Archives: February 2006

Zzzzzzzz . . .

Posted by: Jon Fine on February 26

I write this from an island a few thousand miles away from my office. I'll be on it through Saturday, March 4, and blog/Internet access will be sporadic at best....

Haven't Had Enough With The Oscars Yet? You Will!

Posted by: Jon Fine on February 22

The New York Observer's Tom Scocca smartly outlines why we're getting wall-to-wall "coverage" of the Oscars, even though there's been no quantifiable uptick in viewer interest. (As he points out,...

Magazine Circulation Bummer List

Posted by: Jon Fine on February 21

Magazines sell ads based on rate base. Rate base is circulation you guarantee to advertisers. If you miss rate base, your advertisers sort of have carte blanche to make your...

Today's Time Warner Metaphor

Posted by: Jon Fine on February 17

The reviews were lousy, so the show closed early. Also, everyone knows the colossus is flawed, and that it’s built upon a series of fabulously mistaken assumptions. But there’s a...

Evidently, the Confusion Over Cheney Incident Continues

Posted by: Jon Fine on February 17

We just got an emailed statement from the editor of right-leaning Accuracy in Media, which admirably manages to contain two completely insupportable assertions within one small paragraph: Cliff Kincaid, editor...

Sorry, Sammy. Actually, I Can Drive 55

Posted by: Jon Fine on February 15

Or less. How about some public-service ads that don't suck? Check out these ultra-creepy, visually stunning and viscerally effective anti-speeding clips that (hat tip alert) WFMU found on a site...

Budget Living By The Numbers

Posted by: Jon Fine on February 15

Budget Living magazine died, not particularly quietly, on Valentine's Day. This follows a moderately illustrious three-year run in which it won Launch of the Year honors at Adweek and Advertising...

On "Journalistic Excellence"

Posted by: Jon Fine on February 14

These stories are interesting, seeing that they more or less state outright that Knight Ridder’s corporate charter could significantly disadvantage bidders that don’t meet its standards of “journalistic excellence.” (Said...

Knight Ridder's Dream Team

Posted by: Jon Fine on February 10

Would be this: a joint bid from McClatchy Co. and the New York Times Co. What do you say: Totally workable or totally wet?...

Department of Damning With Faint Praise

Posted by: Jon Fine on February 07

“Although Mr. Parsons did not have a media background and had never run a major company, he was well-liked.” --How the appointment of Time Warner CEO Richard Parsons is characterized...

The Only Thing I WIll Write about the Super Bowl, its Ads, and/or the Haltime Show

Posted by: Jon Fine on February 06

THE SETTING: A steakhouse in Brooklyn, where the Fine family is gathered to celebrate my father's imminent 70th birthday. THE SCENE: Jon Fine and his 5 year old nephew Zeke...

More on Content Players and Google

Posted by: Jon Fine on February 02

Another news executive making loud noises and demanding some kind of payment from Google. I had a lot of fun writing about this a few weeks back. Two thoughts on...

Tony Ridder Was Right

Posted by: Jon Fine on February 01

Davis "Buzz" Merritt, a former top editor at Knight Ridder's Wichita Eagle, last year wrote a book called Knightfall: Knight Ridder and how the erosion of Newspaper Journalism Is Putting...