Sunday, December 14, 2008

Laying off people and saving trees [multitasking]

I have been watching in amazement as the economy unravels. I think we are going to see changes like no one has ever seen before ever.

Magazines and newspapers are folding at a high rate ;). I stopped taking the newspaper long ago. We traveled so much it was too much work to turn the newspaper on and off so they would not pile up by our door. As much as I loved having the Merky News to have and hold they would pile up by the door after we read them. At some point we would carry them down three flights of stairs and across the parking lot to the recycle bins. It seem wasteful back even back then.

Yesterday when we were shopping for treats to bring to a holiday party a nice woman asked me if I had a second. [Pet Peeve Alert] I could feel that get ready for the sales pitch feeling coming on. She asked me if I wanted to take the Merky News for 30 days for free and as a bonus I would get a $50.00 gift card to Safeway. I love to chat with people even over stuff they are trying to sell. I have played this game on the phone with sales people over this same thing. I explained I am morally opposed to wasting paper since the Internet is where I get news from these days. I can travel anywhere I have a connection and get the news I like. I followed the pre-election festivities from France so when I came home I was not it total culture shock.

I recently revamped my Yahoo home page and made some adjustments to my news. I had some feeds that had died like Planet Out. They must had a falling out with Yahoo or something. I added a bunch of blog sites feeds I like and reformatted the page. I have a lot of those new feeds now in to my Google reader so when Yahoo fully tanks I will still have a place to read news.

News is moving away from the heavy hitters. The Tribune filed for bankruptcy the New York Times is getting there.

You can see a lot of my favorite blogs over on my list to the right. One of my favorites is Gawker. They have been following the death of print. They have had some challenges as well. They have cut back on Valleywag writers.

I remember as a kid getting the Sunday SF Chronicle comics and sitting on the family room heater vent in my bathrobe reading the Sunday comics. I used to get Scientific American, Popular Mechanics, Popular Science, Popular Electronics and oh remember TV Guide? I learned a lot of my electronics knowledge from Popular Electronics.

Gawker has some memories as well of some other magazines some with interesting covers. Even skin mags like Playboy are not safe from the crunch.

Check out how Mac World has slimmed down.

Do you have any favorite magazines you remember? Are they still alive?

3 comments:

Lori D said...

In elementary, MAD magazine reigned supreme for this kid. From high school on, TIME was my weekly staple. I hope it's not TIME for them to throw in the towel.

Simone said...

Yes, I remember TV guide. The ink always turned my fingers black. As a little kid I read Highlights then later Popular Photography. I think they're both still kicking. Like Lori I too loved MAD especially Don Martin's cartoons. I remember one were a man put a dollar into a change machine and changed into a woman. I told my therapist it was the earliest recollection of wanting to become a woman but she wasn't impressed.

Le visage d'avril said...

@Lori D Oh ya Mad Magazine. For some reason I was never totally in to it. Probably all the tech mags I got. My brother had a subscription to Mad Magazine. I sometimes got to read them.

Time mag? Oh not good news there.

http://gawker.com/5070179/time-inc-laying-off-600

It will be like the other layoffs. Everyone will end up on a blog.

@Simone I remember Highlights from the dentist office. I found a shrine to Don Martin

http://www.nachshon.org.il/~itzs/Don%20Martin/html/gallery1.htm

I didn't see that comic but it sounds good. I will keep an eye out as I search to read some stuff I missed.