Group News Blog: Year One

LOLcats: Elephant “JOY”. Courtesy of Maggie Jochild's Meta Watershed.

This Gig ROCKS

One year ago Group News Blog opened.

There's an expectation at ends of years, birthdays and anniversaries, that we writers will be able to bring something special, over and above our normal stuff.

Yeah... Well, sometimes we choke.

Right this minute one year ago -- it's 11 pm Pacific time as I type right now; this post is due in one hour and one minute -- and one year ago with 61 minutes to go we were choking HUGE.

Hubris was fixing a computer glitch. LM was massaging the title graphic. I was changing words and commas in my first post EVER while going insane as the minutes ticked down with everything not fracking ready.

Whatever. Problems, no problems...
At 12:01 AM I hit post and Group News Blog began.

At 12:01 AM today, this post goes live -- no, I'm not fracking ready (the sad part is, I'm not making a joke) -- and Year Two begins.

Our rankings -- Technorati of 9.5K, The Truth Laid Bear of 6.7K -- and being credentialed to the Democratic National Convention. It's all good (hell, it's fracking great!) but that's not the point. The point is, we pulled it off.

People were going to come check us out. It was a courtesy look. But no one was going to stay if the writing didn't cut it. (We were following Steve Gilliard for Christ's sake.) And there was NO time to get up to speed. We were either up to speed right now dammit or we lost our audience. The gig demanded professionalism and a massive work ethic from Day One.

Which people gave. LM, Hubris, Sara and yes, myself. Six months later we brought on The Littlest Gator and Evan; it's been a roller-coaster year.

We take what we do seriously because we take you seriously.

Not that we don't have fun, mostly. Sometimes. Yeah, okay, from time to time a few of us have a little bit of fun, okay? Alright, there's no fun. We slave, slave away in pits wearing unwashed rags eating gruel, trying to avoid pie fights. Pie? Oh Gods, what I would give for a bite of pie, something fresh to eat... We sacrifice our lives, the small bits of fun, free time, health and well-being we'll ever have, all so you, you there, the man wearing the Obama pin... yes you: we do it all for you. *sniffs*

No. No, none of that's true. Well, maybe it's true for the interns, but I don't really care about them. Oh, wait. There are no interns. They're on my agenda for Year Two. Ah, yes...

Year Two. *grins*

If you think Year One was cool, you haven't seen anything yet. Lots-a-coming.

Our first fundraising drive ever starts today and runs through July 15. There'll be a post, however please: be among the first to donate to support GNB.

Here's the bottom line on Year One for me...

This is the best gig, ever. I love what I'm doing. And you. (Truly.)

I work with amazing people, passionate about their work. Our readers take our writing seriously and hold us to high standards. GNB challenges me professionally; it calls on most of us (myself included) to actively use a lifetime of varied disciplines to take care of our readers and each other.

Thank you, and thank the GNB writers for an amazing first year. Stay tuned...

Year Two is going to ROCK.

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Postscript to the Webb Amendment

“Why Don't Mommy & Daddy Come Home?”

Republicans.
Another edition of Short Answers to Foolish Questions:

Who voted down the Webb Amendment?

Main and Central

I'm Sorry, Brothers

We know many of you have a sense of belief in what you’re doing over there in what I’ve called “Mr Bu$h’s ego-war.” Some of you probably feel that it is the United States’ world-wide responsibility to step in and overthrow murderous dictators. Part of me agrees with you. I’d like to see the murderous dictators in lots of other countries overthrown, too. (I’m sure it’s only coincidence there’s no oil in those countries.) You deserve my respect for backing your beliefs with your lives, even if I disagree with you.

Some of you seem to believe that Saddam Hussein personally and individually went out and rounded up a bunch of lunatics, financed them, trained them, and sent them off to attack innocent Americans on September 11th. You might be right. But we haven’t found any evidence for that. But did you know that 15 of the 19 people who killed Americans on 9/11 were Saudis? I can’t help wondering why he didn’t recruit Iraqis, or alternatively, who did recruit the Saudis? In any case, I still respect you, even if your beliefs are illogical.

Some of you just love your country and are willing to back that love. Or maybe you’re just trying to get enough money in the bank to go to college. You have my respect.

A lot of you are tired. You’re on your second, third and fourth tours – now extended to 15 months, with a really good chance of them being extended again to 18 months - and your wives are dispirited, jumping every time the doorbell rings, and your kids cry at night, wondering where their Daddy is.

I’m sorry.

I know some of you stick it out because of pride in yourselves and your brothers. I know how that is because I remember how it was for me, too.

I wish you were allowed to read this because I wanted you to know we’re trying everything we possibly can to get you guys some slack. Jim Webb, a veteran and Senator from Virginia, has been trying to get an amendment passed to get you guys more slack. His plan is simple: for every month over there you get a month here in the States. Guaranteed. Time to relax a bit. Time to remind your wives that you love them. Time for your kids to relearn how their Daddy loves them.

We thought we had it nailed, this time. It looked like the Webb Amendment would pass yesterday. Even John Warner, a Republican Senator from Virginia, promised to support the amendment.

When the final vote count was revealed we could only marshal 56 of the 60 votes needed to invoke cloture and get the bill onto the Senate floor for a public vote. I know this will surprise you, but it was the Republican Party that didn’t want you to get treated humanely.

John Warner, who’d promised Jim Webb he would support the amendment, lied like a cheap Persian rug in a third rate Algerian bordello. He voted against the Webb amendment, even though he voted for it the last time. That sack of crap said, “I’m 80 years old, I’m going to retire, and I’m more afraid of George Bu$h and Dick Cheney than I am of the troops and the voters.” Or words to that effect. Fuck him twice.

Mel Martinez, one of my own particular bits of shame, said

“I think we would demean their service if we were to say to them that there had to be a parity between the time in service out of the country and the time at home.”

So Senator Martinez, who’s never had to put on a uniform, stand guard, hear the bee-buzz of bullets over his head, watch a buddy’s head explode into catsup, or hold someone tight as he bleeds out, asking for his mother, figures you’d just be “demeaned” if you caught a break.

Fuck him three times.

I’ll tell you who voted against the amendment: 43 Republican Senators. You know, the assholes who keep crowing how much they support the troops.

Fuck them all, four times.

Oh, and Joe Lieberman, the Republican from Tel Aviv who pretends he’s an Independent from Connecticut, who wants all your asses over there until each and every one of Israel’s enemies is destroyed,

Fuck him until the cows come home.

Sorry, brothers, we tried. We’ll try again, and keep trying until we get you treated like human beings.

Amen.

It's all talk to the Republicans; you, your children and loved ones, mean shit.

We'll get you home to your families. I don't know how yet, but I promise.

We'll get you all taken care of. This I vow. Count on it.

Hat tip Minstrel Boy

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I Like These Guys

Regional Blogs Are The Best!

I love people who know what they're doing: pros.

Mark Gisleson's been linking us for about a month: Norwegianity.

Norwegianity's ranking is ...still... ...barely... ...not for long, sucka; October's moving day!... a little higher on Techorati ranking than GNB's ranking. Clearly it's not blog-whoring "Link me. Link to me with your powerful voice and throw me traffic."

*strains myself laughing*

It isn't we don't have traffic. Just...when he started throwing links to us he had (and still does) more traffic than we do. Yet there were his links, every few days.

Eventually I started taking them as a complement to our writing. I know. Shocking.

Open networks. The center of a network is everywhere. Tell truth to power. Yada yada blah blah blah. But he's got a higher ranking than we do. Don't you understand? He's linking to us all the time. What does he want?

This is what growing up in a hierarchical religion-school-gang-home-the-Army does to you. Makes you go arrrrgh! Well, to me anyway.

It can't possibly be someone relatively our peer is linking because he finds us valuable? Because Hubris Sonic posts timely pieces with analysis' of Iraq to knock your socks off...and shoes. That Sara Robinson's pieces are deep and thoughtful and with a heart. That I pour my self in to my work, love all of you with enormous compassion, and it breathes through; it shows. And that all of us. Each of us. We're blessed to have Lower Manhattanite, our Chief, National Affairs Desk and don't you think that title is by design, that LM writes here.

What a gift it is to work with these talented people. Really, you have no idea how lucky, how over-joyed I am, how every night I drive home, my face breaking into a smile knowing I'm about to turn on my computer and crank out the work: I get to go play with them.

So you'd think I wouldn't freak when week after week, two, three times, pow, ka-boom, ker-whamo, there's Norwegianity, showing up in our link logs. Not even the lazy posts (not that we ever have lazy posts); just the good stuff. Or the stuff on point to what he's talking about over there.

I frequently spend time checking out blogs who link us. Sometimes I even comment. Did a whole hour post on some kid's high-school English assignment. Thoughtful, careful, really terrific comment. Little twerp not only never responded in comments -- worse, he stuck with his basic (totally like stupid) premise. High school students will not change their mind about a goddamn thing once it's made up. (No, I'm not talking about my daughters. Why do you ask?)

My point was...is...I check out who's linking to us and often surf their blog. See how lamely they're distorting our posts in pursuit of their totally vapid arguments.

This Norwegianity blog just seemed to like us. I mean, Drifty likes us. But he's been deranged since the accident. (Send him money.) And Sarah's Orcinus, well, she makes Dave put up the link.

Eventually I just got used to it. We're being linked from Norwegianity. Wow.

They seem pretty cool, too, for people who live up in the middle of a State which gets to like, a zillion below all winter. Not only do they have great regional coverage -- blogs with nifty names such as apple juice and After School Snack -- but they give national coverage and comments also.

I like these guys.

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Internet 2.0 - NY Times 0

NY Times Paywall Comes Down

The New York Times paywall will come down for almost all of its website effective midnight Tuesday night.

In a triumph of the open nature of the internet -- that anyone with half a brain could see coming two years ago to the day -- the NY Times Company announced Tuesday that the it was canceling its two-year old Times Select program (refunding customers on a pro-rata basis) and making its site available to the public. Furthermore, The Times is making its archives available as follows: from 1987 to the present without charge, as well as those from 1851 to 1922, which are in the public domain. There will be charges for some material from the period 1923 to 1986, and some will be free.

The Times Select program ran for two years to the day amid wide-spread complaints that it cut The Times' best columnists off from the rest of their readers. Among those complaining were many of the The Times' columnists. The columns ended up being widely circulated and reprinted anyway, through blogs, emails, and newsletters.

NY Times

The Times said the project had met expectations, drawing 227,000 paying subscribers — out of 787,000 over all — and generating about $10 million a year in revenue.

“But our projections for growth on that paid subscriber base were low, compared to the growth of online advertising,” said Vivian L. Schiller, senior vice president and general manager of the site, NYTimes.com.

What changed, The Times said, was that many more readers started coming to the site from search engines and links on other sites instead of coming directly to NYTimes.com. These indirect readers, unable to get access to articles behind the pay wall and less likely to pay subscription fees than the more loyal direct users, were seen as opportunities for more page views and increased advertising revenue.

“What wasn’t anticipated was the explosion in how much of our traffic would be generated by Google, by Yahoo and some others,” Ms. Schiller said.

The Times’s site has about 13 million unique visitors each month, according to Nielsen/NetRatings, far more than any other newspaper site. Ms. Schiller would not say how much increased Web traffic the paper expects by eliminating the charges, or how much additional ad revenue the move was expected to generate.

Experts say that opinion columns are unlikely to generate much ad revenue, but that they can drive a lot of reader traffic to other, more lucrative parts of The Times site, like topic pages devoted to health and technology.

The Wall Street Journal, published by Dow Jones & Company, is the only major newspaper in the country to charge for access to most of its Web site, which it began doing in 1996. The Journal has nearly one million paying online readers, generating about $65 million in revenue.

Dow Jones and the company that is about to take it over, the News Corporation, are discussing whether to continue that practice, according to people briefed on those talks. Rupert Murdoch, the News Corporation chairman, has talked of the possibility of making access to The Journal free online.

The Los Angeles Times tried that model in 2005, charging for access to its arts section, but quickly dropped it after experiencing a sharp decline in Web traffic.

Charging for online news is stupid. News is a commodity. From Google News to Huffington Post, from thousands to tens of thousands of local newspapers around the globe to literally almost five million blogs and growing, the world is abuzz with what's going on. The problem isn't getting the news -- it's filtering it.

What people need are great editors, people they trust to reach into the data-flow and pull out that which matters. No one can listen to everything, and no one person's taste matches up with everyone elses.

The New York Times simply failed to understand that no one pays to get more crap in their inbox -- even really good crap by terrific writers. It's a crap mountain out there and I ain't paying to add more shit to the pile I already don't have time to read. If some article is so goddamn good (that my Mom convinces me) I just have to dig down through the dung to read, well, she can either cut and paste me the whole thing herself, or point me to a site carrying the article regardless of The Times' stupid policies.

In other words, all Times Select did was piss people off, drive potential customers away, and lose them advertising dollars. Smooth moves ex lax.

Gilly nailed your ass there Pinch a year ago.

Steve Gilliard

It's not just us bloggers, most Americans don't trust the media, left or right, especially the Washington media, who is more concerned with Beltway antics than the news. If Judy Miller was covering Baltimore City Hall, she would have been fired years ago. But people kept defending her when she was compromised

I wouldn't worry about Atrios breaking stories, he's an economist, not a journalist. What I would worry about is the fact that demographics are moving the most desireable readers to the Internet and their opinions are more important than yours.

Want to build a business on the internet?

Give away your best stuff.

You heard me. Take your best stuff. Now give it away.

Know what will happen? The same shit's been happening since the dawn of the net.

TERENCE MANN
Ray, people will come Ray. They'll come to Iowa for reasons they can't even fathom. They'll turn up your driveway not knowing for sure why they're doing it. They'll arrive at your door as innocent as children, longing for the past. Of course, we won't mind if you look around, you'll say. It's only $20 per person. They'll pass over the money without even thinking about it: for it is money they have and peace they lack. And they'll walk out to the bleachers; sit in shirtsleeves on a perfect afternoon. They'll find they have reserved seats somewhere along one of the baselines, where they sat when they were children and cheered their heroes. And they'll watch the game and it'll be as if they dipped themselves in magic waters. The memories will be so thick they'll have to brush them away from their faces. People will come Ray. The one constant through all the years, Ray, has been baseball. America has rolled by like an army of steamrollers. It has been erased like a blackboard, rebuilt and erased again. But baseball has marked the time. This field, this game: it's a part of our past, Ray. It reminds of us of all that once was good and it could be again.

Oh... people will come Ray. People will most definitely come.

Giving your best stuff away, your real problem will be something you've never dreamed of -- which is why real hackers today get great jobs at Google, not at Microsoft -- you poor deluded war-pushing hack.

Your sin isn't even sitting in a grand office envying your father, sucking up to the Bush administration and aiding and abetting the world into one, two, ah-ah, can you count, maybe three wars. Your sin is letting the world pass the Gray Lady by on your watch while allowing print Journalism to take a fucking dive... What? Did you think you had a freaking monopoly on news?

Journalism ethics 101 we won't cover today. If you haven't learned them yet (you haven't), well, tough. Asshole.

But anyone running business on what is now called the internet since the mid 80s (*raises both hands and feet -- promptly falls over*) knows how you build a business here on the Al Gore's internets is you take your best stuff and you give it away.

If your best stuff is any good, people will come. Leading to why Google rules and Microsoft is trying to come up with a world-changing hit before its Office & Desktop monopolies vanish into Web 2.0 & the rapidly coming yeah its actually already here Web 3.0, where who the hell needs a freaking operating system anyway? Or Microsoft Office? Or a desktop/laptop computer?

What Google knows is, if you've got people coming to get your free stuff, you can monetize the traffic.

Wha. Huh. Wazyu?

The more people, the more ways to slice and dice them into traffic streams, each stream worth something. This stream gets sold books on military history, this one rice cookers, this one pay-to-click ads for Battlestar Galactica, that one political advertising for John Edwards, and over there AT&T long distance service along with direct mail for Porsche automobiles. While those folks get phone calls asking about their portfolios. And everyone has the choice of making donations, participating in subscription drives, buying ad-free versions of the product, and so on.

The more people that come, the more ways to sell and there's literally no limit. It all starts with giving away your best stuff for free and building a demand for your stuff. Stuff (your brand identity) = demand. Demand = people. People = opportunity to monetize. And monetizing is the golden goose, making offers very directed to unique people and groups of people.

Pinch, being of my Dad's era, just doesn't get the internet. He utterly missed how this is done. The people he put in charge of bringing The Times online? Either they didn't get it or Pinch simply wasn't willing to listen when they told him he should just give his shit away without any return, yo. "That simply isn't how we do things here. It isn't how we play ball. It's not how we play cricket." He insisted they find a profit center which he, Arthur Ochs Sulzberger Jr., could freaking understand, God Dammit. Or go to work with those ruffians from The Post.

So they gave him a profit center. Heh.

Yo slick. You fucked up. But if you pull your head out of your ass, you might still pull this off. This horseshit about keeping some of your archives from 1923-1986 still on a pay-as-you-go basis ain't gonna fly though. What part of GIVE YOUR STUFF AWAY do you not understand?

Or do we just have to wait for Prince to take over when you die?

I mean, come on Pinch, why the hell would you invite us in and then try and hold back, you prick-teaser you. Trying to be a good boy for mommy and daddy and the Church, not giving it up too soon? Listen Pinch, you invited us in. But now here we are, all hot and bothered and ready for action. We've got our hand down your pants and oooooh, you've got such a big one baby! Stop wiggling around and let us take you all the way. Open your archives to us sugar -- no one likes a prick tease.

Know what happens when you monetize all those beautiful people coming in because you just TRUST the goddamn system like everyone else does, and give away ALL your best stuff?

JOHN KINSELLA
Is this heaven?

RAY KINSELLA
It's Iowa.

JOHN KINSELLA
Iowa? I could have sworn this was heaven.

John starts to walk away.

RAY KINSELLA
Is there a heaven?

JOHN KINSELLA
Oh yeah. It's the place where dreams come true.

Ray looks around, seeing his wife playing with their daughter on the porch.

RAY KINSELLA
Maybe this is heaven.

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Welcome Sara

Please welcome Sara Robinson

Sara joins the Group News Blog as a Staff Writer, in addition to her accountabilities as a principle blogger at Orcinus. Her brief includes food, fashion and culture, plus any other writing she's willing to grace us with.

Those of you've whom have been around a while, know her from Comments as the delightful Mrs. Robinson. Those of you just getting to know her, are in for a treat.

We love her dearly, and are thrilled she's sharing her work with us.

Ladies and gentleman... Sara Robinson.

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NY Times Link Generator

Prevent NY Times Links from vanishing behind the Paywall: A guide for Bloggers

Dear Blogger,

Please take the time to convert all NYT links you make from now on, using the very easy to use Link Generator. That way when someone hits one of your NY Times links months later, your customers can still read the article.

Here's how:

http://nytimes.blogspace.com/genlink

Put in the URL, say:

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/22/technology/22lens.html?_r=1&pagewanted=1&oref=slogin

Convert it. What will come back is:

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/22/technology/22lens.html?ex=1332216000&en=91c7e3bb6e19b50a&ei=5090&partner=rssuserland&emc=rss

Modify the part which says partner=rssuserland to read partner=groupnewsblog
(This lets the NYT know whom is using their service. Use the name of your blog.)

Now your URL reads:

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/22/technology/22lens.html?ex=1332216000&en=91c7e3bb6e19b50a&ei=5090&partner=groupnewsblog&emc=rss

Test it in an actual browser. Wow! See, you have the article up and running.

Now, paste this in behind the Words of the Link as the Link URL:
"As it says in the NY Times article, Tweaking the Zoom, ..."

Done. This link will NOT vanish behind the Paywall. Your readers will appreciate you.

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Welcome

This is the Group News Blog. Published by:

• Hubris Sonic
• Jesse "Doc" Wendel, and
• LowerManhattanite.

Honoring the past, living in the present, designing the future.

Welcome home.

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