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This is, as the title states, part 3 of this discussion. If you haven’t kept up, please see part 1 and part 2 before reading this installment. This part consists of a review of the bloggers’ side, focusing on one person’s post, and my overall conclusions.
Ready? Here we go!
- 1. Trish states that book reviews on blogs are given as much respect as book reviews in newspapers, citing the myriad of authors and publishers sending ARCs to book bloggers these days.
2. “Blogging is inherently informal.”
3. Book blog reviews are written in a conversational style, “like I’m chatting with a friend.”
4. The point of blogging is to be self-indulgent.
My response: To point one of the internet advocate: Yep. Apparently many book publicists find value in the work of book bloggers in promoting their books. To point two: Again, yep. For the most part, blogging is informal, and I don’t necessarily have a problem with that. Some blogs are more professional than others.
On point three: A conversational style isn’t all bad. It isn’t all good, either. There are pros and cons to both conversational, informal writing and professional, formal writing. Books are often discussed in both voices. It seems the Unites States (maybe the world is?) are becoming more informal. Even newspapers are becoming more informal. Isn’t the fact that such formal stanchions as the book review sections of newspapers are dying some evidence of this? This is the way of the world. It’s not all bad. Why fight it?
Point four: Here is where I take issue with Trish and the book blogging community that is up in arms about Warren’s critique.
Trish writes:
Blogging is the place that I can say, I can do what I want when I want to and I can make it look however I want. If I want to say like or alls or dude or WHATEVER, I can. More importantly, the reason I read bloggers’ book reviews is because I don’t want some pompous ass talking about things like What’s the book’s place in the canon.
I know blogs exist that stand on this platform of I Can Do Whatever I Want. I don’t read them. It’s Ethics 101 that to be an upstanding member of any society, one’s freedom stops where another person’s begins. It’s smart to waiting before pushing the Publish button if you’ve written in anger. Sure, we have freedom of speech, but I also have freedom to not intentionally hurt other people. Mrs. Chili wrote a nice post about this recently. Maybe the freedom Trish was thinking of wouldn’t be painful to others, but it’s a slippery slope.
—
I’ll be the first to say, I don’t consider this blog a book blog, exactly. My reviews are skimpy and can hardly be called full reviews. I started, this year, to catalog each book I read here in part just for personal reference; I’ve started a list each year, intending to write down each book I read for a full year, but the list is always abandoned by about February. This blogging plan is working much better for me — it’s August and I haven’t messed it up yet.
However, I have been thinking about improving my reviews here — beefing them up and making them more meaningful. I still struggle with how much I can say without giving something away, though. I haven’t taken Book Reviewing 101 like Warren suggests.
I’ll end on this note: I’m not sure what newspaper book reviews have done to sustain books; I’m not sure they exactly need saving, even. A point from Warren I think we can all agree on: “Blogs stoke public interest.” Isn’t that what the old media reviews were intended to do?
Whew! Made it through. Your thoughts?
This is, as the title states, part 2 of this discussion. If you haven’t kept up, please see part 1 here before reading this installment. This part consists of a review of Lissa Warren’s column that touched off this entire debate. In the third installment I’ll review and comment on the indignant book bloggers’ side.
The first hand’s take: A representative-apparent of the old guard, Lissa Warren (a book publicist and editor) wrote (in a newspaper column) that blogs aren’t (and won’t become) an adequate replacement for these old standbys, the standalone book review sections of major newspapers.
She points out a few book blogs she reads, two of which are in my feed reader — the New York Times’ Paper Cuts and The Elegant Variation. She finds fault with even these, though.
Warren’s main criticisms of book blogs?
- 1. Instead of offering original reviews, they often link to reviews in paper media.
2. Blogs, by format, are too short.
3. Reviews on blogs are self-indulgent.
4. They lack a book summary and an introduction to the book’s main characters.
My response: I read a lot of blogs — at the moment, my feed reader holds 112 subscriptions. Not all of them are book blogs, but a good number of them do discuss books on a fairly regular basis. The first two criticisms don’t hold water, to use the old cliche. Warren herself knocks down her straw-man argument for the second. In addition, there are some blogs that offer lengthy, in-depth reviews. These three come to mind.
The first? In the blogs she cites, perhaps those newspaper reviews actually did start the conversation — apparently they were published before the blog post went live. I don’t, however, the the blogs I read, find most (or many, for that matter) reviews linking to a review in the old media. {Even if they did, I don’t necessarily have a problem with that.}
Now we’ve reached her third point. I’ll let this stand in her own words:
Well, I think book reviews on blogs — particularly those of the Blogspot variety — tend to be self-indulgent. Book reviewing bloggers need to move away from opinion in favor of judgment. How does the book compare to — and fit in with — the author’s previous work? What’s the book’s place in the genre? The canon? Does the writer succeed in doing what he or she set out to do — meaning, is it the book they meant it to be? Whether it’s the book the blogger wanted it to be is of much less importance to me, frankly.
I’d also advise that book reviewing bloggers jettison the use of personal pronouns (yes, I’ve used a slew of them here; you can nail me in the comments). And for goodness sake, I wish they’d stop telling me what their father and their girlfriend — or their father’s girlfriend — thought of the book. Also, I don’t need to know how they came to possess the book — how they borrowed it from the library, or bought it at B&N, or snagged a galley at The Strand, or got the publisher to send them a copy even though they average four hits a day. The banal back-story is of little interest.
Emphasis in the original.
[Wow, she uses a lot of dashes.]
Yikes. I’d label that vitriolic. (That last sentence is judgment, by the way, not opinion.)
I try, when I write my own measly reviews, to make sure I do address the book’s relation to the author’s previous work, the book’s genre and the canon, when I’m significantly versed in such to have and/or voice an opinion. Sometimes I’m not, though. A reader’s reaction to the first work she’s read by a given author is in some ways just as valid as the reaction of a reader who has read all of that author’s works; they’re different reactions, in terms of depth and familiarity.
How the reviewer feels about the book is important to me. As I read that person’s reviews over time, I’ll come to know how that blog’s taste matches or clashes with mine. Without this, what’s the point? Maybe I’m being obtuse. I don’t really understand this point.
Personal pronouns should be removed? That’s such a small thing to take issue with. There is also a not-quite-stated-in-words criticism in Warren’s opinion piece, though, that blogs are written informally and are prone to grammar and usage flaws. While this may be true of some blogs, it’s harsh and over the top to apply this fault to blogs across the board; that’s just not true! Informal? Sure. I think it’s valid in this medium. The back story is important to me, as well.
Now to point four above. First, I know all blog book reviews don’t lack this. But I also question the need for plot summaries and an overview of characters to be in book reviews. First of all, this information is readily available. The reviewer could quote Amazon or the book jacket. But this isn’t original content. If a blog mention lacks this, I can just click over to Amazon in a new tab and read about it there (or in BookMooch, LibraryThing, GoodReads … or, if all else fails, there’s always Wikipedia and/or Google). I don’t feel the need for summaries and character overviews to clog up my feed reader. Actually, if I’m interested in reading a book, I sometimes have regretted reading the book cover beforehand — it gave too much away. I usually don’t read it.
I’ll leave this side of the debate now with another quote from Warren:
I can’t ignore the power of blogs to stoke the public interest, any more than I can ignore the fact that the traditional book review outlets are drying up and no one has yet determined how to save them. No, I don’t believe blogs will save books — not in their current format. But I can envision a day when blogs do for books what books have done for people: challenged us, made us think in ways we never would have.
Part 3, coming soon!
Criticism is and has been circling the web the last several weeks. Until now, I’ve chosen to remain quiet and just listen. There are such strong feelings on both sides of this debate, like so many. I can see some of what both sides say, but I can’t align myself with either side. I’m pulled in several directions here.
Once I completed my coverage and analysis of this discussion, I decided to break it into three parts for the sake of length. This first part is an introduction to and overview of the situation.
First, let’s set the stage.
The subject: Will the death of newspaper book review sections hurt books and the literary community in general?
On the one hand: The literary guard.
On the other: Quite a few book bloggers.
Disclaimer: I never could really get into the reviews in newspaper book sections. They’re long, and so many of the books they review are books I’ve never heard of, I most likely can’t get at my library, and I may not be interested in reading.
The back story: Major newspapers have been closing down their respective standalone book review sections, sometimes eliminating the content and related positions entirely, other papers eliminating some positions and crowding the book reviews into another section with less space. [This hasn't been happening at smaller newspapers because they didn't have standalone book review sections to begin with.] Part of this issue, although not really discussed alongside, to my knowledge, is how major newspapers’ collective future has been in question for quite awhile now. The logical question is, then, what will replace these reviews in the collective? Stated another way: How will readers learn of new, quality books? It’s the answer to this question that the current controversy stems from.
First there was a small coffee counter in the corner of the big bookstore. Then, we found a certain book title for sale at the small (in square footage but massive chain-wise) coffee house. But now, Starbucks (Germany) offers another idea for combining these two loves:
Here’s a different kind of Starbucks book promotion, one that will take place September 17-October 7 in selected Starbucks in Germany, as reported by the Schweizer Buchhandel (Swiss Bookselling) newsletter [This site appears to be in German, so unfortunately I couldn't confirm what's quoted here nor add to it.].
In cooperation with Zurich’s Diogenes publishing house (think Knopf or Farrar, Straus & Giroux), Starbucks is putting on a Mystery Festival Coffee & Crime program that consists of 11 readings in nine cities featuring six mystery authors and an audiobook narrator (reading Georges Simenon books). Another 125 German Starbucks will feature a “reference library” of works by the authors and information about the readings. Another display offers excerpts and advises customers that books by the authors are available in bookstores. At the readings, book sales will be handled by local bookstores; Starbucks is not selling any of the Diogenes titles.
The partners are also putting on a lottery in all German Starbucks—prizes consist of books and coffee.
Sounds like fun!
Via Shelf Awareness.
It turns out: Kind of, but not quite.
Since the launch of the new search engine, Cuil.com, (pronounced Cool), on Sunday, it’s been in the news. Well, the nonmainstream news I heed, anyway. One such story was digging deep to discern the truthfulness (or lack thereof) of the site’s claim that cuil is an Irish word that means knowledge.
The results are in: It kind of means that. The word (coll, with a genitive cuill) actually means hazel; it’s associated with wisdom/knowledge in Celtic mythology. This culled from the comments on the above post; the commenter wrote succinctly about it here. So the search engine creators spelled their site wrong, too, apparently.
This is all a side note to whether the search engine actually leads a user to knowledge. From what I’ve heard so far, it’s not scoring too well in that category. When I tried it, I got both tangential results and entirely unrelated results; some results were not even in English. I did not get any directly related results.
A bookstore in Minnesota is now also offering bicycles for sale. Well, it’s actually just one style of bike. An inexpensive, utilitarian pedal transportation machine. And for every two he sells, another will be donated to BikeTown Africa, which is currently operational in Botswana, but is apparently open to expansion in any African country that wants to be part of the program.
Via Shelf Awareness, from yesterday.
I’ve never really paid much attention to ISBNs — I don’t even know what that acronym stands for — but I’ve always thought they were a unique match to a book. No two are the same, and all that. The signature of a book, in a way. This makes sense to me.
However, I’ve apparently found a glitch in that system, either that or I’m starting to learn that it’s not much of a system at all:
My husband decided he wanted to read the Father Brown stories of G.K. Chesterton. Not just a small selection, though; he wanted the complete works. So he goes to Amazon in the early-morning hours, discovers that the store itself is temporarily out of the Complete Works. Not to fret, though, since it’s available from several other reputable sellers, still through the clearinghouse.
Well, the book arrives, and it’s surprising. The complete works, according to the Amazon profile, is 800-some pages. This was in the 200-page range. Oh, and it said Selected Stories on the front cover. A bit of a tip off?
He went through the process of letting the seller know of the mistake. This took awhile. Then he had to take it up with Amazon, because the seller didn’t respond. Finally, they refunded the money.
Then he ordered another used copy, from another affiliate seller. When this one arrived, it was 411 pages (Did it morph in the mail? What?) It also has a telltale plaque printed on the front: SELECTED STORIES. While he was filing this complaint with the seller, we noticed that the ISBN on each of these two books we received as well as that on The Complete Father Brown Stories (again, according to the Amazon profile for this book; we haven’t actually seen it yet) was the same. Identical! We also checked the ASIN (whatever that is), but those, likewise, matched.
Once he finished filing the complaint with the seller, he immediately placed an order for the temporarily out of stock version directly from Amazon. Hopefully it’s the right book, whenever it comes.
One more thing: Each of the books had different copyright dates: The first was published in 1994 (I think. I don’t have this book anymore). The second in 1992. The one we want: in 1998.
So, anyone have some expertise to share with me? What’s the deal with these ISBNs? If they’re not really unique to the book, what’s the point of having them in the first place? Is there a better way to track the books? Help, please!
That’s right, you heard me, there’s a crazily enormous book giveaway over at Trish’s blog, Hey, Lady! Whatcha Readin’? — 14 books! And she’s giving away 5 of these boxes of 14 books! Craaazy! The books are courtesy of Hachette Book Group USA.
And she just announced that she’s extending the deadline by a week, so you’ve got a chance to enter.
Go ahead, you know you want to! 
Books I read (or am still reading but hope to finish):
I’m taking the cover collage challenge as an excuse to use WordPress’s Gallery feature for the first time. Enjoy!
[Yeah, there are four covers for the same book; I only read three. This looks nicer.]
Again, from Shelf Awareness:
The Los Angeles Times charts the frenzied buying by publishers to find “the next ‘big book’ that reflects a more sobering view of the economy and offers solutions to help Americans survive the current fiscal woes.” Some publishers are lucky enough to have pertinent titles in the pipeline, but others don’t and are reissuing some pertinent works.
The story’s lead puts the issue in perspective: “About a year ago, one of America’s bestselling business books was Michael Corbett’s Find It, Fix It, Flip It!: Make Millions in Real Estate—One House at a Time. Today, one of the hot finance titles picked up for publication is Stephen Leeb’s Game Over: How the Collapsing Economy Will Shrink Your Wealth by 50% Unless You Know What to Do.”
While it may be a statement on the sober state of the current U.S. economy (I had never thought about this before), it’s also a statement about the publishing industry. Publishers want to get their hands on titles of this sort because they know they’ll make money. OK, they’re businesses, sure. But sending up such a flare makes me seriously doubt the quality and trustworthiness of the manuscripts they’ll receive and later publish in response. Just as the publishers want such titles so they can make money, perhaps writers will create and submit corresponding titles too quickly, or despite those writers’ lack of relevant qualifications. The thought makes me squeamish.
Maybe it’s because I’m too much of an idealist, I don’t know. I do know that it makes me want to stay firmly in the realm of fiction.
I just downloaded my second free ebook — Beautiful Children: A novel by Charles Bock — in the past two weeks.
First, Oprah viewers were offered, for a few scant hours, a free PDF download of Suze Orman’s 274-page Women & Money: Owning the Power to Control Your Destiny a couple weeks ago. I don’t necessarily think I need to read the book, but I rarely turn down a free book. I had previously seen Orman on PBS a few times.
Second, Random House is making available now, through midnight Friday, a free PDF download of the Beautiful Children, which weighs in at 434 pages. You can get the download — it was remarkably speedy on my connection — here; it’s also available at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Powells.
On to the conundrum: How do I read these books? I’ll at least probably read the novel at some point.
Note: I haven’t read them (or anything else by their authors), and thus can’t personally recommend them. For what it’s worth, The Elegant Variation, a literary blog in my feed reader, really likes Beautiful Children.
Oh, right, that quandary. I don’t really want to read that much content — particularly a novel — on screen. I enjoy my laptop, but I don’t think it would be the same. And yet I also don’t really want to print out that many pages (at least partially because my machine is not hooked up to a printer).
If this becomes a serious way of distributing book content and not just a publicity stunt, I’d like to see the book pages presented via Live Ink or something similar, for readability. [The Live Ink site has a demo of Moby Dick. The pages look appealingly short. Maybe I could finally make it through that classic in that format!] I realize that since such a solution costs money, it will never be used while free ebooks remain largely publicity stunts.
I suppose I’ve nearly always judged books by their covers. I do tend to consider a book’s cover when deciding what books to take home from the library (Who am I kidding? I’m sure this is true at the bookstore, too!). I had to realize this recently, after finally picking up and devouring a couple of Dorothy L. Sayers’ Lord Peter Wimsey novels.
Several friends, whose opinions I trust, had recommended these books. I know one friend had brought up the series multiple times. When I’d pick up a volume at the library, though, I just put it back down. The covers put me off.
This time, though, I read the back cover and sneaked a peak at the copyright page. The book was published in the 1920s! In that context, the cover made sense. I took home a volume or two (I don’t remember which exactly, or how many).
The books are mysteries, but they cross genres, really. They can stand as novels. The stories are truly compelling, more than worth the risk. I regret waiting so long!
Intermediate covers weren’t much better.
Thankfully, new volumes have been released, with much improved covers.
What books have you been putting off reading because of the covers? Maybe it’s time to take the chance.
Not all printing services are created equal and outputs differ in many ways like the level of customization possible, the binding materials and methods will your file be reviewed before printing? The type of paper used, and the quality of the printing itself. (Issues like type of printing device used, its age, on going maintenances, color management process, daily calibrations, skill of the operator and more) Also differ the level of service and support you will get, the shipping method used (resulting in shipping time, tracking ability, reliability), simplicity (no need to open an account), will your product be branded with the supplier brand, and more, All of these factors will eventually translate into the quality of your output and the level of customer experience.
Ack! I don’t even know where to start, if I need to tell you what’s wrong with this paragraph. Feel free, if you’ve got some time.
Here’s the rest of that page. Digi-labs prints cards, photobooks and calendars.
I’ve written before about how a company’s lack of grammar on its website will deter customers. This is just another instance, I guess. I really don’t understand how this gets published, though. Compose the text in a word processor, then look at what’s underlined with those squiggly red and green lines and why. Heck, you’re a company. Someone on staff should be able to compose a few communicative sentences. If this isn’t the case, either hire someone, outsource content editing, or educate your current staff. I’m not asking for high literature, just straightforward, clear communication.
I don’t think so.
With the Kindle coming out this week (see here and here for GeekBrief coverage and here is one of several posts at TechCrunch), I’ve been musing about, naturally, physical books being replaced by technological gadgets — or at least something not printed. Side note: What would that do to libraries?
And today there’s yet another bit of news about newspaper print ad revenue going down, down, down and not being replaced (entirely) by online ad revenue.
I’ve written here before about the necessity for newspapers to change their content delivery, to make themselves available to online users, and also about how I’ve begun finding my news online.
The above-linked piece on ad revenue more than hints that the printed word is dead, or at least dying. I don’t agree with that.
First of all, Kindle (and its predecessors) still has a long ways to go before they seriously take a chunk out of the book market. Reviewers unanimously comment on the ugliness of this device, and the $400 price tag is a huge hurdle. Even after a person takes that step, he or she must still pay $10 or so for each book. The books aren’t transferable to or from the device. As much as I’m a voracious reader, I don’t buy most of the books I read; I get them from the library or borrow them from friends. I’m also skeptical (although the Kindle’s Amazon-ness may remedy this) about the availability of the tomes I want to read via such media. This is also the problem, for me, with things such as PaperbackSwap and BookMooch.
OK, back to newspapers. It’s particularly true of newspapers in large markets: Other forms of media are taking the place of print news. We can get national (and most international) news anywhere. Local, hometown news is a different story. I can’t get the news of my town anywhere but the local newspaper. The news content is available online, albeit with a few-day delay. And if I want to know what’s playing at the local six-plex? I need a print subscription of the paper. The ad content isn’t online, and the theater doesn’t even have a marquis. If I don’t have a newspaper in my hand, I won’t know what’s showing unless I drive to the theater, get out of the car and walk to the window to read the sign. (The theater doesn’t have a website, much to my dismay.)
EDIT: See the comments below for more the place to find movie times at the Siloam Springs movie theater.
None of this is likely to change anytime soon, on the local level. And it’s really hard for me to even think about replacing my books with a gadget.
When I first heard of American Apparel, it was touted for its admirable qualities: made in the United States and sweatshop free. Sweatshop free, that’s great! Right? [I've never bought (or owned) an article of American Apparel clothing, at least in part because the sizes run so small.]
I’d like such a stance to be made on some basis, though, not just because it can be done. I’d like to think that such traits would translate to other aspects of the company’s image.
Unfortunately, it doesn’t in this case.
Apparently, American Apparel also has a reputation (I learned this today) for provocative advertising. Checking out its website, it’s easy to see it earned this label (see here for a new magazine interview, via the American Apparel website.
I studied advertising, and I understand that, in some respects at least, all publicity is good publicity. However, I’m averse to clothing being advertised via mostly nude models. (I’m not going to post a link to this image on the American Apparel website.)
This image also unnerved me. This image is from i-D magazine, and it’s not an ad; it is part of a story layout in that British magazine. Still, American Apparel is embracing the image by showcasing it on its website (and by emailing it out to its mailing list!).
There’s a discussion on the American Apparel website, also one here, and one here in the Etsy forums, where I first saw it.
Can a company not be upright it all it does? I lost any respect I had for the company based on its treatment of workers when I saw its advertising schemes today.
While researching a master’s in creative writing, I’ve discovered a major inconsistency on a university website.
In two places I’ve found this paragraph:
Graduate Assistants employed full-time will automatically be awarded (resident or nonresident as appropriate) tuition remission equivalent to one-fourth of the credit hours in their Graduate Degree Program each semester they serve as a Graduate Assistant. Tuition remissions for Graduate Assistant appointments less than full-time will be prorated accordingly. Fees are not included in tuition remission and must be paid by the student. Remissions will apply only to course work applicable to the approved program listed in the graduate catalog (or their substitutes). All tuition and fees for courses that do not meet the above criterion, as well as any courses the student drops or withdraws from, will be paid by the Graduate Assistant. These remissions may be utilized during the semester(s) of a Graduate Assistant appointment and the following summer session.
In another place, which I uncovered first, was this:
Graduate Assistantships provide tuition remission and a stipend. Teaching Assistants are responsible for teaching four composition courses in an academic year with the possibility of summer teaching stipends. Assistantships are also available for research interns and Writing Center tutors.
I know I’m researching creative writing degrees, but accuracy and consistency within a document are still necessary.
My husband is known to oft describe me as an academic. I’ve been, for several years, saying that I’d like to have five or ten advanced degrees, in various subjects — basically all of them word-related, though.
I recently started researching somewhat in earnest a master’s in creative writing. Writing a novel has long been a dream of mine, and I’d like to teach on the college level, too, so this would be a great degree for me.
I’ve nowhere been able to find the amount of the stipend given to graduate assistants at University of Nebraska Kearney, the above-cited school, either, although it was easily accessible at the University of Arkansas website (”Teaching assistantships currently carry an annual stipend of $8,800 for students with a B.A., and $9,200 for students holding an M.A. Teaching Assistants also receive a waiver of all tuition costs and teach two three-hour classes each semester.”).
Such lack of clarity and contradictory information, clearly, does not instill confidence in the caliber of the program.
Say it with me: Information must be available online, and it must be clear!
If it isn’t, companies (and universities) are missing out on quality consumers (and students).
Previous posts on the necessity of a requisite online presence here: TV and newspapers. And here’s one with an example of poor communication turning customers away.
In my daze of traveling (especially the night driving) yesterday, it occurred to me that “O, Conoco!” is a palindrome. I started singing this song, to the tune of “O, Canada!” and suggested to my driving husband that Canada might want to at least consider a name change to be able to utilize this new anthem.
Advantages of the change (as articulated last night):
• Sponsorship opportunities. A town was renamed as a publicity stunt for Joe Montana; perhaps the petroleum company would see such a paid sponsorship as a way to remove the spotlight from Big Oil’s astonishing profits.
• It would be a move with educational advantages. More of the general population would learn about palindromes.
• As somewhat insinuated in the first point, Canada and the Canadian people would have a financial advantage to settling such an arrangement. Perhaps it could be done for a limited time.
Maybe Canada’s not up for the change. If it’s not, but Conoco’s still open, perhaps it could settle for a distant runner up: Rename the town of Gas, Kansas (Home of the Largest Gas Kan in the World, see here).
Yes, I know this is super silly, but it was birthed during a late-night drive through boring Kansas (and part of Missouri).
Bass Pro Shops’ Outdoor World in Omaha, Nebraska
What do you expect of a place that calls itself Outdoor World? Does the name carry with it any inherent expectations of the company that uses it? It does for me. I feel assaulted by that huge ocean of parking lot in front of a mammoth building bearing the name Outdoor World.
It’s one thing for Wal-Mart or some other corporate retail giant to have a massive parking lot and a gargantuan building; for a place labeling itself as one who cares about the outdoors, though, it’s unpalatable. Hunters and fishermen are often cheerleaders of environmental protection — they use the outdoors a bunch, so they have a vested interest in seeing that it’s maintained and improved and not destroyed. Ducks Unlimited, anyone?
Want to hazard a guess on the carbon footprint of just one of Bass Pro Shops’ 45 buildings? (Another 19 or 20 are planned to open soon, according to the company’s map.
I found a tiny link on the bottom of the webpage, to Our Commitment, but it goes nowhere. A phrase appears briefly when I click the link, telling me to click here if the page doesn’t appear, but that only took me to customer service. Nah. I do wish I could read about the company’s commitment, though. The site does have a page of links to conservation organizations.
It would behoove Bass Pro Shops to play up its conservation/offset measures, if it has any. Otherwise, this identity crisis is a real turnoff.
I’ve been hearing this phraseology, “reducing our dependence on foreign oil,” a lot the last few months. It’s in news reports on TV and in the newspapers, too. It was a huge part of the Earth Day conversation. It was part of talks sparked by high fuel prices: Reporters have been speaking about conservation measures with this as a benefit. The other perk is saving money.
Here’s what I don’t understand. Reducing our dependence on foreign oil is great, but wouldn’t it be even better to reduce our dependence on oil? Let’s see. Oil is a fossil fuel. Which means it’s supply is limited. We only have what’s already here. We can’t produce it in a lab, it’s a limited resource.
I understand that foreign oil has further foreign policy burdens. But as I understand it, the United States’ measly conservation measures are not going to eliminate our collective “need” for the imported black gold. We (as a country) use so much oil that we’re nowhere near being able to function on what is brought to the surface on USA soil.
I’d much rather make the argument for sustainability on a larger scale: Regardless of where it comes to the earth’s surface, this sphere only contains so much of the black stuff, and so we should use it sparingly. We should instead rely on renewable energy sources — sun and wind, for example.
Isn’t it more pleasant to do the right thing for the right reasons?
For better or worse, the average American consumer is more likely to pursue conservation measures because they save him or her money, rather than because it’s going to make a difference in our foreign policy or in our nation’s (or world’s, for that matter) ability to sustain itself. Still, in media’s promotion of a cause, I would rather they pick the right cause.
On TechCrunch today, I found a post that said, in part:
Unless you subscribe to the theory that there is no such thing as bad press, don’t be the company that emails us and compares their new product to Flickr, but spells it “Flicker” in the email. And don’t send us links to the product that show error messages that are completely wrong.
Alas. I agree. Press releases must be professional. I can’t imagine that this maligning will help out the site that committed the error. I’d call it the 101 of internet PR: 1) Spell correctly, 2) double-check all links before hitting Send, and — I’m embellishing here, but nonetheless — 3) have flawless grammar, too.
I’ve written before about how a company’s website, riddled with errors, caused me to not buy something I’d hoped to. Mistakes are even worse in a press release, though, because it’s being sent to members of the press, who probably have a keener eye for grammatical flaws than the general public. Add to that the fact that the news media have some level of power over their readership, and you’ve got a lethal combination.
Notice the post title at TechCrunch: “Don’t be this company.”
I second that.
My husband and I were over in Bentonville and Rogers today, partaking of the Bentonville Art Walk, primarily. Once we’d had our fill of that event, we were looking for a place to eat. We drove up and down a strip laden with chain eateries, but we weren’t thrilled with any of the choices, so we continued on. We took another, less familiar road, and turned into Lin’s Garden, a Chinese restaurant.
We have been disappointed in our hunt for good Chinese food in this area. Mainly, I’d like anything not buffet, it seems. Perhaps this is me lowering my standards. We hoped, as we drove by and moreso as we walked to the front entrance, that this would break that streak. We were encouraged by the carved granite fences and the red silk lanterns.
I was immediately disappointed, then, when a paper taped to the door stated prices by meal: lunch, supper. This is a buffet. The interior decor was also quite nice, harshly conflicting with the three long parallel buffet lines expending much of the interior square footage.
In the end we ordered off the menu, and we were not disappointed — by the food. But if its buffet is its main identity (as online references indicate, such as this one, which has “Indulge Yourself in One of NWA’s Newest & Largest Buffets” as its first bullet point of information), why spend so extravagantly on appearances buffet-goers don’t expect?
Thomas’ is apparently trying to lose its trademark. The maker of English muffins and bagels (part of George Weston Bakeries), in its latest series of television advertisements is attempting to make its brand name synonymous with English muffins.
This is even more confusing since it also offers bagels. Why would the company decide to equate its brand with one product, which necessarily alienates the brand from its other product?
Most companies fight hard to keep their trademarks unencumbered (Kleenex, Xerox, Google, Frisbee …). See here.
While it may help promotion to a certain extent when customers and potential customers begin to equate a company name with a product genre, in this instance the case against such a move is stronger than normal — the company has evidently been most known for its bagels (not English muffins), given that its URL is http://www.thomasbagels.com.
What were they thinking?
One of the banks in town (Arvest) was on the news tonight, announcing a new policy. What is that rule?
People can’t enter the bank while wearing hats, hoods or sunglasses.
The bank president who was interviewed on the local TV news said this change was made because “predators,” robbers and forgers wear these items.
We have an account there.
I wonder what they’ll do when I walk in with my Transitions glasses; will they be satisfied that they’re adjusting? Will my lenses change fast enough? What about the little old ladies wearing those dark wraparound sunglasses because they just had cataract surgery? Now we’re all predators.
This is being done in response to an increase in bank robberies in the state in the past year. (I recall there have been more bank robberies recently, but I don’t think any of the banks that were hit were Arvests.) The newscaster said this approach was effective in Missouri.
I understand that bank robberies hurt us all. Reasonable steps should be taken to prevent robberies. However, this seems a bit ridiculous, over the top. I’m laughing at the bank. This doesn’t help the institution’s public image.
According to a Language Log post I saw first at A Teacher’s Education, the military wants us all to capitalize Soldier, even when it stands alone. Army Chief of Staff General Peter J. Schoomaker apparently thinks this will help instill respect for the people who are in the military.
It won’t work.
My first thought was not would people get it, but rather: would people DO it. I understand that we write, now (you and I, anyway, and your readers here), mostly according to the established pattern. But this seems like an iffy time to try such a thing: It seems to me (albeit as no historian) that the English language is accepting and conforming more and more to today’s digital shorthand — which basically ignores (intentionally or not) the accepted grammar rules.
I’d imagine the print media (which are resistent to change in grammar rules, particularly those pushed on them by people and institutions they’re working to guard against, as watchdogs) would ignore such a prescript. The AP Stylebook is notoriously slow to change — it was just in the last (yearly) edition that it finally conceded to popular opinion that internet shouldn’t be capitalized and that online doesn’t need a hyphen.
It’s good for the military to take charge of this where they can — but that’s basically in its own writings, which are seen by the general public quite rarely. Working at a newspaper, I saw a good chunk of them, and they, for several years now, have Soldier, Sailor, etc., capitalized. The copy desk routinely replaced all those capitalized letters for title standing alone with the lowercase letter. They corrected the releases. Capitalizing titles only before names is a long-standing tradition. It will be difficult to change. I’m sure a few publications will be quick to change — Stars and Stripes comes to to mind, although I’m not very familiar with it.
How long has it taken for a rule to change in the past? Take the serial comma, for instance. I was taught in high school (I had several different English teachers) that first the serial comma was used always, and later that it’s only used when needed for clarity. My nonuse of the serial comma was reinforced in college and in journalism classes particularly. Some teachers still require the serial comma’s use today, 12 years after I graduated from high school. Just because the government wants to institute a change in proper capitalization, does that mean it will happen? How many generations will it take for the change to take hold?
Finally, even if this did catch on, it’s a slippery slope. It’s no stretch that it would make writers rethink capitalization generally, and it would become a sign of a writer’s world view. Or, if a person is feeling particularly anti, he or she could simply not capitalize the titles (even with the names!) of the offending parties. What a mess.
As a former newspaperwoman, I’m always studying and critiquing newspapers, whether I’m at home (with my subscription) or traveling. More recently I’ve also started considering newspapers’ websites (see here for a previous post of the subject of newspapers online). Well, this trip is no different.
Since this isn’t my first time to visit Grand Island, Nebraska, this isn’t the first time I’ve perused The Independent. I’ve never been particularly impressed with the Indy, as it’s apparently called. I had never visited the website before, though. It apparently won the award for best newspaper website in 2005, presented by the Nebraska Press Association, which should be saying something.
Content
I was told by a member of the editorial staff on this visit that the paper does have several blogs on its website. I was glad to hear the paper’s apparently not too far behind the curve, anyway. However, when I visited the site today, I couldn’t find any blogs, despite an hour of searching. It should go without saying that content should be accessible, and even if I’d found it after hunting for an hour, it wouldn’t qualify as that.
I did actually find one blog (on blogspot, not on the actual site) linked to on the website; this blog is about the impending redesign of the product, and it has two posts. The last was more than a month ago. I’m sure that wasn’t what my acquaintance was talking about. It couldn’t be.
As my husband pointed out recently, newspapers already have what so many online ventures struggle to create: Content. The problem of newspapers’ slow news cycle could be easily curtailed by, once stories are finished and have been edited, putting them online. Even in a blog-style format, this would help a newspaper beat its other print competitors (if any exist) and better compete with non-print media. And why should the paper care that it’s releasing its content in one method before another? Newspapers generally produce higher-quality, more indepth articles than other news venues. The obstacle is the slow cycle, and by cutting out production, printing and delivery time, newspapers’ content could be available at least eight hours sooner.
As for content generally (not related to the website), I’m struck by how much of the paper is filled with wire content, from page one on, and even on the opinion page. I’m disappointed that local topics have not been addressed in the editorial since I’ve been visiting, either.
Traffic
Quantcast estimates a decent amount of traffic to The Indenpendent’s website. Quite a bit more than it slates for the similarly sized Enid News & Eagle.
Design
When I first reached http://theindependent.com, I was struck with confusion. The site is crowded, and it lacks meaningful hierarchy. This is not a novel problem, but it is a problem. As I briefly mentioned earlier, The paper is undergoing a redesign of the print edition, which should in part help with the flow to the online edition. From the mockups on the redesign blog, it should improve the look for the print edition, anyway.
Accessibility
I was quite perturbed that I couldn’t view a story on the website without registering — which, while free, entailed releasing my life history, exact age, gender and address. This information doesn’t seem relevant. I’m fine with the site tracking where I came from, what stories I read, etc., but I don’t like having to relinquish a ton of personal data just to see when an article that appeared in my search was published. If I hadn’t been doing research for this post, I would have not registered and instead ceased using the site. I’d like reading the New York Times, but I don’t because it asks me to register. Same thing. The incentive isn’t that great.
Advertising
The Independent does allow people to buy and submit classified ads via its website, which is a good thing. A person or business can also purchase an ad to be displayed on the website, and all the print edition’s advertising content is available via the web, as well. These are important, and good first steps (I guess) for a newspaper, since they make money and please advertisers. Having advertising information online, though, may be — at least to some extent — putting the cart before the horse (I’ll use this cliché since I’m discussing a paper in a rural, agricultural setting).
I complained previously about its use of the word giddy, in a romantic context. The tourism department claimed, in that ad, that vacationing in Arkansas would make you fall in love.
This is my second complaint about Arkansas Department of Tourism’s marketing. It’s not just because theirs is the only spiel I hear, though. I hear Missouri and Oklahoma appeals on a regular basis, and other states promote themselves in my hearing during football season, particularly.
Now, the department states: “We’ve got all that and a bag of chips.”
Rocketboom referenced slang from the 1970s, ’80s and ’90s on Thursday.
Of course, hopefully somewhere in the state a visitor could find a bag of chips. They may even be able to choose between corn, potato or vegetable chips. That’s not the point. What does “and a bag of chips” really say about Arkansas?
• We live on (and offer vacationers) unhealthy, fried food?
• We’re backward and behind the times (the phrase originated by The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, according to on definition at Urban Dictionary)?
• Chips are so good that they beat out the scenery, wildlife, cultural and historical offerings of the state (including the diamond mine)?
The phrase is nearly 15 years old, and it’s a saying that’s had its day. Its 15 minutes of use is well past.
I don’t know what they were thinking. I urge the department of tourism to pull this ad. It’s hurting their cause, not helping it.
Oh, the woes of a crash!
TechCrunch highlighted Business 2.0’s recent situation. The magazine apparently “inadvertently deleted” the completed June issue from its server, and the backup wasn’t working. Before publication. Although the press deadline will, it seems, be met (or already has been?), this is an embarrassment. A wake-up call, too.
A similar scenario transpired at a newspaper I worked at: On one of our first issues, we had it done, and then it disappeared. Who knows what happened. We reconstructed the whole thing, in a very sleep-deprived state. It was nearly finished, and the computers crashed. It was gone again. We still managed to make it to press, not too much the worse for wear — at least after a couple days of sleep.
The problem with the similarity between these two situations, though, is that my example was on a college newspaper. A professional publication is necessarily held to a higher standard, and each piece needed to produce a professional publication must be professional. It sounds like the IT department messed up. Why wasn’t the backup usable? How do you accidently delete the current issue?
Backup is vital. Later, working at other publications, it was always treated with a high level of respect. It may seem mundane at the time, but automations can help. And it’s worth it. It’s important.
Reading Solar Style’s relatively brief FAQ page — my husband suggested one of the company’s solar cell phone/iPod chargers for his birthday gift — I was turned off on the company. Why? The page contained at least six horrible typos.
Particularly when I’m studying a company I’m not familiar with, this kind of rampant lack of attention to detail is quite off-putting. Can I trust this company with my dollars? Is its warranty reliable? Or is this just a fly-by-night operation?
I’d like to think well of this organization. It’s promoting eco-responsibility, and that’s something I value. But I also don’t want to spend a chunk of money on equipment made by a company with perhaps shoddy workmanship. After all, if Solar Style leadership doesn’t care enough about its image to ensure clean writing (one of the most immediate reflections of its integrity to potential customers), why would I be confident about the quality of the company’s product?
Even though I know my husband would appreciate a solar charger, I doubt he’ll be getting one from me at this point, from this company.
Write well — cleanly, without errors, at least — or if you can’t accomplish this alone, hire qualified help in this field. It’s essential to successful business.
Newspapers (”old media”) are, as a class, behind in the online world. (They’re not alone in this.) It’s no secret: check out these sources:
• New media
• Print media recovery will be slow
• Newspapers slow to adopt online revenue streams
I’ll admit, it’s nice to hold an actual paper in my hands beside my morning coffee. It’s not the same to go online and RSS the topics I’m interested in. However, too many newspapers have only the barest online presence.
The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette: The state’s largest newspaper. I’ve found two regular items (so far) that are in the print edition and aren’t online. The ever-popular In the News (in the left column of each day’s front page, and the weekly menu planner, which appears on page 2 of each Wednesday’s Food section. In particular it would be nice for the menu planner to be available online. What if we recycle our subscription at the end of each day, but I’m behind on setting my menu for the week? Too late. Even with a subscription to the hard copy, this content is not available online. That’s a no-no.
Another problem: The paper’s photos aren’t online. It has a “replica” version of the paper, but you can’t make it big enough onscreen to read without a subscription to the print edition, and you can’t link to any of its content.
The Tulsa World and the Northwest Arkansas Times have stepped it up and now offer to sell prints of its photos online.
Even the advertising portions of the Democrat-Gazette family publications are outmoded: My husband requested an ad he was placing in the Siloam Springs Herald-Leader be placed online, and it was not a possibility. At the very least, newspapers should be utilizing this method of potential new revenue.
Another hurdle newspapers face in having viable websites is the dated nature of their content. Newspapers should have, at the least, blogs on their sites, so they don’t have to be behind all other media when news breaks.
Newspapers will always own the in-depth corner of the news-coverage market. Newspapers are also usually best at separating opinion from analysis from straight news. They’re also hard to beat when it comes to small markets’ local coverage.
They need to read the plummeting subscription (and advertising revenue) writing on the wall and take a hard look at the online world — which is here to stay — and answer the tough questions. Should content be available to registered members only? What are the trade-offs involved in that decision? How should an online edition be paid for? Should be merely prop up the tactile product or should an online edition offer exclusive content?
Yes, they’re tough questions, but they must be answered. Perhaps part of the problem is newspapers’ old, techno-phobic leadership. Younger members of newspaper staff should be included in these discussions, since they’re more aware of the internet as a whole. It’s possible that each individual newspaper will reach a different end result after answering the hard questions. There may not be right and wrong answers, but ignoring the internet is a definite wrong answer.
These considerations are important to me, since I’ve worked in the newspaper industry and I enjoy newspapers. But my subscriptions are in the process of running out, and I’m not renewing. I like knowing what’s going on around me. I want to be informed. But I honestly don’t know if I’ll visit the existing area newspaper websites, or if I’ll just go without knowledge of local goings-on. The available newspaper websites aren’t friendly. Newspapers shouldn’t consider that a viable option, but I know plenty of area residents in the same situation.
My husband and I, when were were still courting, had many a conversation about the word giddy.
gid·dy [gid-ee] Pronunciation Key - Show IPA Pronunciation adjective, -di·er, -di·est, verb, -died, -dy·ing.
–adjective
1. affected with vertigo; dizzy.
2. attended with or causing dizziness: a giddy climb.
3. frivolous and lighthearted; impulsive; flighty: a giddy young person.
–verb (used with object), verb (used without object)
4. to make or become giddy.[Origin: bef. 1000; ME gidy, OE gidig mad (as var. of *gydig), deriv. of god God, presumably orig. “possessed by a divine being”]
Neither one of us can remember exactly what the point of those talks were, but they were memorable. He pasted the definition from a 100-year-old on the envelope of one of the letters he sent me. Perhaps he was unhappy I wasn’t falling down in love.
A new television advertisement, from the Arkansas state tourism department, claims vacationing in Arkansas will make people giddy, among other love-at-first-sight characteristics. Kind of a funny use of the word.
Come to Arkansas and fall in love!
Seriously, this use of the word makes me less than giddy. Use of good words (and giddy is certainly that) would normally make me happy, but this doesn’t. It’s absurd. Maybe the state’s trying to jump on the oddvertising bandwagon?
I’m one of those people who care about correct grammar, punctuation, spelling and usage, particularly in writing.
I’ve gone through phases concerning grammar in speech. When I first worked at a newspaper, on the copy desk, I consciously changed my speech, removing audible pauses, slang, colloquialisms, lazy language. Sometimes now, when I’m tired, I speak in near-baby talk, intentionally failing to pronounce words correctly, using plurals when they make no sense. Referencing myself in third person.
When I was in high school I used to correct my parents’ grammar whenever they made a mistake, in front of them and their peers, even. I know it bothered Dad.
I read copyblogger’s post about “Grammatical errors that make you look dumb” today, and I agree with him. Anyone writing anything should make an effort to avoid such mistakes. Eliminating errors from a person’s communications will help his or her credibility.
Some of the people who responded to his popular post, however, act like and even refer to themselves as “grammar nazis.” This behavior — and attitude — it would seem, also can injure the perpetrator’s reputation in the marketplace.
It does not help to present oneself as mean and overbearing and a know-it-all.
In the end, both can be lived out: Write correctly and give grace when you find someone else’s mistake(s). If you must offer a correction, do it tactfully, pleasantly and out of a helpful spirit that takes into account that good ol’ Golden Rule: Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.
I may not always succeed at offering grace to others, but I have long-since stopped correcting individuals’ spoken grammar in public. I understand that I have weaknesses, too, and I don’t want them thrown in my face all the time.
I promise to not fill this blog up with complaints about defective local TV ads, but I couldn’t give this one a pass. Wow.
First, there’s the annoying spokesman, with a more annoying voice. Not a surprise.
Second, and much worse, Royal Window’s (multitudinous) spots are designed to mimic a fund drive, complete with the ringing phones in the background toward the end. The spokesperson talks in that kind of voice. Without mentioning the competition, the announcer (aka company owner?) belittles all other such companies.
The creators should know that fund drives, a la PBS perturb the audience. We skip our weekly PBS fix during those weeks of the year. I doubt we’re alone. Does the company really think it will/should/can guilt the audience into purchasing its products? It may work for PBS, but that’s a cause people at least somewhat believe in. New windows is not a cause.
This campaign (can you call it that, when it’s so poorly done?) simply makes me that much more happy my husband and I have begun watching most of our must-see shows on DVD, commercial free.
Marketing technique is a subject of interest to both of us, but I’ll not call this effective or useful, let alone interesting.
This is the kind of public relations governments should not expose themselves to. Governments — large and small — seem prone to forgetting that they are merely representatives of their constituency, the public. How can a governmental body work to limit its own speech?
But that’s exactly what the Arkansas General Assembly has done.
Sponsored by Rep. David Dunn, D-Forrest City, House Bill 1367 broadens an exemption for utility companies that allows the utilities more latitude without requiring public hearings.
A near perfect example is still transpiring in Fayetteville. Southwestern Electric Power Co., with the blessing of the state Public Service Commission, was initially moving forward without filing the certificate that triggers a public hearing. In this instance (the above bill hasn’t been signed into law yet), the commission granted the city “permission to intervene” in the expansion that would replace wooden power poles within the city’s downtown with metal structures 20-55 feet taller. The commission staff, however, believe the public doesn’t need a chance to comment — or hear the details in person, which is often the main purpose of public hearings — on the project.
The Arkansas Public Service Commission, understandably, is for the bill, which was passed by the Senate Monday and forwarded to Gov. Mike Beebe for his signature. But wait, why is the commission in favor of this? And why did our elected representatives agree?
I understand that public hearings, especially about something that may not draw a huge crowd, can be a pain to hold. Public hearings prolong the process, delay “progress,” hold up projects, etc. I’ve been to some similar public hearings, in my former watchdog role. I didn’t really enjoy attending such meetings, either.
Does a hearing really drag out a project when it’s an essential part of government? Government cannot act without consent of the people, albeit sometimes that consent is via representatives. Public comment is an integral part of such projects.
The public should be given the opportunity to be part of the discussion. Period. It’s not a delay or prolongment when it’s essential.
Side note: Such bills make governments look bad. It looks like our senators and representatives have been unduly influenced by lobbyists for the utility companies, who want to push their pet projects through as quickly as possible.
Bono’s (red) campaign to save lives in Africa: Shop (read: indulge your American consumerism) to help fight AIDS in Africa, a serious, good, immense cause. It’s part of