Read a little. Learn a lot. • Tightly-written news, views and stuff • Follow us on TwitterBe a Facebook FanTumble us!

05 Oct 2009 20:29

tags

Biz: A couple deathly serious numbers about the funeral industry

  • 35% of all funerals are cremations, which kills the revenue of mom & pop funeral shops source

04 Oct 2009 12:24

tags

Biz: Daily Poll: On E. Coli and the dangers of eating meat

  • In today’s major E. Coli expose in the New York Times, we were stunned by this line: “A test by The Times found that the safe handling instructions are not enough to prevent the bacteria from spreading in the kitchen.” Which makes us feel like we need to pose this question. What do you think?source

04 Oct 2009 11:37

tags

Biz: Coke decides to stop hiding its caloric counts on its bottles

This is a smart move on Coke’s part, though symbolic. Now, let’s see if they screw it up by renaming it iDrink 2.0. source

03 Oct 2009 11:14

tags

Biz, U.S.: Unemployment benefits aren’t lasting as long as unemployment

  • 26
    weeks
    the length of time that unemployment is available for those out of work (right now, there’s a lot of those people) source

03 Oct 2009 10:00

tags

Biz, Culture: Comcast tries to wheel and deal its way into NBC Universal

  • $30 billion the estimated value of the deal Comcast (who’s looking for a big-media venture) and GE are working out for the network/film studio source

02 Oct 2009 19:11

tags

Biz: A Hulu for publishing: Will media finally get its act together online?


About time someone noticed. We're not going to give the publishing industry a full pass here, but it's great to see they're finally attempting to cobble together a plan for magazines to have a life outside of glossy paper.
  • The plan Time Inc. is pushing to create a Hulu-style app for magazines, and other publishers (such as Wired publisher Condé Nast) are getting on board. The idea is to focus strictly on the content and the distribution system instead of where the content might show up. (Good idea, because you guys know nothing about devices.) source
  • The plan Time Inc. is pushing to create a Hulu-style app for magazines, and other publishers (such as Wired publisher Condé Nast) are getting on board. The idea is to focus strictly on the content and the distribution system instead of where the content might show up. (Good idea, because you guys know nothing about devices.)
  • Why it might work Let’s say Apple releases a tablet. Or Microsoft does something with its Courier prototype. The media industry could totally do some awesome things with it, such as multimedia, interactive graphics, or contextual stuff like Apture (used above). If they do it right, they finally – finally! – have a unique product that people would pay for again. source
  • The plan Time Inc. is pushing to create a Hulu-style app for magazines, and other publishers (such as Wired publisher Condé Nast) are getting on board. The idea is to focus strictly on the content and the distribution system instead of where the content might show up. (Good idea, because you guys know nothing about devices.)
  • Why it might work Let’s say Apple releases a tablet. Or Microsoft does something with its Courier prototype. The media industry could totally do some awesome things with it, such as multimedia, interactive graphics, or contextual stuff like Apture (used above). If they do it right, they finally – finally! – have a unique product that people would pay for again.
  • Why it might not To this, we defer to Fake Steve Jobs (a.k.a. Daniel Lyons), who made some really interesting points a couple of days ago. His argument is that content manufacturers completely lack imagination, and as a result, tech companies are eating their lunch. He nails it. If they just recycle the same crap from print, nobody will want it. source

02 Oct 2009 10:49

tags

Biz: Like the year before it, September sucked for jobs

  • 9.8% unemployment, which is pretty darn depressing source
 

30 Sep 2009 20:00

tags

Biz: Bank of America CEO Ken Lewis sure regrets that Merrill Lynch merger

Lewis will be retiring at the end of the year, the victim of months of heavy scrutiny – by regulators and investors – of the failed merger. source

30 Sep 2009 19:47

tags

Biz: Penske ran rings around GM’s Saturn, but they couldn’t save it

  • 13,000 jobs could be lost in the wake of Roger Penske’s failed bid to keep the GM small-car brand alive source

30 Sep 2009 09:22

tags

Biz: Fear the floormats: Toyota issues a massive recall of its cars

  • 3.8 million Toyota cars could have dangerous loose floormats source