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Michael Barbaro and the success of “The Daily”

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Re: Michael Barbaro and the success of “The Daily”

#21

Post by markoman »

unlinked_dll wrote: post #7

This is petty of me, but I can't stand the Daily. Not because the content is bad, but because Michael Barbaro's cadence is grating to my ears. I can't get over it, and I tune off NPR whenever the Daily comes on. It brings me back to third grade and reading aloud - some kids just couldn't follow the natural rhythm of a passage or breath properly. Inserting pauses where they don't need to be, stretching out words and t…

I grant that its an intentional affectation, which can make it a bit annoying, but it seems to put me at ease while hearing about the deep details of the stressful issues of the newsday. Cadences can put us in a hypnotic trance and I think his comes pretty close and it can be soothing.

Still, I don't find his cadence as objectionable (or 'intolerable') compared to what are my three pet peeves when listening to speakers: uptalk, feminine vocal fry, and the dropped final '-in' syllables (e.g., 'button', etc., practiced by a good 60%+ of Gen Z)

So I was a bit surprised to see such consensus around Barbaro's cadence, but your mileage may vary.

Re: Michael Barbaro and the success of “The Daily”

#22

Post by InitialLastName »

doe88 wrote: post #19
danso wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s somewhat understandable. The featured journalists are not only interviewed during work hours, they are collecting audio and notes (including behind the scenes material) on company time. It’s not just the Daily being insular, but that other journalism orgs aren’t incentivized to lend their journalists and work to the NYT for the NYT to profit from.

I really think that for instance on a piece of investigative journalism whose the main author would be a journalist from say wapo, I've hard time thinking this person would decline an invitation to speak about and promote his/her article.

I'm not familiar with the newspaper industry, but I would assume the issue wouldn't be with the wapo journalist as much as with their employing paper, in a twofold way:

- It's worth assuming that the Washington Post (as an organization) wouldn't want their employees doing content for a major rival (rather than on Post Reports, their equivalent of The Daily).

- As the article mentions, the podcast is in many ways a promotional tool for the rest of the newspaper, and I can't see NYT (again, as an organization) wanting to use it to promote a competitor.

Re: Michael Barbaro and the success of “The Daily”

#23

Post by unlinked_dll »

markoman wrote: post #21
unlinked_dll wrote: post #7

This is petty of me, but I can't stand the Daily. Not because the content is bad, but because Michael Barbaro's cadence is grating to my ears. I can't get over it, and I tune off NPR whenever the Daily comes on. It brings me back to third grade and reading aloud - some kids just couldn't follow the natural rhythm of a passage or breath properly. Inserting pauses where they don't need to be, stretching out words and t…

I grant that its an intentional affectation, which can make it a bit annoying, but it seems to put me at ease while hearing about the deep details of the stressful issues of the newsday. Cadences can put us in a hypnotic trance and I think his comes pretty close and it can be soothing. Still, I don't find his cadence as objectionable (or 'intolerable') compared to what are my three pet peeves when listening to speake…

About the "-in" thing, I think that's just a midwestern accent.

Re: Michael Barbaro and the success of “The Daily”

#24

Post by doe88 »

InitialLastName wrote: post #22
doe88 wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I really think that for instance on a piece of investigative journalism whose the main author would be a journalist from say wapo, I've hard time thinking this person would decline an invitation to speak about and promote his/her article.

I'm not familiar with the newspaper industry, but I would assume the issue wouldn't be with the wapo journalist as much as with their employing paper, in a twofold way: - It's worth assuming that the Washington Post (as an organization) wouldn't want their employees doing content for a major rival (rather than on Post Reports, their equivalent of The Daily). - As the article mentions, the podcast is in many ways a pr…

Concerning your first point, granted I'm not familiar with each internal guidelines, and overall it may very well be what you describe but just to give an example that's not totally inconceivable, I routinely observe New Yorker staffers promoting their longform pieces on Fresh Air (NPR).

For your second point, I guess it really depends on what you want, either insularity, or diversity, openness and acknowledgement of great works accomplished elsewhere.

Re: Michael Barbaro and the success of “The Daily”

#26

Post by InitialLastName »

doe88 wrote: post #24
InitialLastName wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not familiar with the newspaper industry, but I would assume the issue wouldn't be with the wapo journalist as much as with their employing paper, in a twofold way: - It's worth assuming that the Washington Post (as an organization) wouldn't want their employees doing content for a major rival (rather than on Post Reports, their equivalent of The Daily). - As the article mentions, the podcast is in many ways a pr…

Concerning your first point, granted I'm not familiar with each internal guidelines, and overall it may very well be what you describe but just to give an example that's not totally inconceivable, I routinely observe New Yorker staffers promoting their longform pieces on Fresh Air (NPR). For your second point, I guess it really depends on what you want, either insularity, or diversity, openness and acknowledgement of…

The New Yorker (owned by Conde Nast, which is effectively 100% text publishing) doesn't really compete with NPR (which is effectively 100% radio publishing). The New Yorker also specializes in long-form written pieces, for which NPR interviews act as a sort of promotional piece. On the other hand, even a deep NYT or Wapo investigative report can probably be covered comprehensively enough for most people in 20 mins.

Re: Michael Barbaro and the success of “The Daily”

#27

Post by doe88 »

InitialLastName wrote: post #26
doe88 wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Concerning your first point, granted I'm not familiar with each internal guidelines, and overall it may very well be what you describe but just to give an example that's not totally inconceivable, I routinely observe New Yorker staffers promoting their longform pieces on Fresh Air (NPR). For your second point, I guess it really depends on what you want, either insularity, or diversity, openness and acknowledgement of…

The New Yorker (owned by Conde Nast, which is effectively 100% text publishing) doesn't really compete with NPR (which is effectively 100% radio publishing). The New Yorker also specializes in long-form written pieces, for which NPR interviews act as a sort of promotional piece. On the other hand, even a deep NYT or Wapo investigative report can probably be covered comprehensively enough for most people in 20 mins.

What I was simply trying to express is NYT would greatly enrich their reporting by linking to or mentioning or discuss others great reportings, for instance on this episode about the Aghanistan War Papers [1] it would greatly be valuable to at least have a link to the work of WaPo on the subject which was kind of lead on the matter.

[0] https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/16/podcasts/the-daily/afghan...

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