by greg stene, ph.d.

Bigtime news here. And the implications for newspapers and TV are large.

For years, a lot of people supposedly in the know have said that when one significant ad spender puts the dollars into the online medium in a committed way, it will force all the other majors, from P&G to whomever to do the same to remain competitive.

Basically, it’s the idea that when the first biggie makes the move, everyone realizes they’ve got to dive deeply into the pool, rather than just continue dipping their toes in and testing the water’s temperature (somebody else’s ancient analogy). If they don’t, they’re going to be way behind those who do.

We may see a swarm of this kind of commitment soon. Full story »

I guess I could make my friend Denny the journalist happy and begin this way – with a lede:

Neil Aspinall, friend of Paul, then George, then John, then Ringo, then The Beatles’ road manager and personal assistant, then chief executive for Apple Corps for more than 4 decades has died. He was 66.

But since I’m a storyteller, let me begin somewhere else:

My first encounter with George was behind the school’s air-raid shelters.This great mass of shaggy hair loomed up and an out-of-breath voice requested a quick drag of my Woodbine. It was one of the first cigarettes either of us had smoked. Full story »

I despise Wal*Mart. They’re vehemently anti-union in a company that desperately needs to be unionized (and this from a guy who generally isn’t a fan of unions himself). The quality of nearly all their products is utter crap to match their “you get what you pay for” prices. They’re leaders both in paying people crappy wages and in keeping their employees just below the federal limit on hours worked before they have to start providing health care. They’re arguably one of the reasons that people are so pissed off at free trade and offshoring, even as they keep spending their increasingly hard-earned dollars at Wal*Mart.

In my opinion, Wal*Mart has worked hard at earning the scorn that’s heaped on them by JibJab and South Park.

But by the gods, when Wal*Mart makes a move into a market, they command respect. They upset the status quo on compact fluorescent lighting (CFL) when they decided to prominently display the CFL bulbs and to push for a hundred million bulbs sold in the first year. And now they’re doing it again, this time requiring that their store brand milk be produced by cows that have not been fed growth hormones. Full story »

by Josh Nelson

Both Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton have demonstrated their commitment to taking strong and bold action on climate change.

Obama:

Cap and Trade: Obama supports implementation of a market-based cap-and-trade system to reduce carbon emissions by the amount scientists say is necessary: 80 percent below 1990 levels by 2050. Obama’s cap-and-trade system will require all pollution credits to be auctioned. A 100 percent auction ensures that all polluters pay for every ton of emissions they release, rather than giving these emission rights away to coal and oil companies. Full story »

Appearing weekly, Nota Bene attempts to provide an overview of the week’s news. Meanwhile, in its appendix, we cull trenchant comments to articles and posts, as well as those heard in person or emailed. Nota Bene was founded by Mike Sheehan.

At War in Context, Paul Woodward writes of our Prankster in Chief: “I imagine Bush learned his happy-go-lucky trick some time in his adolescence. . . . He parades his lack of seriousness as though to say, ‘You know I could really excel if I wanted to, but none of this matters to me so I can’t be bothered.’ . . . This is Bush’s exit strategy from the White House.” Staggering to contemplate. Full story »