Good Reputation Sleeping

Evolution

Ever since the Tower of Babel, effective communication has been a work in progress. Communication on the web is no different. As journalists, one would think we'd have this figured out. Sadly, we don't.

Here are a couple of attempts at evolving the way we communicate with our audience from The Sunday New York Times.

- 'At Home Again in the Unknown'

Great article about my favorite Icelandic treat, bjork. Online, the article is 'spiced-up' with audio from the interview. A small, but very meaningful value-add. I love being able to hear her voice and I love being able to get some additional content I don't have to read.

- 'How YouTube Helped Lisa Nova Start Her Career'

LisaNova has been one of my YouTube subscriptions from the start. She is droll and bust a gut funny at the same time. She is also timely; able to riff off the current culture at the drop of a hat; her latest, 'LisaNova Does 300' may be her best.

Nice, short and sweet piece in the Times about her rise - and for anyone who thinks YouTube is a fad...please pay attention!

Pistols at Dawn

Dueling web video projects from two of the old/new media powerhouses, The Washington Post and The New York Times. Both attempt to take a fresh approach to what we call 'journalism'. Both succeed in different ways.

First, earlier in the week, was 'onBeing' from the Post. Clean, simple and personal. Short stories of Washingtonians by Washingtonians courtesy great video interviews by Jenn Crandall and great interface design by Rob Curley and crew. It has proven to be one of the most successful pieces ever posted on washingtonpost.com.

The Sunday New York Times Magazine online features director Jake Paltrow's commissioned piece, 'The First Ones', interviewing some of Hollywood's finest. The format is again, very simple - one question, "what was the first film that made an impression on you?" The answers are short and sweet and artfully filmed (almost painfully so), and it works. The interface is nice also, allowing you to watch the whole thing or pick where to enter.

These two projects are not quite YouTube, but are also a nice step away from the TV-derivative stuff we are used to seeing from MSM. Hopefully we will see more like this; video journalism that starts to feel like the web is truly its home.

Information

Lawrie Mifflin -- Talk to the Newsroom -- The New York Times -- Reader Questions and Answers.

Will Times Reader Include Video?

Q. I have been using the Times Reader for a while now and like it as a great, alternate way to read something that feels more like the paper. Are there any plans to incorporate multimedia (audio or video) into the product?

-- Keith Jenkins

A. Yes, we do plan to offer video and multimedia. Because the files are so large, video will only be available to be played when the reader knows you are online. (It allows you to download articles and photos for reading offline). We hope to have this integrated by January.

Many, many more great questions about multimedia at The New York Times. Open and insightful answers which help us get a handle on at least one media organization's attempts to swim in the online waters.

Odds and Ends

Great interview yesterday in the N.Y. Times with Chan Marshall, aka Cat Power. Interestingly, the text was very short and when you watch the video you realize that the vid could easily replace the text altogether...a vision of the future?

Speaking of the future, I am still in love with the N.Y. Times Reader. It's a new take on one of the first online paradigms, the downloadable newspaper. This is done much better, however, and with today's bandwidth and access, the concept could stick this time. Check out Slate's take on it here.
Photo by Erich Schlegel for The New York Times

N.Y. Times Reader

N.Y. Times Reader
Originally uploaded by Burnt Pixel.

So, I am about 10 minutes into my beta-testing of the new New York Times Reader. It downloads the Times to your computer, giving you full access, in a print-metaphor interface, to the full paper - pictures, ads and all. Its search-able, save-able, markup-able, email-able, and depending on the size of your Windows machine, very, very portable.

Once downloaded, you no longer need an internet connection to read it; when you connect again, it updates. So far, I love the screens; navigation is very intuitive and resolution is great. If you are a competing dead-tree media company, be afraid, be very afraid. More info to come....

River on the Metro.

River on the Metro.
Originally uploaded by Burnt Pixel.

Dave Winer is brilliant!
He has a winning way, not because of his stellar personality or because of his movie star good looks, but because, unlike soooo many of his contemporaries in the tech world, he understands the concept of "simple".

He is the father of the "simple" web site (blog); the "simple" push technology (RSS); and now the "simple" mobile information terminal, a cell phone transformed by River of News.

While many of us in the news business keep building more and more complex ways for people to get our content (mobile.nytimes.com), Dave has figured out how to get the people what they want, painlessly.

Brilliant!

Deja Vu, All Over Again

Dancers Land in Iraq. Marines Offer No Resistance. - New York Times.

"One by one, the marines took the stage for one of the most coveted photo opportunities of the war. Tanea sat on a knee of an eager marine while Laurie rested on the other.

Hands on their miniskirted hips, Amber and Renee posed at each side. Dani stood behind and held the marine’s rifle as the camera snapped the photo. Some of the young marines who lined up for the memento were so mesmerized by the experience that they had to be reminded not to leave their weapons behind." - Michael R. Gordon, NYT; Photograph by Jim Wilson, NYT

Things Fall Apart

Hamas Fires Rockets at Israel After Calling Off Truce - New York Times.

"The ruling Hamas group fired a barrage of homemade rockets at Israel on Saturday, hours after calling off a truce with Israel in anger over an artillery attack that killed seven civilians at a beachside picnic in the Gaza Strip, according to Associated Press reports.

The end of the truce raised the prospect of a new wave of bloodshed and the resumption of suicide attacks that Hamas had suspended since reaching the cease-fire in February 2005." - Steven Erlanger, NYT; TV image from Ramatan News Agency

A Room With A View

A MOST EXCELLENT news photo by Stephen Crowley of The New York Times. Its tough to make a new picture in a room that has been photographed a thousand times, but he did.

(Food) Porn Star

Being Rachael Ray: How Cool Is That? - New York Times.

"At the stove in her little cabin in the Adirondacks, about a dozen miles from where she graduated from high school in 1986, Rachael Ray spent a night last week making pasta with sweet Italian sausage and canned pumpkin.

With her mind more on conversation than cooking, Ms. Ray cut a nice gash in her thumb. She bandaged it up, laughed it off and kept chopping.

Even with her wound, wine breaks and the start of a dozen stories she would never quite finish, the dish took half an hour.

Her mother, Elsa Scuderi, who is 71 and lives in the cabin, walked in from the garden when dinner was almost ready.

"Did you burn something?" Ms. Scuderi asked.

"No, mamacello, I didn't burn anything," Ms. Ray replied. She flashed the wide grin that critics of her performances on the Food Network compare to that of Batman's nemesis, the Joker.

Though the nation's food elite might cringe, Ms. Ray, 37, is one of the most influential people cooking today. Let the big-name chefs fuss with foams and sous vide. She'll stick with hot dog nachos and "jambalika," a dish that is kind of like jambalaya. With more than 4 million books in print and four shows on the Food Network, Ms. Ray has shown America the way back to the kitchen." - Kim Severson, The New York Times; Photograph by Fred R. Conrad, The New York Times

She's perky-cute, loves to cook and eat and won't break the bank. What's not to love about Rachael Ray?