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[BLOG] Some Friday links
- blogTO notes that the TTC plans on raising fares for next year.
- Centauri Dreams notes the evidence for an ocean on Pluto.
- City of Brass' Aziz Poonawalla argues against Muslims voluntarily registering in an American listing of Muslims.
- Dangerous Minds notes the sadness of Abbie Hoffman at Janis Joplin's use of IV drugs.
- Joe. My. God. notes that ( Read more... )
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[URBAN NOTE] On Rogers' axing of Canadian mass media
Bloomberg carried the startling news in a brief article.
Rogers Communications Inc. is pulling back from its magazine business, shuttering some titles, selling others and reducing the frequency of its most-popular magazines, dealing a major blow to Canada’s already-struggling publishing industry ( Read more... ) -
[ISL] "Old Farmer's Almanac at 225: 'It doesn't look that much different' "
CBC News interviewed Peter Rukavina, Island blogger, on the subject of the Old Farmer's Almanac. I did not know he contributed to it.
Not too many publications last 25 years, let alone 225, but that's the birthday being celebrated this year by the Old Farmer's Almanac ( Read more... ) -
[LINK] "National Geographic gives Fox control of media assets in $725 million deal"
The Washington Post is one news source of many to cover the news of National Geographic's inclusion in the Rupert Murdoch empire.
On Wednesday, the iconic yellow-bordered magazine, beset by financial issues, entered its own uncharted territory. In an effort to stave off further decline, the magazine was effectively sold by its nonprofit parent ( Read more... ) -
[URBAN NOTE] On the imminent demise of Xtra! as a print publication
I was shocked to find out yesterday via blogTO that Xtra!, the free biweekly newspaper that has been the dominant feature in Toronto's LGBT media scene--Canada's, even--will be stopping print publication in favour of a wholly online presence. CBC outlines the immediate causes.
Xtra, the iconic gay and lesbian newspaper in Toronto, Ottawa and ( Read more... ) -
[LINK] "On the declining prospects of the young journalist"
The subtitle of Mireille Silcoff's despairing National Post article on the future of journalism is "(or: To the writers of the future: good luck with that)". The economics of freelance writing just don't work any more, not as a career and not even as a primary job.
Another friend who is a newspaper editor recently described the problem of speaking ( Read more... ) -
[LINK] Two Daily Kos links on the cartoons of Charlie Hebdo
- plg's "Charlie Hebdo : some context" provides background context for the cartoons of Charlie Hebdo, placing them in the context of French radical cartoonists generally.
"[O]ffensively anti-Muslim" is a completely wrong description of Charlie Hebdo's cartoons, at least from the point of view of the people who drew them. As a rule, the cartoonists ( Read more... ) -
[LINK] "CMAP: Short stories, what are they good for?"
Charlie Stross writes at his blog about how why, in science fiction, novels make more financial sense for authors to write than short stories do.
Genre science fiction in the US literary tradition has its roots in the era of the pulp magazines, from roughly 1920 to roughly 1955. (The British SF/F field evolved similarly, so I’m going to use the US ( Read more... ) -
[CAT] "Who Killed Cat Fancy?"
New York Magazine's Abraham Riesman describes the fall of Cat Fancy magazine and its replacement by Catster. As he describes it, cats did not stop being popular. Rather, they were differently popular.
To understand the seismic shift in cat culture, you can start by picking apart Cat Fancy's name. It used to be much more than a whimsical reference ( Read more... ) -
[LINK] "Are Digital Magazines Dead?"
My reaction to Ryan Jones' article republished in Wired was something like "Are digital magazines actually a thing at all?" (Are they?)
When pondering the future of digital magazines, the “I’m not dead yet” scene in Monty Python and the Holy Grail may come to mind. Is the digital magazine industry ready to be carted off with the rest of the dead? ( Read more... )