(Roughly) Daily

Posts Tagged ‘future of newspapers

What’s black and white and read all over?…

Surely in a world of instant digital bulletins, the competitive answer for traditional newspapers is to differentiate.  If one can’t be faster than the web, or more complete than the web, or more accurate than the web, then one must be…  well, different.

Readers can visit Google Books for a survey of Weekly World News covers through the years (and can click through to read each issue)– news that’s unique in the marketplace, news that no one else had… news that was available at the check-out stand– and on paper.

As we re-read Revelations, we might recall that today is the birthday of Ambrose Gwinnett Bierce (1842), whose marvelous Devil’s Dictionary helped differentiate a series of (mostly San Francisco-based) newspapers from 1869 to 1906 (when a partial collection was published as A Cynic’s Word Book).

Conservative (noun): A statesman who is enamored of existing evils, as distinguished from the Liberal, who wishes to replace them with others.

Ambrose Bierce

Written by (Roughly) Daily

June 24, 2009 at 12:01 am

The Future of the Fourth Estate?…

…from our friends at Make…  Bay Area readers should note (lest they missed the newspaper ads) that today is the first day of Maker Faire– a mustn’t-miss event organized and hosted by those same good folks!

As we sharpen our craft, we might recall that it was on this date in 1911 that Ray Harroun won the inaugural Indianapolis 500; Harroun averaged 74.6 mph in the Marmon Wasp.

The Marmon Wasp in which Ray Haroun won the first Indy 500

Written by (Roughly) Daily

May 30, 2009 at 12:01 am