Escargo-go

Boston Globe print vs. online

Media Nation's Dan Kennedy asks:

If the Boston Globe (or any major metro) raised its prices to $2 on weekdays and $5 on Sundays, what sorts of print-only content would induce you to pay for it rather than simply reading it online?

OK, here's a start:

1.) A New York Times-level crossword puzzle, or at least a good acrostic.

2.) Comic strips less than 25 years old. Specifically, comic strips that Garfield fans don't "get."

3.) Quirky or offbeat stories from all over New England (because I already know the quirky stories from Boston itself, thanks to my daily blog reading).

4.) "On Beacon Hill" and "Around City Hall" columns by reporters who cover nothing else. I said NOTHING else.

5.) Lengthy TV articles by Matthew Gilbert (as opposed to photo collages of the "Top 10 TV Bosses," etc.)

6.) A tabloid version of the Ideas/book review section, so I can carry it around all week and I can make copies of particularly good articles. (Currently, it's handier to print out each article from the online edition.) But don't reduce the length of the articles.

7.) Cool maps!

8.) Photojournalism in the Boston Globe magazine, other than pictures of food and home interiors.

9.) A good food writer who covers things rather than places (a brief history of Peruvian cuisine, yes; a Q&A with a new chef at a upscale restaurant, blech).

10.)  A handy list of which stores, bars, and restaurants in the Boston area have closed in the previous week, so I don't suggest them to friends. If the economy improves, maybe I'll want to know what has just opened, too.

Forbes writer must not get many party invitations

Matthew Ygelsias objects to this passage in a Forbes column by Bruce Bartlett that slams the US Postal Service:

While some Democratic spending will be called "investments," Republicans can make a strong case that the only ones that really add to the nation's capital stock are those directed by the market. Historically, government-directed investment has been very inefficient. That's why Amtrak and the Post Office don't work very well and why there was a privatization movement in the 1980s and 1990s, which led governments everywhere to sell their state-owned enterprises.

Ygelsias is correct that Amtrak has disappointing service because it's underfunded, and that the Post Office actually works very well. That's why the phrase "the check is in the mail" is universally understood as a lie. If someone claims that they sent you something through the US Post Office and it still hasn't arrived five days later, there's a 99.99% chance he or she didn't send it.

If Bartlett thinks the Post Office doesn't work very well because acquaintances are always claiming that he was sent invitations, Christmas cards, admiring notes, etc. that must have gotten "lost in the mail", he needs a reality check.

Oops, more evidence that I'm not a real American

“I don’t think there is an American who hasn’t stopped today and said a little prayer for the victims of the Virginia Tech shootings,” said ABC personality Charles Gibson while moderating tonight's Perry Mason-style interrogation of the Democratic presidential debates. ("Isn't it true that you plan to raise taxes? Isn't it true that you're on friendly terms with someone who isn't sufficiently patriotic?")

Am I really the only person in the US who didn't say such a prayer today? Well, mass shootings happen often enough in America that tomorrow must be the anniversary of another one, so I'll double up then.