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Nov
30
Bright spot for newspapers
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From the Center for Media Research:
Despite readership declines, newspapers are, by a substantial margin, the leading destination for people interested in checking advertising and shopping information. This pattern is consistent across several indicators, including:
- Usage of different media in both the previous 7 days and previous 30 days
- Primary shopping and advertising information source among media in general
- Primary shopping and advertising source for major store categories individually
- Preferred media source for preprint delivery, and
- Preferred media source for nongrocery coupons.
My experience, when I got the local paper, mirrored this information. In fact, in addition to the aggravation I feel as I try to navigate Cleveland.com to find all the pieces of the Plain Dealer’s print Metro section, I miss the inserts. Not for me - I never read the inserts. Another family member who shall remain unnamed and otherwise unidentified because although he doesn’t read my blog, he doesn’t want to be in it much either, reads the inserts (that is, used to read the inserts) religiously. (Hmm, in fact, if I wait long enough, I might be able to use that as an excuse to have to re-up. That’s for another post.)
Anyway - congrats. This area of advertising hasn’t migrated to the web. Yet. I imagine that it’s somewhat like online stores versus bricks and mortar. For some things, you just still really want and prefer what you can see, feel and tear up to take with you (although of course if you could find it online, you could print it out and take it with you).
By Jill Miller Zimon at 3:16 pm November 30th, 2006 in Politics | Please comment
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Nov
30
Bright spot for newspapers
Filed Under Politics | Leave a Comment
From the Center for Media Research:
Despite readership declines, newspapers are, by a substantial margin, the leading destination for people interested in checking advertising and shopping information. This pattern is consistent across several indicators, including:
- Usage of different media in both the previous 7 days and previous 30 days
- Primary shopping and advertising information source among media in general
- Primary shopping and advertising source for major store categories individually
- Preferred media source for preprint delivery, and
- Preferred media source for nongrocery coupons.
My experience, when I got the local paper, mirrored this information. In fact, in addition to the aggravation I feel as I try to navigate Cleveland.com to find all the pieces of the Plain Dealer’s print Metro section, I miss the inserts. Not for me - I never read the inserts. Another family member who shall remain unnamed and otherwise unidentified because although he doesn’t read my blog, he doesn’t want to be in it much either, reads the inserts (that is, used to read the inserts) religiously. (Hmm, in fact, if I wait long enough, I might be able to use that as an excuse to have to re-up. That’s for another post.)
Anyway - congrats. This area of advertising hasn’t migrated to the web. Yet. I imagine that it’s somewhat like online stores versus bricks and mortar. For some things, you just still really want and prefer what you can see, feel and tear up to take with you (although of course if you could find it online, you could print it out and take it with you).
By Jill Miller Zimon at 11:16 am November 30th, 2006 in Politics | Please comment
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Nov
30
Bright spot for newspapers
Filed Under Politics | Leave a Comment
From the Center for Media Research:
Despite readership declines, newspapers are, by a substantial margin, the leading destination for people interested in checking advertising and shopping information. This pattern is consistent across several indicators, including:
- Usage of different media in both the previous 7 days and previous 30 days
- Primary shopping and advertising information source among media in general
- Primary shopping and advertising source for major store categories individually
- Preferred media source for preprint delivery, and
- Preferred media source for nongrocery coupons.
My experience, when I got the local paper, mirrored this information. In fact, in addition to the aggravation I feel as I try to navigate Cleveland.com to find all the pieces of the Plain Dealer’s print Metro section, I miss the inserts. Not for me - I never read the inserts. Another family member who shall remain unnamed and otherwise unidentified because although he doesn’t read my blog, he doesn’t want to be in it much either, reads the inserts (that is, used to read the inserts) religiously. (Hmm, in fact, if I wait long enough, I might be able to use that as an excuse to have to re-up. That’s for another post.)
Anyway - congrats. This area of advertising hasn’t migrated to the web. Yet. I imagine that it’s somewhat like online stores versus bricks and mortar. For some things, you just still really want and prefer what you can see, feel and tear up to take with you (although of course if you could find it online, you could print it out and take it with you).
By Jill Miller Zimon at 8:16 am November 30th, 2006 in Politics | Please comment
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Nov
29
Ohio #3 State Business Climate Rankings
Filed Under Politics | 11 Comments
When I read this comment on Buckeye State Blog, well, if you know me, you might imagine my reaction (big, loud, wet, PFFFFTT). Actually, I thought, “Duh. I would never do that (look at press releases and sort the true from the PR). I’d email people I know at think tanks and research centers I trust and ask, what’s the 411 on this Ohio Department of Development? Good? Bad? What?”
So, not only did I do that in about 60 seconds (and I’ve already received a response that requires a few more contacts), but I also spent three minutes or so on the DOD’s website (not bad, actually - some very cool collections of data in there). While there, I saw, in the upper left-hand corner, a continuously changing tidbit about Ohio - how well it ranked on this, how well it ranks on that. It changed too quickly for me, so I had to google the words I could remember (which of course I can’t remember now), and look what I found at Site Selection Online:
Not only is Ohio ranked #3 on this list, but in the criteria that was weighted 50%, survey of corporate site selectors, Ohio came in 12. (The other 50% came from “the state’s overall rank in total qualifying new or expanded projects in 2005; New Plant performance from 2003-2005; rank per million population; and rank per 1,000 square miles.”)
So, you know, I went back to Brewed Fresh Daily, because I thought that I might have seen something on there about this type of ranking, but I couldn’t find anything (remember? after 5pm? not so lucid - so it might be there but I couldn’t find anything specific to site selection preferences). Then, I thought, well, maybe I’ll just post this chart there, but George doesn’t often post big charts like this one. And besides, this post came about because of trying to refute a point made on an entirely different blog.
Okay - so what’s my point?
There’s a lot of chatter, often on BFD, about how Cleveland ranks, or Ohio ranks, or the Midwest ranks. I just saw some numbers today about how old we’re getting in the Midwest and we’re going to get less populated and older as time goes on. And the GOP turned Cleveland down for its national convention. And boohoo boohoo boohoo.
So - go ahead. Tear apart this ranking. Tell me why you think Ohio actually does stink for business. Is Site Selection magazine a paid-for kind of thing, like those apartment booklets you can get at the grocery store or the inserts in all kinds of magazines now that look like articles but are really advertisements? Is Site Selection an infomercial that Ohio folks, like in the ODOD, are able to influence?
Or can we accept that maybe it’s not as bad here as we thought?
I’m not the econ-business-entrepreneur-Web 3.0-venture capitalist-incubator-grow me-homegrow me - make a money-based revolution blogger around here.
What’s a chart like the one above and an article like the one that accompanies it mean? (Just let me down easy if the chart really is bunk, okay?)
By Jill Miller Zimon at 10:53 pm November 29th, 2006 in Politics | 11 Comments
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Nov
29
"Most dangerous phenomenon not anti-Semitism, but the tolerance of anti-Semitism"
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The open letter in support of the law suit reads: “Leszek Bubel’s anti-Semitic propaganda offends my sense of responsibility for my country, as it makes Polish society an easy victim of manipulation, distracting society’s attention from real problems. I also feel degraded, as a Polish citizen, by the fact that Leszek Bubel’s unpenalized activity on the international scene confirms Poland’s reputation for anti-Semitism.”.
The letter goes on to say that the “demoralising hate” disseminated by Bubel “lowers ethical standards and leads to an escalation of oral and physical aggression in public life”.
What remedies do they seek?
Danuta Stolecka, secretary to Stowarzyszenie Otwarta Rzeczpospolita, an NGO that is filing the law suit, said: “This is a groundbreaking case because we want to break the ongoing practice of the courts, which say that anti-Semitic texts can demean only Jews. We think that they demean every citizen, and we’re going to try and prove that in court.”
…
The prosecution demands that the publishers print an apology in each of the publications and also in the national daily “Gazeta Wyborcza”.
Andrzej Folwarczny, president of the Forum for Dialogue Among Nations Foundation, which aims to foster Polish-Jewish dialogue and eradicate anti-Semitism, said that, if successful, the case could affect other publications and broadcasters in Poland who continue to voice anti-Semitism.
I’ve written before about the need for communities to engage in group therapy because of such issues. But does the lawsuit involve a permutation of impermissible, illegal hate crime and hate speech, or does it aim to improperly restrain free speech? What difference, if any, does it make that the suit is being pursued in Poland, versus if it was being pursued in the United States?
The title quote is from the article and sociologist Sergiusz Kowalski: “The most dangerous phenomenon in Poland is not anti-Semitism but widespread tolerance of anti-Semitism in Polish society.”
By Jill Miller Zimon at 8:30 pm November 29th, 2006 in Politics | Please comment
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Nov
29
How to write well: advice from a Harvard economics prof, of all people
Filed Under Politics | 6 Comments
This advice comes from Harvard economic professor Greg Mankiw. Now, I’ve written a couple of times about how I nearly flunked freshman micro-econ in college. It was taught by a newly minted Harvard Ph.D. in econ and he was a terrible, just a terrible, terrible teacher. I’m sure he was brilliant, is brilliant. But as a teacher, he was terrible. And it was one of those massive classes with the big, thick standard text - it’s probably the same text now.
And I just really never recovered my enthusiasm for learning more about economics. I like it, I like numbers, it all intrigues me. But I developed a complex that I just would never be able to learn it.
Well, with a hattip to Case law school professor, Peter Friedman of the RAWBlog, I’m pleased to say that this advice for how to write well, particularly if you’re going to write about economics to people who don’t do economics, is spot-on. If you’re a writer of any kind, you’ll recognize a number of the items. But here’s a few I’ve never seen before that make good sense:
Never make up your own acronyms.
To mere mortals, a graphic metaphor, a compelling anecdote, or a striking fact is worth a thousand articles in Econometrica.
Keep your writing personal. Remind readers how economics affects their lives.
Remember two basic rules of economic usage:
-“Long run” (without a hyphen) is a noun. “Long-run” (with a hyphen) is an adjective. Same with “short(-)run.
-“Saving” (without a terminal s) is a flow. “Savings” (with a terminal s) is a stock.
And, my absolute he-must-have-known-me-or-taught-a-lot-of-students-like-me-favorite:
Keep it simple. Think of your reader as being your college roommate who majored in English literature. Assume he has never taken an economics course, or if he did, he used the wrong textbook.
I love annhilating my fears. Thanks, Professors.
By Jill Miller Zimon at 7:02 pm November 29th, 2006 in Politics | 6 Comments
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Nov
29
Ohio #3 State Business Climate Rankings
Filed Under Politics | 11 Comments
When I read this comment on Buckeye State Blog, well, if you know me, you might imagine my reaction (big, loud, wet, PFFFFTT). Actually, I thought, “Duh. I would never do that (look at press releases and sort the true from the PR). I’d email people I know at think tanks and research centers I trust and ask, what’s the 411 on this Ohio Department of Development? Good? Bad? What?”
So, not only did I do that in about 60 seconds (and I’ve already received a response that requires a few more contacts), but I also spent three minutes or so on the DOD’s website (not bad, actually - some very cool collections of data in there). While there, I saw, in the upper left-hand corner, a continuously changing tidbit about Ohio - how well it ranked on this, how well it ranks on that. It changed too quickly for me, so I had to google the words I could remember (which of course I can’t remember now), and look what I found at Site Selection Online:
Not only is Ohio ranked #3 on this list, but in the criteria that was weighted 50%, survey of corporate site selectors, Ohio came in 12. (The other 50% came from “the state’s overall rank in total qualifying new or expanded projects in 2005; New Plant performance from 2003-2005; rank per million population; and rank per 1,000 square miles.”)
So, you know, I went back to Brewed Fresh Daily, because I thought that I might have seen something on there about this type of ranking, but I couldn’t find anything (remember? after 5pm? not so lucid - so it might be there but I couldn’t find anything specific to site selection preferences). Then, I thought, well, maybe I’ll just post this chart there, but George doesn’t often post big charts like this one. And besides, this post came about because of trying to refute a point made on an entirely different blog.
Okay - so what’s my point?
There’s a lot of chatter, often on BFD, about how Cleveland ranks, or Ohio ranks, or the Midwest ranks. I just saw some numbers today about how old we’re getting in the Midwest and we’re going to get less populated and older as time goes on. And the GOP turned Cleveland down for its national convention. And boohoo boohoo boohoo.
So - go ahead. Tear apart this ranking. Tell me why you think Ohio actually does stink for business. Is Site Selection magazine a paid-for kind of thing, like those apartment booklets you can get at the grocery store or the inserts in all kinds of magazines now that look like articles but are really advertisements? Is Site Selection an infomercial that Ohio folks, like in the ODOD, are able to influence?
Or can we accept that maybe it’s not as bad here as we thought?
I’m not the econ-business-entrepreneur-Web 3.0-venture capitalist-incubator-grow me-homegrow me - make a money-based revolution blogger around here.
What’s a chart like the one above and an article like the one that accompanies it mean? (Just let me down easy if the chart really is bunk, okay?)
By Jill Miller Zimon at 6:53 pm November 29th, 2006 in Politics | 11 Comments
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Nov
29
Here’s the info. If you go, I hope you’ll blog about it. Wilson is the head of the White House Project. The group is looking at Ohio as a new site for helping women get into politics and political office via their Vote, Run, Lead program.
You can listen to her appearance on WOSU Radio’s Open Line program (this morning) here.
By Jill Miller Zimon at 6:37 pm November 29th, 2006 in Politics | 1 Comment
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Nov
29
"Most dangerous phenomenon not anti-Semitism, but the tolerance of anti-Semitism"
Filed Under Politics | Leave a Comment
The open letter in support of the law suit reads: “Leszek Bubel’s anti-Semitic propaganda offends my sense of responsibility for my country, as it makes Polish society an easy victim of manipulation, distracting society’s attention from real problems. I also feel degraded, as a Polish citizen, by the fact that Leszek Bubel’s unpenalized activity on the international scene confirms Poland’s reputation for anti-Semitism.”.
The letter goes on to say that the “demoralising hate” disseminated by Bubel “lowers ethical standards and leads to an escalation of oral and physical aggression in public life”.
What remedies do they seek?
Danuta Stolecka, secretary to Stowarzyszenie Otwarta Rzeczpospolita, an NGO that is filing the law suit, said: “This is a groundbreaking case because we want to break the ongoing practice of the courts, which say that anti-Semitic texts can demean only Jews. We think that they demean every citizen, and we’re going to try and prove that in court.”
…
The prosecution demands that the publishers print an apology in each of the publications and also in the national daily “Gazeta Wyborcza”.
Andrzej Folwarczny, president of the Forum for Dialogue Among Nations Foundation, which aims to foster Polish-Jewish dialogue and eradicate anti-Semitism, said that, if successful, the case could affect other publications and broadcasters in Poland who continue to voice anti-Semitism.
I’ve written before about the need for communities to engage in group therapy because of such issues. But does the lawsuit involve a permutation of impermissible, illegal hate crime and hate speech, or does it aim to improperly restrain free speech? What difference, if any, does it make that the suit is being pursued in Poland, versus if it was being pursued in the United States?
The title quote is from the article and sociologist Sergiusz Kowalski: “The most dangerous phenomenon in Poland is not anti-Semitism but widespread tolerance of anti-Semitism in Polish society.”
By Jill Miller Zimon at 4:30 pm November 29th, 2006 in Politics | Please comment
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Nov
29
Ohio #3 State Business Climate Rankings
Filed Under Politics | Leave a Comment
When I read this comment on Buckeye State Blog, well, if you know me, you might imagine my reaction (big, loud, wet, PFFFFTT). Actually, I thought, “Duh. I would never do that (look at press releases and sort the true from the PR). I’d email people I know at think tanks and research centers I trust and ask, what’s the 411 on this Ohio Department of Development? Good? Bad? What?”
So, not only did I do that in about 60 seconds (and I’ve already received a response that requires a few more contacts), but I also spent three minutes or so on the DOD’s website (not bad, actually - some very cool collections of data in there). While there, I saw, in the upper left-hand corner, a continuously changing tidbit about Ohio - how well it ranked on this, how well it ranks on that. It changed too quickly for me, so I had to google the words I could remember (which of course I can’t remember now), and look what I found at Site Selection Online:
Not only is Ohio ranked #3 on this list, but in the criteria that was weighted 50%, survey of corporate site selectors, Ohio came in 12. (The other 50% came from “the state’s overall rank in total qualifying new or expanded projects in 2005; New Plant performance from 2003-2005; rank per million population; and rank per 1,000 square miles.”)
So, you know, I went back to Brewed Fresh Daily, because I thought that I might have seen something on there about this type of ranking, but I couldn’t find anything (remember? after 5pm? not so lucid - so it might be there but I couldn’t find anything specific to site selection preferences). Then, I thought, well, maybe I’ll just post this chart there, but George doesn’t often post big charts like this one. And besides, this post came about because of trying to refute a point made on an entirely different blog.
Okay - so what’s my point?
There’s a lot of chatter, often on BFD, about how Cleveland ranks, or Ohio ranks, or the Midwest ranks. I just saw some numbers today about how old we’re getting in the Midwest and we’re going to get less populated and older as time goes on. And the GOP turned Cleveland down for its national convention. And boohoo boohoo boohoo.
So - go ahead. Tear apart this ranking. Tell me why you think Ohio actually does stink for business. Is Site Selection magazine a paid-for kind of thing, like those apartment booklets you can get at the grocery store or the inserts in all kinds of magazines now that look like articles but are really advertisements? Is Site Selection an infomercial that Ohio folks, like in the ODOD, are able to influence?
Or can we accept that maybe it’s not as bad here as we thought?
I’m not the econ-business-entrepreneur-Web 3.0-venture capitalist-incubator-grow me-homegrow me - make a money-based revolution blogger around here.
What’s a chart like the one above and an article like the one that accompanies it mean? (Just let me down easy if the chart really is bunk, okay?)
By Jill Miller Zimon at 3:53 pm November 29th, 2006 in Politics | Please comment
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Nov
29
Updated: Plain Dealer, Dispatch report more fully on Ohio mental health parity happening
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I saw all this information (from the Columbus Dispatch article and The Plain Dealer article) on the Gongwer news last night but I was too tired to do a better job condensing it. As you can see, several themes weave in and out of the mental health parity issue. Midnight is not my most lucid time.
-Small business does’t want this but they want that
-Taft doesn’t want that and he’s not sure if he wants this
-Mental health defenders want this
-Mental health sufferers want that
-House Speaker Husted says this, Senate Speaker Harris says that
-Insurance committee chair Stivers says this
And so on. See - just too much for me at the end of the day, or was it the beginning of the next one?
Write your Ohio legislators and tell them to pass the thing already. Stivers says there’s enough support - we need to reinforce it so it gets done.
By Jill Miller Zimon at 3:49 pm November 29th, 2006 in Politics | Please comment
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