Nick Bergus Thoughts on what media do, and can do better, and other things

A paperboy hawks his wares just north of the Englert on Washington Street in Iowa City. You’d be hard pressed to find a coin-operated news rack these days. From The Library of Congress, via Fuck Yeah Iowa City, via Days Gone By

If you’re a media executive who’s at least partially responsible for a newspaper in one of the last remaining two-paper towns, it’s a hard to make yourself look good as it is. If you do the following things, it will only make it harder to avoid looking like a jerk: Layoff 165 employees Two weeks [...]

Earlier today I tweeted: The Guardian doesn’t give the book’s title until the fourth paragraph, but when it does, it doesn’t shy away from treating its readers like adults and using the full title. Then, for good measure, it quotes a few passages. In full. (The Guardian‘s online bookstore sells the book as Go the [...]

Tony Kornheiser and Michael Wilbon, two long-time newspaper men with the Washington Post, heading into an ad break for their ESPN program, Pardon the Interruption, on Monday, May 23, 2011 [mp3]: Your browser is too crappy to support the audio element. TK: Here’s whats over: boxing and newspapers. MW: Yeah. Maybe not in that order. TK: And horse racing. [...]

The media world is on fire with news that Apple is finally allowing subscriptions in iOS apps! I want in, too, so here’s Apple’s press release and my blow-by-blow commentary. CUPERTINO, California—February 15, 2011—Apple® today announced a new subscription service available to all publishers of content-based apps on the App Store℠, including magazines, newspapers, video, [...]

Earlier this month, the Corridor Business Journal reported that Iowa City was all but video store-less. Mr. Movies and others have closed, and That’s Rentertainment, a local independent shop, was soon to follow suit, leaving us with a just single Blockbuster. This is gets back to the news business, just stick with me. That’s Rentertainment has clearly seen [...]

Remember how The New Yorker is on Tumblr? Tumblr is diverse. Some blogs cover politics. Some collect examples of cutting edge Web design. Some blogs have a personal vibe. Some post for lulz. But the ones that work, at least to my mind, remember that Tumblr is a social platform and have an authentic voice. [...]

Today, The New Yorker said on Twitter: We are now on @tumblr! Follow us: http://newyorker.tumblr.com/ But the magazine has 199 pages of Tumblr posts and its first post is dated Dec. 1, 2009. So really they meant We are now going to try to pay attention to our @tumblr! Follow us: http://newyorker.tumblr.com/ or We remembered [...]

Earlier this year, a reporter from US News & World Report got in touch with my wife. The reporter was working on a story for the magazine’s annual graduate school rankings issue, which is a Big Deal for both the magazine and the schools. After several e-mails back and forth and a few phone calls [...]

It this week’s Hoopla, Gazette Communication’s weekly for “young adults,” there is a short interview with Doug Roberson, longtime booker and bartender at Gabe’s and the Picador. After the interview, Mr. Roberson was laid off. This sucks. But to make matters worse for Mr. Roberson, when the story appeared online, it ran with this editor’s [...]