Bookraft

One of the positive changes in Business Week which Bookraft has noted since the takeover by Bloomberg has been the increased use of media and sophistcated charting. It is not yet at the frequency and caliber of the NYTimes, but it is a welcome step in the right direction. However, a second "Bloomberg" phenomena is the tendency for Bloomberg BW to deliver a lot more Short n'Tweet stories in the vein of Thomson Reuters and in contrast to the more lengthy and/or analytic posts found at say the Financial Times, Forbes, or the Wall Street Journal. The screenshot below is an example of the BBW tweets:

The advantage of these BBW "sweets" is that they convey essential news on more diverse front very quickly. This also caters to a tweet audience that wants "just the flaps,mame, just the flaps". No analysis or details please. These "sweets" readers will decide if they want to read any more details or analysis and as can be seen from the screenshot BBW does provide relevant links to further reading.

However, Bookraft is just a bit leery of such brevity for four reasons. First the abbreviation may snip out some crucial details. The 150-250 word BBW "sweet" does not give BBW writers and editors much room to maneuver. Second, one of the reasons to go to BBW is specifically for its details and analysis. One pays for WSJ or the Financial Times precisely for the specific details and analysis they chose to deliver. If BBW wants to have a paid for online edition, it will have to stand and deliver. Third, often the links to related stories do not provide the relevant material one would like or anticipate for informed follow-up. The related links seem automated and limited to 5-6 items maximum. Fourth and finally, web page change is one of the most expensive and time consuming operations on the Internet - to get so little for such an operation is deflating. It has all the look and feel of those cheapo Google Adsense Aggregator websites whose native content is minimal and all the rest ads and/or derivative/repetitious feed.

Now BBW can edit out many of these objections easily. First, have writers supplement the automated related links with 2 or 3 of their own links [including offsite references]. After all, Google and wikipedia have it right, the strength or value of a post is proportional to the relevance and value of its links. Perhaps the links would be to articles that fill in on the omitted details. A second strategy would be to aggregate these BBW tweets into topical sections. Then each BBW tweet would have its own 2-5 related links. In addition it could have positioning in the section based on how many related links are followed or some active user star rating system. But the key is to avoid the Cheapo Aggregator look of one small item surrounded by tons of advertising. A third course may be to double tweet - increase the size of the post to an executive summary which is about 400-600 words and 2-3 paragraphs. This tactic would avoid the Cheapo Aggregator look yet still retain the tweets emphasis on maximum info communication.

Finally, Bloomberg has access to huge reams of financial and economic data. they should have their staff become familiar with how to quickly develop diagrams/charts or be able to draw upon a constantly refreshed stable of great media => charts, images, video, and animations. Each section of "sweet" stories then would be able to draw upon the best condenser of stories - relevant media. These charts, diagrams and pictures act not as fluff but carry crucial info and replace words with "see fully" evidence.

Summary

In sum, the online Bloomberg Businessweek's use of "Sweets" - short and tweet-like stories - has the advantage that it caters to the Web 2.0 crowd that wants their facts in 140 words or less. But it also presents dangers to the publication as well. Bookraft will be following the evolution of these BBW "sweets" closely.

The NYTimes in its global edition is reporting much more on Chinese affairs - and why not ? Chinese manufacturing companies are major suppliers across more industries such as electronics, many consumer household goods, and now basic chemicals or finished metals. Of course there is the not small matter of $2trillion in US debt held by the Chinese plus an economy growing at least double the rate of the US or Europe. So the NYTimes suspects that Americans will be interested in what is happening in China.

But sometimes it is embarrassing to read NYTimes coverage because there is no way to easily confirm the stories by going to a local Chinese source and seeing what they have to say. First, Chinese script is Greek to me but more importantly, many of the Chinese in English media sources are official and therefore opaque if not downright suspect. Others may be private but guarded and hardly independent. Even going to Hong Kong or Taiwan press sources results in a distinctly business or local view. In sum, one does not easily have access to an authentic Chinese point of view. Compare what is available from most of the World Press.

Brazilian Newspaper O Globo translated from Portuguese to English

In contrast if one wants to find out what people are thinking in France read LeMonde. In Germany try Der Spiegel. In Brazil read O Globo as in the screen shot above. Or go to wikipedia in the local language [and do use Google Translate if you need some help - the translations can be laughlably Chinglish in style at times; but more often they get to the point]. But the key idea is that stories in most of the Worlds Press do not have the fishy odor of an official viewpoint as in the case of Chinese media.

So my problem is seeing in Chinese -but not the official Xinhua one.

Which brings us to Caixin Online [do visit the website, it is a revelation]. This is the English language website of caijing.com, a Chinese business news weekly magazine and online site based in Beijing. The screenshot just below shows the type of coverage offered by Caixin - it is certainly not the Xinhua official point of view.

As can be seen in the screenshot, the economic analysis is amazingly frank. The current real estate bubble in China is cited in three different stories - with the adverse effects on local government budgets being the main story. But there is also a sweeping story on the bad debt nature of large real estate "assets" in the Foul Assets story. Hardly Xinhua fare.

However, if you press the Chinese button on the extreme right you find that the Chinese version of Caixin is not identically the same as rendered into Chinese script. Rather the line-up of stories is different. Some are straight from the English version[including the Foul Assets opinion piece]; but there are several foreign press stories [including Barrons, arketwatch, the Financial Times and other Western sources]. And some of the hard hitting pieces in English are not found on the native Chinese magazine side. So what you see in the English version may not be available to most Chinese given this apparent self-editing plus the censorship firewall that China has in place.

Nonetheless the Caixin delivers an insight on what the Chinese business class are thinking. Given the recent history of the publication in which the chief editor and many of the staff staff left the original CaiJing Magazine just 6 months ago in order to start up Caixin Media - there is certainly a story behind the story. However, the best proof of the reality pudding is to follow such stories as the North Korean torpedo attack on a South Korean frigate that killed 46 South Koreans and continued Chinese support for North Korea or coverage of the European Financial Crisis. So far the results are mixed. But despite these provisos, with Caixin online, "seeing in Chinese" is much clearer than ever before.

Persuasion and Northanger Abbey debuted together in 1817 shortly after Jane Austen's death as a combination of novels. Their juxtaposition is due to the delayed release of Northanger Abbey completed 17-18 years before as Jane's first full length novel.

In contrast, Persuasion is the last complete novel by Jane Austen, finished in August 1816, 11 months before the novelist's death at 41 on July 17, 1817. The two stories, as might be expected, are marked by so different heroines - Persuasion's Anne of the declining Eliots versus Northanger Abbey's young and impetuous Catherine Morland. The two heroines and books are a fascinating contrast in style and character.

Persuasion's Anne is 27 years old and described as past her bloom within a declining Eliot family whose satyr father and elder sister, Elizabeth, are proud, prolifigate and bringing the family ever closer to financial bankruptcy. Both regard Anne in low esteem as she seems headed for spinsterhood. Anne's mother has died 13 years before and so her mentor, Lady Russell, has proved pivotal in dissuading Anne from accepting a marriage proposal 8 year before from a recently promoted but impecunious Captain Fredrick Wentworth to whom Anne ha d become very attached. Anne comes to regret this painful decision but maintains her ties with Lady Russell as the dame protects her from some of the extravagances of Anne's father and sister. Persuasion carries this litter of love and opportunity lost, social malfeasance, and blatant philandering balanced against the good will and balanced affections of families and couples like Musgroves the Crofts and the Carvells.

Northanger Abbey's Catherine Morland is 17, just blossoming into beauty[described by the author as "pleasing, and, when in good looks, pretty"] and going to Bath for the very first time with her wealthy neighbors, the Allans for a Winter turn. At Bath in the social meet-ups like the Concert Hall and the Pump Room it becomes obvious that Catherine is young, impressionable, and untutored. But she cannot look to benafactoress, Mrs. Allan for any good social council as she appears self absorbed in fashion and appearances. So instead Catherine lives in her current obsession, the World of Gothic novels which she reads with a passion. However a chance meeting with Henry Tilney at a Pump Room dance launches her courtship which occupies the balance of the comedy - for this is as much a witty tale of true romance in two versions [love laced with deceit and loss, love allowed to emerge] as it is an opprtunity for Jane Austen to poke fun at her writing rivals with delicious satire.

What makes the two stories even more interesting when compared are common elements - a gentry lifestyle for most characters, autobiographical incidents that steep into Jane's stories including life at Bath. Then there are the marked differences between the two novels. We have already seen the contrast in the heroines, but there is also the impact of Jane's own ill health and a marked change in writing style.

If you have not been to Venice, let me suggest that you visit the eternal city in the company of Commassario Guido Brunetti.Guido will, if you pass muster, introduce you to his wife Paola, daughter Chiara and son, Raffi. And the best time to come will be for a dinner meal of pasta prepared by Paola where the conversation will be as delicious as the meal - direct and accessible yet as finely flavored as a good Bardolinos wine savored with an after dinner aperitif and , if you are lucky, chat.

The very next day, Guido will take you to the Commissariato San Marco where he will let the various characters there introduce themselves - from Signorina Elettra to Inspectore Viennalo and so on as the occasion arises. And in this case, you and Guido will be interrupted by a Carbinieri Guareno who will ask a favor of you to help identify a man for whom he will give only the barest of descriptions. You may become as exasperated as Guido that the Maggiorenne is not as forthcoming ...

But wait before all that you must accompany Guido to an evening dinner with his In-Laws, Conte and Contessa Falier where you will be seated with Guido across the table from a 30-something beauty, Franca Marinello. She intrigues you and Guido too with her interest in early Roman writers such as Cicero, Ovid and Marcus Aurelius. The conversation turns to the Caesar's contemporary and sometime mentor Cicero. And to your and Guido's surprise this beauty has not only brains but also the gift of keen observation and strong views. The chat becomes as close to a tète-à-tète as will be allowed in Venetian social circles. You discover that her range goes well beyond Cicero and she quietly recommends Ovid's Metamorphoses to your surprise having last looked at that twisting tome in Advanced Latin class.

Some Views from Guido Brunetti's Venice

Guido notes that there is something strange about Franca's beauty - her face is almost as taut as a botox drumhead; her smiles barely break the facade in contrast to Guido's lifted eyebrow and grand facial gestures. Her voice and conversation demonstrate full flourishes but not her facial expressions - they always remain too beautifully the same.

And to your surprise this is one part of the mystery in Leon's story. The second quickly comes upon you as Guido discovers to his great dismay that Carbinieri Guareno has been shot dead before Guido can get back to him about the man he asked about. But the Maggiorenne Guareno had a silver shilling in his fatal misfortune - he was killed within the Chemical Complex that lies in Venice's jurisdiction.

And if you are a Brunetti mystery fan, you know that is important because law enforcement like love is very territorial in Italy. This circumstance allows Guido to take you on winter lined adventures through Venise the good, the bad and the ugly: an offending output spewing chemical complex. Suffice it to say Comora/Mafia and illegal HAZMAT disposal is the seemy side of the Italian landscape that Leon explores once again[infamously for most Italians - her books have barely been translated there but broadly everywhere else]. It is the inevitable danza della morte that Italian business, government and the Comora have to do decade after decade: a musical chairs dance of accommodation, strange chair-fellows and death.

The mystery in this Guido Brunetti tale is not who done it; but rather how the aristocratic Beauty and the murdering Comora Beast are tied together in this most fascinating story. Given the ending one can anticipate a continuation of the story line in perhaps Commissario Guido Brunetti mystery number 19.

Come for Venice in the splendor of the off-season and for the wonderful cast of characters. But come for the astonishingly fine thinking and conversations. True there is a logical, nuanced, almost inquisitive line of thought so well voiced by our accomplished reader, David Colacci [another bravissimo performance] - but also among all the characters, particularly Guido's wife Paola and his platoon of fellow officers. In About Face there is always a robustness of speech that of all things harkens one to Terry Pratchett as much as to Dashiell Hammet or Earl Stanley Gardner.

When Bloomberg bought Business Week, this reader had some doubts - why did Bloomberg want to get on the Sinking Titanic- Printed Media? Readership continues to drift downward for all print media not just magazines and newspapers, although they are leading the death spiral. So why join the dance of depth?

Well upon reflection there are three upsides to Business Week. First, there is a pretty loyal following as Business Week has the imprimatur of being one of the business beacons for dozens of years - and therefore a brand that for business reporting excellence is well regarded. A survey of former MBA colleagues found Business Week a consistently cited source of information. But the likes of Fast Company,Wired and the gadget blogs like Gizmodo and enGadget starting to take readership. So there certainly is a challenge for Bloomberg to revitalize the franchise.

But Bloomberg has the underlying means. It's news network and financial services systems generate reems of basic data that needs an outlet - and Business Week is that natural outlet. It could be thought of as the weekly dose of Bloomberg insight that makes the private paid for special services and info even more valuable.

However, the third reason is that Financial News is the one media besides Science Journals [like Scientific American and the New Scientist]that has not had to capitulate entirely to free circulation over the Web. And with the NYTimes going to a deferred paid model[readers will be allowed a nominal number of free reads and always free entry when follow a link to the NYTimes] in January 2011, Bloomberg may be preparing to follow suit. The Web edition may lead the way to more print readership.

But in that case Bloomberg Businessweek will have to  do the hard work of increasing its website.s Web 2.0 savvy, much like the NYTimes has already done. And right on cue just as the new, redesigned  frontage has emerged- so to have more Web 2.0  savvy presentations and graphics appeared on the the site.

Here are two such presentations that show promise and enhance the Web 2.0 chic of Bloomberg Businessweek.

The first is a story about CEO Pay versus Performance that is chock full of data and insights as to what CEO's are making versus producing for their shareholders. The graphic is very interactive and allows users/readers to swtich among different viewpoints in just a button click second[the response time is very fast indicating all the data and coding is Web 2.0 downloaded and enabled]. Note the red border hint where the mouse has been hovered over to find who had produced one of the finest returns in 2009 - Alan  Mulally of Ford  yet his total compensation has only moved up slightly. This graphic is just chock full of insights that can be gained with simple button clicks. Top marks to Bloomberg Business Week. But there is more.

Google Search-page Makeover

Perhaps inspired by it own magazine redesign, Bloomberg Businessweek has an interesting story on the new look for the Google's Search Page results. Yes, this redesign has been forced by the success of  Bing and other search engines that were clearly out delivering Google. But it provides some useful facts on the nature of the thinking behind the new Google page layout.

Its these type of media distillations and presentations that are going to help Bloomberg Businessweek earn its Web chops. It will be interesting to see how company financial data and reports are revised. This is getting close to Bloomberg's own meat and potatoes for which it charges a premium fee. How far can Bloomberg Businessweek goto match the prowess of Google and the NYTimes? Stay tuned for more coverage.

If you have ever been to China and have walked the streets of Beijing or Shanghai without benefit of a native translator, you may have encountered the problems of what the NYTimes calls Chinglish. This is the translation of Chinese into English on signs that is sometimes humorous, other times perplexing but indisputably worse than a Google Translate rendition across the two languages. As Shanghai puts on a Worlds Fair in the Summer of 2010, the quality of those translations become more important as Chinese people and businesses seek to impress the World as much as the World courts Chinese business. Here is a sampler of Chinglish:

There is certainly humor here but also an underlying nonchalance as well. Sort of like the Chinese enforcement of anti-piracy measures for Western movies, music, software, electronics and most other Western IP-Intellectual Property. Enforcement is almost done like this translation "so sorry, growing so fast, desperately need technology as a developing country, besides its changing so fast, you wont mind if we sample and take only what we need so much - besides you want to do business here, not so?".

Update: Even the NYTimes is noting the Fox News trend with an article on how Jon Stewart is lambasting Fox News "much more often". Notably this is the closest that the Times has come to calling out Fox News for its deceptive practices.

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Time Magazine and Jon Stewart have taken up a cause that I think is long overdue. Calling out Fox News for its blatant lies and self-deceptions about how the Fox News Network itself deliberately lies and deceives the public all too often on its news broadcasts. News media cannot afford such muddying the truth and outright prevarications - it taints all news organizations with the attitude that "Fox only does it because everybody else shades the truth or fails to provide dissenting viewpoints". Jon Stewart deserves credit for being "on the story" first and with pluck and black humor. Time gets kudos for exposing Fox News and its blatant misrepresentation.

The Time report on Bill O'Reilly catches Bill blatantly lying to his viewers. O'Reilly takes to task Republican Senator Tom Coburn of Oklahoma who had called into question FOX reporting that stated that not getting health insurance would lead to fines and imprisonment. Here is Bill O'Reilly's blatant lie:

“We researched on Fox News if anybody had ever said you're going to jail if you don't buy health insurance. Nobody's ever said it.”

Time was able to produce half a dozen quotes from Fox News broadcasts that clearly Fox News reporters saying things like Glen Beck -"But if you don't play by their new rules on health care -- oh, here's a new little twist. Have you heard this? You're going to be looking at a fun little stint in jail." Now Time has graciously supplied Tom Coburn with an opportunity to pick up some campaign funding. He can sue Fox News for libel and slander.This is only said half in jest because one of the best ways to get Rupert Murdoch to control the "fair and balanced" Fox News is to hit him constantly in the pocket book. The constant suits, most of which he should lose, the drain on profitability and credibility might loosen the notions of Fox News and Roger Ailes being worth the while.

The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd is a coming of age story in three senses. First it is the story of Lily Owens, a 14 year old South Carolina peach farm girl who is being brought up by her father T.Ray with the help of a black maid, Rosaleen in the heady years of 1964 - Jack Kennedy assassinated, the Soviet specter, and Civil Rights Bill passed in Congress. Its tumultuous times reflected in the story. Ten years before, Lily's mom, Debra, was killed by gunshot after she came home after being away for 3 months. T. Ray and Debra were fighting in front of Lily when a gun fell to the floor ... and the story turns on Lily's failed memories of what happened next.

The narration by Lily evolves and intertwines with comments about the nature of bees and beekeeping plus Lily's almost preternatural ability to pick up and note odours, colors, fragrances,tastes, and distinctive natural sounds. Perhaps this ability is compensation for the increasingly hard life at home with T.Ray - and her inability to thrive at school despite her reading and writing skills.

However, one more punishment by kneeling on grits has Lily desperate to leave home. When Rosaleen gets herself thrown in jail for spitting on the boots of some South Carolina CrakerJacks - a desperate flight to anywhere ensues for Lily and Rosaleen. Anywhere quickly becomes Tiburon South Carolina - the address on a label for Black Madonna Honey. This label and a picture of her Mom is the guiding light for Lily and Rosaleen as they head out of Sylvan and for safety by distance. And to their surprise they find it at the very same Tiburon beekeeping farm kept by the Boatright sisters.

The balance of the story is of Lily coming of age in a Black family as she slowly confronts the demon of what she may or may not have done. The second coming of age is the effects of the Civil Rights Bill first on blacks awakening and the diverse nature of the pushback from Southerners. The final coming of age is an evolving embracing of God and spirituality by Lily fanned by the eclectic services practiced by the Boatright sisters. What makes this latter transformation most convincing is Lily's ability to see and feel the nature of events so sensually.

Again, the audiobook succeeds so well because of the superb reading by Judy Lamia. She has captured Lily's teenage voice, hesitation, and then bald face frankness [or lying, as Lily is good at this]. But the whole family of Boatright sisters: May, June, and August each has a distinctive tone and inflections such that no introduction is needed. And thus with bees and the honey and the warmth and tragedy of the Boatright family, the reader/listener is drawn in as surely as Lily to a wondrous family and life adventure.

Northanger Abbey is one of the tartest and wittiest of Jane Austen's novels. It tells the story of an ingenue, Catherine Morland, who visits Bath [the Sandals Resort of the 19th century British upper class and a place that Jane's family moved to so there is a sense of "knowing well" all the Bathian social doings]. Catherine is a guest in her Bath trip of her neighbors, the Allans, at the tender age of 17. The brilliance of this rendition is the voicing by Juliet Stevenson of Catherine, buffoonish John Thorpe, his ever social scheming sister, Isabella Thorpe, and Catherine's vacuous chaperon Mrs Allan. And these are only the most delicious characters. They come off the pages as live and duplicitous manipulators in the case of the Thorpe duo - and an unsuspecting, wide-eyed naif [but who learns fast] in the heroine Catherine.

In fact the audio reading helps emphasize the wit and humor of the story - as Catherine meets her hero, Mr. Tilney, but is prevented from making the match by the quirks and machinations of events and Thorpean intrigues. Well now let me confess in the style of the direct asides employed by Ms. Jane Austen [and pray tell, I don't think you shall see so many in all of the rest of Ms. Austen's works] - there is a hilarious send up of contemporary fiction writers with an especially devilish rendering of the aberrations wreaked by Gothic novels popular in the day. Catherines visiting the Tilney residence at Northanger Abbey becomes a self-made novel scene of rapier-wit and satire. It is as if Ms Austen has stolen a scene straight out of Catherine's "most favorite novel", The Mysteries of Udolpho by Ann Radcliffe. Catherine conjures out of her Udolpho readings the idea that murder and torture most foul has taken place in some of the dark, dank rooms of the Northanger Abbey. Then shamefacedly not once, not twice but thrice her imaginations prove comically implausible - and finally Catherine learns to tone down her novel-inspired cravings. And of course MS Austen is the exemplar of decorum as to whether or not Catherine's reading of Ann Radcliffe's Udolpho lead her heroine astray.

So Northanger Abbey is a comedy sketch of marvelous dexterity. Bold and obvious blunderbuss characters, a heroine just learning social sagacity, an almost too sympathetic hero [a foreshadowing of Mr. Knightley?], plus no less an active narrator than Ms. Jane Austen herself. Do enjoy the production, if you can.

The NYTimes has a poll, done with CBS, of the Tea party. The poll and extensive interviews plus the story and follow up discussion shed enormous light on the nature of Tea Party supporters and their sometimes contradictory demands. Here is why NYTimes did the poll:

The Tea Party movement burst onto the scene a year ago in protest of the economic stimulus package, and its supporters have vowed to purge the Republican Party of officials they consider not sufficiently conservative and to block the Democratic agenda on the economy, the environment and health care. But the demographics and attitudes of those in the movement have been known largely anecdotally. The Times/CBS poll offers a detailed look at the profile and attitudes of those supporters.

Here are two viewpoints in that analysis that seem very compelling.

First, Steven Hayward state the case well that Tea Partyers are not what had been described in the conjecturing media:

"This populist movement is not your father’s culture war; in fact, 57 percent (question 67) favor gay marriage or civil unions, 65 percent favor access to abortion; an equal number (question 70) support some gun restrictions.
Surprisingly, the survey reveals Tea Party members to be slightly more economically secure than the general population. Combine those findings with the fact that Tea Partiers are a well-educated cohort, and the narrative that the Tea Partiers are a bunch of pitchfork populist rubes becomes harder to maintain"

The Tea Party movement is about economics not social politics. And the number one concern is the change in status of the US as it becomes an indebted nation and losing jobs and economic prowess to China, India, South East Asia and the rest of the World. But this same group, demanding cuts to the debt and budget fails to see entitlement programs which they value like Medicare and Social Security as part of the problem; but instead demand cuts to a great undefined pool of "government waste".

Allan Brinkley picks up this notion in his analysis:

"But what seems to motivate them the most is a fear of a reduction in their own status — economically and socially."

The rise of other developing countries in the world means more domestic jobs are likely to be outsourced overseas [Microsoft just contracted out all of its technical support services to India's Infosys]. As well the new drives towards Climate, Energy and Resource-usage Control under the banner of World Livability and Sustainability, this movement will attack North Americans great privilege of having 4-5% of the World's population yet continue to want to consume 20-30% of the World's Resources. Thus the Tea Party members see a loss in their own and their children's economic and social status as unwanted and being imposed by the current administration. After all, the great illusion that President George W. Bush fostered was that you didn't have to pay taxes for a major war and huge additional Medicare provisions - and in fact you could cut taxes, though it be centered on the wealthy.

Hence the Tea Party movement is the very substantial vestiges[about 20%] of the population that either deliberately or through self-indulgence, refuse to recognize the new realities. First, America has committed great self-inflicted economic and political wounds on itself for the past 10 years. Second, China and Southeast Asia have become major economic powers. These countries have done so in no small part by having populations willing to work very ably for a fraction of European and North American wages. Now these countries also have taken some short cuts such as exporting their pollution to neighbors, "borrowing/stealing for nill" technology and processes from the developed countries, and persistently under pricing their wares in the world[China specifically]. But hey Yankee traders did the same from 1850-1910 too.

So as long as "God Bless America" takes precedent over "America Wins with World Leading Work and Innovation" - some of the concerns and trepidations of Tea Party members will surely come to pass.