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Media & Tech

Writ Large: Will Apple’s new iPad save print’s sorry ass?

There will come a time when the sleek, electronic tablet device known to all as the Apple iPad will look as quaint and anachronistic as an abacus. Until then, we cannot help but marvel at its glory as we once did over squares ping-ponging across the dark void of a cathode ray tube. The iPad…

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Media & Tech

Transmedia: From One Many

In the wrong hands, an emerging buzzword like ?transmedia? could end up as Craigslist slang under either ?auto parts? or ?casual encounters,? especially for those who ?like to watch.? A recent University of California, Los Angels and University of Southern California ?industry symposium? attempted to clarify the term at a conference dubbed ?Transmedia Hollywood: S/Telling…

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Culture

From headlines to breadlines: Old media is toast

Back when I was in J-School in the mid-90s, or more specifically, studying creative writing at San Francisco State University, my classmates and I knew nothing of the then-nascent Internet and the havoc it would eventually wreak on a bevy of industries. We knew nothing because A) We had the misfortune of studying at SF…

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Culture

Media Wipe Out

Regular readers will know that I frequently refer to my ?burgeoning media empire? as the hope and salvation of all humanity, you know, by way of my bank account. It seems to me, however, I should qualify the term ?media empire? seeing as there are enough Neros fiddling in traditional media to fill a string…

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Culture

Monetizing Sonoma Media

Recently, Ad Age’s Michael Learmouth published ?Wanted: Online Payment Plan for Print,? in which industry pundits grope for a monetization model that won’t incite readers of traditional print media to scurry to the blogosphere by mere mention of paying for content. As a 15-year media pro working a micro-market with more than its share of…

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Culture

Gig Economy

The Daily Beast recently published uber-editor Tina Brown’s provocative riff ?The Gig Economy,? which examines the trend toward freelance and contract work due to layoffs and other workplace woes. The media sector, long a safe-harbor for freelancers, has been particularly hard hit, which has resulted in, of course, more freelancers. With all the contraction in…