Falling Down on Friday
Mike notes that he needs an attitude adjustment:
My only thought was, “How? The Dow futures are already down 300 points and there’s still two and half hours to go before the market opens.”
Many are aware that the landscape of media is changing. Dan has ten reasons newspapers won’t be leading the revolution:
3. The culture of newsroom leadership contains a fatal 20th century flaw: A fundamental belief that equates all new trends with dangerous “fads.” Newsrooms don’t trail the leading edge simply because they’re too dumb to keep up: They’re behind because their editorial leadership believes that keeping pace with rapid change is a fool’s errand. Many senior editors don’t simply fear change — they resent change that succeeds without their endorsement.
4. No budget for research, development or training means most newspapers can’t see what’s coming, don’t have the necessary tools for survival and couldn’t use those new tools effectively anyway (Hey news executives! Try this newsroom pop quiz: Give each staff member a pencil and tell everyone to stop what they’re doing and write out the tag that creates a hypertext link. If most can’t, you’re not spending enough on training. If anyone in your management team can’t, you’ve got a crisis). It’s also a sign of a dirty little secret: Many papers gave up on staff development several rounds of budget cuts ago.
Michael is a man on a mission:
But, while at the dentist this morning, and yes under the influence of gas and Novocaine, I realized why. I am having a problem coming up with a professional missions statement because I don’t have a personal one.
This is of real importance since, seeing as this is my business and a sole proprietorship, the business’s mission statement should closely mirror my own.
After a full day of sessions and travel industry trade talk, I was glad to plop down on a bar stool and enjoy a cold beer in the Windy City. A fellow seated next to me asked “Been having a good day Chuck?”
I looked up and I was sure I didn’t know him. I asked “I’m sorry, have we met?” He smiled and said“You’re wearing a red name tag that says Chuck Boyd.”
Sure enough, it was still stuck on my lapel and we both laughed as I peeled it off.
He said “Do you want to hear something really strange?”
Brian of Untamed Beer reports in from a week long pub crawl:
And let me take this opportunity to say how much it sucks that we can’t have tasting rooms at breweries in South Carolina. Due to typical laws that make no sense, our state government won’t allow brewers to sell beer in the place it is brewed if they also distribute ourside of their location. It’s one or the other. There is just something about being able to enjoy a pint or three at a brewery. It’s different than a brewpub, because people are there only for the beer. It’s not the food, it’s not for live music or some other draw. It’s all about the beer, and you know everyone else is there to appreciate it like you are. If there’s one thing that will make me move out of this state, other than the heat, cockroaches, poor education system and lack of pro sports, it’s the stupid beer laws.
This evening’s parting thought comes from Patrick:
“You have much more power when you are working for the right thing than when you are working for the wrong thing.”
— Peace Pilgrim
In 1953, a silver-haired woman who identified herself as Peace Pilgrim started a 28-year voyage to share with the world her desire for peace. She would continue that mission until she died in 1982, and this year, had she lived, she would have been 100 years old.
I like the quote a lot, because it is true. But how often do we get so caught up in the day-to-day problems that we lose sight of what’s right and what’s truly important?