Three bits of media news that are worth posting but don’t really go together.
- Associated Press to reporters: Don’t break news on Twitter; break it on the wire
The Associated Press has reiterated it’s policy of never having reporters break AP news on Twitter. It first has to go out via the organization’s news wire. Even if it’s about reporters getting arrested. (New York Magazine)
UPDATE: Washington Post’s Erik Wemple talks with AP about the rules, and has some comments on it. - Was Steve Jobs an innovator or a tweaker?
Malcolm Gladwell, writing in the Nov. 14th New Yorker, says that Steve Jobs’ great genius was for tweak inventions rather than inventing them himself.The PARC blog says that there is more to the issue than meets the eye. It’s not so much a question of innovating vs. tweaking as it is finding the right problem to solve. A fascinating short read on a complex topic. (FYI – Xerox PARC is the company that developed many of the interface ideas that would find their way into the Mac.) - Who cares about the NBA season? TNT and ABC/ESPN/Disney do!
Basketball fans may or may not care whether the NBA professional basketball season gets cancelled, but the television networks that carry the games certainly do care. What are they going to show and sell ads on if the NBA players don’t start playing? (The Wrap)
In response to the NBA lockout story, I feel that while the NBA is important to a lot of people, especially young males across the nation, there are enough sports going on during the late fall and winter seasons to keep them busy. The NFL is thriving after their lockout scare, and college basketball is always exciting, especially when winter turns into spring. There are plenty of ways for advertisers to reach out to young males without the NBA. While the television companies will be losing out on a ton of money this year and probably into next year as well, as long as college exists there will still be ways to make money from college football and college basketball games on television. In my opinion, college sports are more exciting than professional sports anyway, and when March rolls around, CBS, TNT, and ESPN won’t even remember that the NBA is in a lockout. While lots of money may be lost in the coming weeks, January through March and into April will certainly make up for it.