The Curator’s News Feed: October 19, 2012
This week the Curator team was reading up on Newsweek’s big announcement, the real consequences of sitting all day, how to properly seize a moment and more. See what else caught our eye online this week:
Newsweek Print Addition, CNN. Newsweek made an announcement that they are shutting down their print issue and going 100% digital in 2013. While I totally understand the reasons behind it and the fact that many people are getting their news online these days, I find it sad that the printed word continues to go away. There’s something about turning pages and flipping back and forth and the tactile part of newspapers and magazines that can’t be replaced by laptops, tablets and phones. – Dan
Seattle Times Criticized for Buying Political Ads, My Northwest. My second link is about the decision by the Seattle Times to pay for and run political ads in its own paper. It’s clearly within their first amendment right to do so, but it does call into question their credibility as an unbiased news source. Opinion pages are where we traditionally see the Times’ opinions, but by buying ads in their own paper, it begs the question of where this will go next and where it will stop. – Dan
Get Up. Get Out. Don't Sit., New York Times. I do my best to get the doctor-recommended thirty minutes per day of exercise. However, thirty minutes might not be enough. According to several research studies, prolonged sitting can dramatically decrease one’s life span and negatively affect their overall health… even if they are exercising at least thirty minutes each day. – Johanna
Newsweek to Cease Print Publication at End of Year, New York Times. On Thursday, the prominent weekly news source across the U.S., Newsweek, announced that it would publish its final print edition on December 31st of this year. As a source that has been disseminating news to households for decades, the news provoked a sense of the end of an era; similar to what many Seattleite’s felt when the Seattle P-I made a similar announcement several years back. But, the announcement goes far beyond just this publication and provides another proof-point that the industry is headed in a direction that we were already aware of – one that is completely digital. It’s another reminder that the world of traditional print outlets is shrinking, creating a new and very different landscape for reporters and PR professionals alike. Looking forward to continuing to navigate this constantly evolving terrain. – Annie
Seizing the moment, Mashable. This story is good for a laugh, to be sure, but it also shows how important seizing an opportunity can be when it’s done right. I’ll let you read the story for yourself, but when you’re done, be sure to google search Bodyform Maxi Pads. What you’ll find is impressive. International news coverage for a simple video: Check. Massive viral reach: Check. Social street cred: Check. – Matthew
Twitter blocks Nazi account in landmark move, Al Jazeera. For the first time ever, Twitter has blocked an account at the request of the police. The account in question belonged to a neo-Nazi group in Germany and was deemed illegal hate speech by German officials. Twitter first mentioned its ability and intent to do something like this earlier this year on the company's official blog: "we give ourselves the ability to reactively withhold content from users in a specific country — while keeping it available in the rest of the world." Whether you see this as a chilling effect/slippery slope issue or just one less Twitter account spewing hate speech, it's a (quiet) watershed moment for the company. – Paul
Spike, Newswhip. This week I stumbled upon the Newswhip site, which aggregates world news and presents the content with live data indicating what is getting traction on Facebook and Twitter. You can find stories from major publications or search by subject. Spike is the new site, currently in beta until November 7th, and shows the world’s news conversation in real time. It’s a pretty cool idea and awesome way to look at the news with social media metrics running live with each story. On Spike you can add filters to get make your searches more specific and you can see what is trending in stories by the last hour, 3 hours, 12 hours and 24 hours. It’s definitely worth a look and right now it’s free to sign up to keep using Spike after beta. – Chelsey