Having been involved with the magazine publishing industry on and off for years, here are a few thoughts on the impact of technology and the ownership of media. People in publishing are great, they are creative, they know their readers, and they know their advertisers. The medium hasn’t changed since it was invented, that being ink on paper aside from some slight of hand to get the words on the web. Reading a magazine is a tactile experience, it is portable, available on demand when you want it. Some of the best reading is done in the bathroom in my case. What the magazine is not, is interactive, immersive, or a two way communication medium. Editors realize that understanding their readers is the key component to telling an effective story; two way interactive communication makes this easier. Now changes in technology like the impending release of Apple’s iPad will impact greatly how this content is presented. The folks at WIRED magazine (which of course is a technology magazine) get it! Period. They understand what the new technology means to their readers, their designers, editors, sales people and ultimately their advertisers. They are working with partners like Adobe to deliver what is a potentially kick ass content experience that will see people never going back to the old paradigm.
The video below shows how WIRED is tuning it’s iPad application and what they call digital story art.
What is important here is the word art. Art is innovative, creative and according to the general concept definition from Wikipedia “Art is the process or product of deliberately arranging elements in a way that appeals to the senses or emotions”. Once you see the WIRED video this definition will hit home.
Now the rant about the old school model. The problem I have with magazines is the ownership. Particularly media owners like Rupert Murdoch and his News Corporation and the bunch of douche bags that run Viacom, Walt Disney, Time Warner, Hearst Corp. and so on and so on blah blah blah. By the way WIRED is owned privately by Advance.net, and Advance Publications.
These conglomerates are arrogant and narrow minded, especially Murdoch. Recently he displayed his arrogance with the statement; “content is not only king, it is emperor of all things electronic”..
Declaring News Corp “the world’s preeminent content company”, Murdoch said “devices and platforms are proliferating”. And regarding the iPad; “But this clever technology is merely an empty vessel without any great content,” he said. “Without content, the ever larger and flatter screens, the tablets, the e-readers and the increasingly sophisticated mobile phones would be lifeless.” His point of course is that his companies are the emperors of the content with the likes of the Wall Street Journal. The WSJ is the only paper in his stable that charges for content at this time. Murdoch thinks this “paywall” model will become the saviors of the ink on paper scrolls. This is not likely in the iPad world. Apple will control the channel and Murdoch will get his piece along the way. Word’s on the screen however cleverly written won’t be able to compete once the new interactive model becomes ubiquitous.
What Murdoch owns are the bricks that this empire were built upon but not the people inside his walls. It is the people who are the vessels of this new digital art and they dont need a New Corp. cubicle to deliver it. That is the great thing about the Internet, Mr. Murdoch doesn’t control it, its network, it’s content or it’s users or even this this bloody blog.
There will be no room for Murdoch in this world in ten (maybe five) years unless he decides to change. He’s 78 years old and a billionaire…he’s not going to change and I won’t pay for his crap content.
It seems there are some serious inept Facebook users who when going to login into Facebook simply Google “Facebook login”. Since Facebook has made some changes lately to it’s login page it seems to have lost some Google ranking in the search for “Facebook login”. What took it’s place was on article from Read Write Web on AOL and Facebook integration. Here is the funny part…even after clicking on the first link in the Google search the FB users left comment on the RRW page indicating their displeasure with the “new” Facebook. So many comments were logged that RRW had to place a disclaimer in their post…see below.
RRW Disclaimer over Facebook login
HOW are you not able to find Facebook on the internet. Reminds me of some search stats from Google from lats year that had the Term “Google” ranking in the top ten. People Googled Google WTF?
You know everyone takes themself’s too seriously, I mean don’t be so bloody pious and snotty! I don’t see how this “smart” commercial for Audi is controversial. Does it mock the environmental movement?…YES, even if that was not (maybe not) the direct intention. Look, funny is funny, and the more you move to the right or left of the “politically’ correct centre then the funnier it is.
The tree huggers deserve some more bashing, they have had an easy ride for too long now.
Personally I like to grab a “BRICK” of napkins when I chow down on my calzones, fucking things are messy, what am I going to do, wear a towel??
Here is another example of how Goldman is robbing the public.
1. IndymacBank was seized by the FDIC (Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation) in July of 2008.
2. The assets of IndymacBank was sold to a company called OneWest Bank by the FDIC.
3. Who owns OneWest Bank you ask? That is Stephen Munchin. Yes the VP of Goldman Sachs – Stephen Munchin. Also, Goldman clients George Sores and John Paulson (these two guys speak for themselves).
4. All mortgages were sold to OneWest Bank by the FDIC for $0.70 on the dollar.
5. In addition, the FDIC guaranteed to cover between 80% and 95% of the losses that OneWest Bank may experience as the result of purchasing the mortgages.
Why is this so bad for you and me? Here is where it gets scary.
6. In case of any losses by OneWest Bank, the calculations are done on the ORIGINAL MORTGAGE VALUE and not what OneWest Bank paid for the mortgage.
Image by Ingram Pinn
Here is an example:
If the original mortgage was for $300,000. OneWest Bank paid $210,000 for it ($300,000x 0.7 – $0.70 on the dollar).
If the house goes into foreclosure or a short sale situation, then the property is put on sale. Let’s say the highest bid for the house in foreclosure is $200,000.
Technically, OneWest Bank lost $10,000 ($210,000 what they actually paid for the house to the FDIC minus what the house sold for $200,000).
Does the FDIC cover between 80% – 95% of the $10,000 that OneWest Bank actually lost? NOOOOOOOO! They guaranteed to cover 80% – 95% of the losses using the ORIGINAL MORTGAGE VALUE.
In this instance, let’s say the FDIC guaranteed 90% of the losses. So using those numbers, the actual amount that the FDIC pays OneWest Bank is $90,000. That is 90% of the difference between $300,000 (the original value of the mortgage) and $200,000 (what the house sold for).
What does OneWest net out from this deal?
So OneWest Bank gets:
$200,000 from the new buyer of the house.
+ $90,000 from the FDIC.
- $210,000 (what they paid to the FDIC).
=$80,000 on a $210,000 investment. A tidy 39% return on their money.
WOW, IT IS GOOD TO HAVE FRIENDS IN HIGH PLACES.
Oh by the way, OneWest Bank may collect more as it is asking the person walking away from the house to sign promissory notes for about $50,000. They are trying to collect more money from the original home owner.
IF THIS KIND OF MONEY CAN BE MADE FROM SHORT SALES AND FORCLOSURES, WHY WOULD OneWest Bank want to modify any mortgages for the current home owners?
Oh by the way, that is the same FDIC that just announced that it needs to borrow money from the US Treasury at 0% interest and with little hopes of ever paying it back. The US Treasury just approved them to borrow from them at 0% interest. By the way, do you know where a lot of ex Goldman employees currently work, you guessed it. The Treasury.
1. They put together a financial derivative product. It is just a bunch of financial things put together including mortgages, futures, etc. Let’s say that’s a car.
2. They sell the car to financial dealers who sell it to their clients.
3. Goldman now goes to AIG and says “let’s make a bet that the car will break down” .
4. AIG says great. I assume you will bet that the car will not break down since you put the car together.
5. Goldman says no, we want to bet that the car will break down.
6. AIG says wait a minute, why would we take that bet?
7. Goldman says because the AIG department that they are talking will make $600 million in bonuses from the deals.
8. The AIG guys says great, I want the bonus so I will take that bet.
9. Goldman already knows the car is going to break down because they built the car.
10. The car breaks down and Goldman wants their money from AIG.
11. AIG does not have the money to pay Goldman.
HERE’S WHERE THE TAXPAYERS COME INTO THE PICTURE
Geitner and Paulson (ex Goldman guys) convince congress to bail out AIG. AIG pays out the bets in full to Goldman. No negotiating, no discounting. Why did they do this? Selfishness and greed.
You see Geitner and Paulson have huge pensions with Goldman. If Goldman goes under because AIG can’t pay them, their multi million dollar pensions are gone. It is in their best interest to not only make Goldman survive, but have them thrive.
JUST WHEN YOU THINK THESE LOW LIVES GET ANY LOWER…..
It has now been shown that Goldman took out bets against AIG being able to pay out the bets that AIG made with Goldman. So Goldman knew that AIG could not pay out the bets it made with itself. So if AIG goes down taking the US economy with it, Goldman does not care as it profits. In fact, I think they wanted AIG to go down as current e-mails found at AIG shows that Goldman was playing hardball with AIG and not willing to negotiate any settlements.
These guys have no morals at all. They don’t care if we have 25% unemployment, just as long as they make their money.
If the public does nothing and let’s things like this go on, then we deserve everything we get. We have clearly become sheep.
Some PR for Letterman, maybe but I don’t think it was his show that needed the exposure. This looks like some agency execs effort at goodwill. It has some shock value. Still don’t think Leno is funny and Oprah? You know she could own either of their asses.
How appropriate for Super Bowl Sunday. Funny and also some “sad” responses from the Colts and Saints players to business questions. “You know what the FED does?”…..response….”Lock you up!”
How much is $1000 worth of gold…..”oh much more than that!”
Oh and these players get measured for their IQ. The Wonderlic is an IQ test with only 50 questions and has been used for pre-darft evaluations since the 1970’s in the NFL.
Shall we look at some stats…again the score is out of 50.
The closer to the ball the smarter you are (on offense that is)
