completely useless for business unless you want to reach lots of marketing people. I firmly believe that most business professionals who spend time on Twitter shouldn’t fool themselves. It’s playtime, no different from monkeying around on Facebook or checking ESPN or TMZ.

I think it's fine that there are people who see little or no value in Twitter, or blogs, or Facebook, or downloadable music, or telephones or being able to listen to clay disks that play scratchy opera music on a Victrola. Sometimes, there is no real value in new technology. And sometimes there is just no real value in that technology to certain people.

That's how the world limps through the process of innovation.

But I also realized that the some of the comments attached to Kremer's piece made my teeth hurt. I particularly enjoyed this statement from one Richmond BizSense reader about the past 30 years of development from Apple Computer:

This technology just doesn’t have the potential to improve my life…only complicate it.

Now that's someone I want on my strategy team.

Warm Up With Wilco (and Rebuild Haiti)

Okay, first off all let's get the facts straight -- the first free concert video is Wilco PLUS Yo La Tengo. Twice the motivation.

NPR's All Songs Considered Blog has alerted lovers of amazing music that the band Wilco -- You remember Wilco? The band that sold out of tickets for its late March show in Richmond in mere hours? -- is raising money for Oxfam and Doctors Without Borders to help with relief efforts in Haiti.

They've posted two live shows as free downloads, asking fans to make a donation in return. Head over to Wilcoworld for deets.

Fresh Fruit for Rotting Senators

Here's a great question from Josh Marshall at Talking Points Memo:

If Republicans held up signs and jeered the president the last time he addressed a joint session of Congress and one of them called him a liar to his face as he spoke and then became a right-wing folk hero, what should we expect when he addresses Congress Wednesday night?

Do they frisk senators for rotting vegetables when they enter the Capitol? I'm thinking lots of produce. That seems how things roll around that place these days.

(But, seriously, is this not going to be the most awkward State of the Union ever? The Republicans will literally have their hands velcroed to their pants legs while Obama speaks.)

If Apple's Steve Jobs Gave the State of the Union

Never mind that New Order's "State of the Nation" bounces into my head every single time I think about the State of the Union Address, the smart folks at Slate went one step further tonight. That's right, tonight I will sleep with dreams of Steve Jobs delivering the State of the Union in his jeans and black turtleneck. If I'm lucky, someone will hurl a gigantic hammer through the screen behind him.

Here's how Slate envisions Apple's CEO delivering a stand-in address for President Obama:

Thank you for coming. And thank you to President Obama for asking me to deliver this year's speech. We're going to make some history today.

You know, it was just a year ago that we announced our economic plan for 2009. We said we were going to turn around the recession. We said we'd create jobs. And we said we'd do it in 12 months. What happened? We did it in three. It was the most successful period in the history of the United States. And 2010 is only going to be better. How awesome is that?

(APPLAUSE.)

How did we do it? Simple. We made a stimulus package. It had the most features of any package we've ever created—more jobs, more money, more everything. We could have stopped there. We could've said, Hey, that was great. Let's go do something else. But you know what? It wasn't enough. The American people deserve something even better and more revolutionary.

So today, we're introducing a new plan. It's called Stimulus 2GS, and it's sleeker than any economic recovery package ever created. It's got bridges, it's got schools, it's got broadband Internet. All that, and it's super easy to use—you can control it from iTunes. Pretty cool, huh?

It gets better. Really. Go read it.

The New Political Meme: Dems Doomed

I haven't blogged much about the recent political races in Virginia or Massachusetts. Maybe it's more honest to say I haven't blogged at all about either campaign.

But it strikes me that the two races are remarkably similar, and that the Democrats are walking away learning all of the wrong lessons.

The main reason the Democrats were trounced (in relative terms) in both races was that they ran lackluster candidates who made calculated (or stupid) decisions to treat their campaigns like cakewalks. Oh, it didn't hurt that in both races, the Republican candidates -- now known as Governor McDonnell and Senator-elect Brown -- came across as hard-working optimists.

Steven Pearlstein at the Washington Post, a Massachusetts native, says there are some additional underpinnings that are playing a role in our new political reality:

The first thing to say is that while those of us who are Washington insiders may be focused on health reform, the country has its mind on lots of other things. First and foremost is a lousy economy that has resulted in lots of lost jobs and lost wealth, a big spike in the federal deficit, and big budget shortfalls for state and local governments. Combine that with lousy weather, an attempted terrorist attack, a never-ending war in Afghanistan and an earthquake that may have just killed 200,000 people and you don't have to be George Gallup to figure out that Americans are in a grumpy mood and might want to take it out on the politicians and parties in power.

That seething discontent is no less evident in Florida and California, states with Republican governors, than it is in Virginia and New Jersey, which until this month had Democratic governors. And it's even true in other countries -- Britain, Ireland, Greece, Japan, Mexico, Canada, Chile and Argentina are several that come to mind. The common thread in those places isn't health-care reform.

Columnist E.J Dionne weighs in with another perspective, which I think has merit. After President Obama took Washington by storm a year ago with hope and optimism and a merry chorus of "Yes, we cans," the Democrats have shown exactly what a lack of progress looks like:

The United States Senate should take a lot of blame for taking forever to pass a health-care bill. The Senate Finance Committee in particular delayed and delayed, failing to produce a bill before Congress’ August recess. This allowed the raucous conservative protests to dominate the late summer news and prevented Congress from passing a bill this fall, which is when it should have been sent to the president. The longer Congress took, the worse the process looked. The ugliness of the process badly tarnished the bill itself. The excessive time consumed by health care prevented Congress from acting on other issues. And having still not passed it, Democrats now have to figure out how to get it done without that 60th Senate vote.

But it wasn't health care that derailed these races. It was -- it is -- a growing sense on the streets of America that no one in Washington gets it, no one is paying attention, no one is focusing on the problems that matter most to the average voter.

Looking ahead to November -- when the Democrats stand a very real chance of losing control of both the House and Senate -- it's going to be interesting to see how the tide ebbs, or flows. And which party leads with a can-do attitude, and which one leads from the back of the parade. Right now, the odds don't favor the Democrats.

Martin Luther King Day: Three Poems

Poet and teacher John Lundberg offers up three poems at the Huffington Post today in honor of Martin Luther King Day -- poems by three of America's most powerful modern poets, Langston Hughes, Gwendolyn Brooks and Nikki Giovanni. The Giovanni poem is particularly powerful given its origins -- the back-to-back assassinations of King and Robert Kennedy -- but, as Lundberg notes, it's stunning to consider that Hughes' poem was written just 50 years ago:

I, Too, Sing America

I, too, sing America.
I am the darker brother.
They send me to eat in the kitchen
When company comes,
But I laugh,
And eat well,
And grow strong.

Tomorrow,
I'll be at the table
When company comes.
Nobody'll dare
Say to me,
"Eat in the kitchen,"
Then.

Besides,
They'll see how beautiful I am
And be ashamed--

I, too, am America.

Nice Move, Royal Caribbean (Cruise ship frolicks in Haiti)

Haiti has long been a destination for cruise ships plying the waters of the Caribbean, though you'd expect that the recent catastrophic earthquake might be reason enough to divert boats filled with tourists elsewhere for a while.

Cory Doctorow at Boing Boing reports that common sense doesn't always guide the decisions of large corporations; in fact, they can sometimes be really good at self-justification when the chips are down.

The Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines' ship Independence of the Seas went ahead with its scheduled stop at a fenced-in private Haitian beach surrounded by armed guards, leaving its passengers to "cut loose" on the beach, just a few kilometers from one of the worst humanitarian disasters in the region's history. The ship's owners justified it as a humanitarian call, because the ship also delivered 40 palettes of relief supplies while its passengers frolicked on zip-lines and ate barbeque within the 12-foot-high fence's perimeter.

At least a few passengers saw the conflict in the decision:

The decision to go ahead with the visit has divided passengers. The ships carry some food aid, and the cruise line has pledged to donate all proceeds from the visit to help stricken Haitians. But many passengers will stay aboard when they dock; one said he was "sickened".

"I just can't see myself sunning on the beach, playing in the water, eating a barbecue, and enjoying a cocktail while [in Port-au-Prince] there are tens of thousands of dead people being piled up on the streets, with the survivors stunned and looking for food and water," one passenger wrote on the Cruise Critic internet forum.

The Future of News (with rhymes)

Richmond BizSense is getting all serious with their brand, throwing a "discussion and schmooze" on the "future of news" (there's your rhyme) on January 28 at the (apparently) newly reopened Infuzion on Roseneath Road.

In addition to scoring a photo of RVANews' Ross Catrow in a tie (Who knew!?) they're bringing together some of the more interesting, and usually candid, voices in the media sphere. In addition to Catrow, who helped found RVABlogs and RVANews, the BizSense media dance card includes: the always erudite Jim Bacon of Bacon's Rebellion; Susan Winiecki, editor-in-chief and part of Richmond Magazine's stellar turnaround team; Style Weekly's publisher, Lori Collier Waran; and the drum-beater for newsroom innovation and president of the Times-Dispatch, Tom Silvestri.

The deets:

Where will Richmonders get their news in two years? And what does that mean for businesses that rely on accurate and reliable information and targeted local advertising? BizSense is delighted to host an all-star panel of local publishers and entrepreneurs who will talk candidly about the state of the news business and what changes are in store for the coming decade. Please join us at the dazzling Infuzion bar/restaurant for what promises to be an extremely timely, lively, and important conversation. And a remarkable opportunity for networking.

Thursday, January 28, at Infuzion, 401 Roseneath Road.

Schmooze from 6:00 until 6:30 p.m. Listen to the discussion from 6:30 to 7:30 p.m. Schmooze more until 8:00 p.m.

Go forth and register for what is sure to be a sold-out event by emailing sarah@richmondbizsense.com. Tickets cost $15.

In addition to the fact that they are charging, it's a bit silly that the future of news in Richmond features an ensemble cast of print/online experts -- but no one from television or radio! Still, it promises to be a great discussion.