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Bloomberg chief editor: We publish too many mediocre and long enterprise stories

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Re: Bloomberg chief editor: We publish too many mediocre and long enterprise stories

#171

Post by basch »

joosters wrote: post #136
basch wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ive noticed the clickfarm agglomerated story style has infected what is supposed to be professional journalism. Some hallmarks of this style include - paragraphs are one sentence long - there isnt so much an order or train of thought, just a vomit of quotes - implying random quotes equate some kind of consensus or prevailing sentiment in group thought - an article that isnt anything more than the bunch of embedded qu…

Another annoying trait of padded out news stories: "President Trump tweeted today that '...[full quote of tweet]...'" then inevitably followed by a screenshot (or two!) of the tweet, often together with a caption that repeats the whole tweet again . Why does every news article about a tweet have to include a screenshot of the tweet, when you quoted the whole damn thing in the main story? These pictures don't paint a…

If I had to guess, its a combination of 1) people skimming are looking for the twitter UI 2) a backup in case the tweet gets removed 3) embedded tweets can break in browsers with issues or javascript disabled 4) both text and screenshot combined are best for accessibility and screen readers and translation

I think the best case solution is a server side service that archives the tweet and renders it directly into the html, not as an embed, that then gracefully overlays the embed over, so you can see accurate retweets and hearts, but will degrade back to just showing the content as text.

One thing I cant stand about the modern web is how screenshots of text have become a defacto standard, because they preserve formatting and are require no technical know-how.

Re: Bloomberg chief editor: We publish too many mediocre and long enterprise stories

#172

Post by KindOne »

jjtheblunt wrote: post #162
razakel wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Bill Gates has said The Economist is the only magazine he reads cover-to-cover as it makes him think critically about the world.

when did he say that?

https://twitter.com/billgates/status/1022712786449846272

I read @TheEconomist cover-to-cover because its content makes me think critically about the world. Its editors recently asked me a tough question: What is the one thing you'd do to create a more open world? See my answer below and share your answer here: https://b-gat.es/2LTs1WM

Jul 27, 2018

Re: Bloomberg chief editor: We publish too many mediocre and long enterprise stories

#173

Post by [deleted] »

coldpie wrote: post #139
jedberg wrote: post #114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sure for the sites that show ads. But I'm taking about the ones where they literally just put the story in to rank higher in search results. The ones just doing it to share their recipe.

Some people legit just enjoy reading & writing that content.

[deleted]

Re: Bloomberg chief editor: We publish too many mediocre and long enterprise stories

#174

Post by shawxe »

jedberg wrote: post #102
JMTQp8lwXL wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is merely a consequence of SEO. Have you tried searching for recipes? It's absolutely miserable. I don't need irrelevant life stories-- show me the ingredient list and instructions.

I get the long content for SEO, but what I don't get is why the recipe isn't right up top. Or there isn't just a link at the top that says "take me to the recipe".

I have a small personal recipe blog. I tend to structure my posts like this:

1. Ingredients.

2. Instructions.

3. Notes/thoughts/musings/etc.

Sometimes section 3 is quite long, sometimes it's completely absent. It is *never" the first thing you see, ever. Why? Despite the fact that I'm one of the people who enjoys reading/writing that kind of stuff, most of the time when I'm looking at my blog I'm looking for ingredients ratios and instructions, so they are first.

I don't want to have to scroll through a bunch of noise when I'm trying to cook. Just like the reviews on sites like Amazon don't appear on the page before a picture of the product and its price/description, so are reflections on a recipe out of place before the recipe itself has been listed.

Re: Bloomberg chief editor: We publish too many mediocre and long enterprise stories

#175

Post by jandrese »

greatgib wrote: post #36

The point of the chief editor is so true that I'm surprised to read that from them. I have noticed that a lot of times with this kind of web media. - You have a clickbait title like this: "How a normal guy managed to hack WallStreet with a simple pen" - Then, you have one page of interesting introduction on the topic but without the reply to the title question. "In november 2018, WallStreet was busy with the introduc…

One of my favorite subreddits is /r/savedyouaclick where people go through big awful articles like that and summarize the whole thing in a line or two. A surprising number never even answer the question in the title, spending the entire time off on tangents.

Re: Bloomberg chief editor: We publish too many mediocre and long enterprise stories

#176

Post by psanford »

jgrahamc wrote: post #71
MBCook wrote: post #13

Oh, are they finally apologizing (or providing proof for) their story The Big Hack about chips the size of a grain of rice China puts in computers made by Dell and Apple and others? No? Not a word about it? It’s almost like they’re continuing to pretend that their giant journalistic screwup doesn’t exist. Don’t care. ‘Are articles are too long’. How about yours articles are untrustworthy?

This is a good point. Ever since that mess, I've looked at every bloomberg.com link and not clicked on it. Why bother?

Matt Levine is still worth reading.

Re: Bloomberg chief editor: We publish too many mediocre and long enterprise stories

#177

Post by centerthiz99 »

JMTQp8lwXL wrote: post #78
greatgib wrote: post #36

The point of the chief editor is so true that I'm surprised to read that from them. I have noticed that a lot of times with this kind of web media. - You have a clickbait title like this: "How a normal guy managed to hack WallStreet with a simple pen" - Then, you have one page of interesting introduction on the topic but without the reply to the title question. "In november 2018, WallStreet was busy with the introduc…

This is merely a consequence of SEO. Have you tried searching for recipes? It's absolutely miserable. I don't need irrelevant life stories-- show me the ingredient list and instructions.

Disagree.

This is old journalism 101.

I remember hearing about this years ago in civics class.

Newspapers put all the meat in the headline and first couple paragraphs. Old newspapers are a Google search away to verify. Lots of the same behavior as you see on sites like Huff Post.

It would be more accurate to say SEO borrowed a habit of shallow attention grabbing from news editors.

But humans have evolved into wanting depth in their ideas.

We’re into more detail all the way through now.

Look at popular media, sci fi and magical worlds, deep character connectivity. Look at Serial and anything Ken Burns.

Depth is cared about AND sells.

Bloomberg is relevant cause Bloomberg is rich. That Bloomberg is not capable of depth isn’t a surprise.

Re: Bloomberg chief editor: We publish too many mediocre and long enterprise stories

#178

Post by ghaff »

CamperBob2 wrote: post #165
ghaff wrote: post #116

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Some of it is rush to publish. But it's also that most readers here and elsewhere won't pay for subscriptions and will also do their best to avoid even the mediocre monetization provided by digital advertising. It's hard to support investigative reporting and fact checkers.

It's hard to support investigative reporting and fact checkers. When the bad drives out the good, it's no surprise that no one wants to pay for the bad.

I think you have cause and effect reversed.

Re: Bloomberg chief editor: We publish too many mediocre and long enterprise stories

#179

Post by bredren »

MR4D wrote: post #149
bredren wrote: post #121

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because it is. It has been proposed though. I think the only way this could be true is if Tim Cook and many security folks at Apple either failed to detect the exploit, or they did and are all "in on it" and essentially lying about adherence to a core company value. The requirement of perfect secrecy and vast involvement in a lie is what typically weakens conspiracy theories as not realistic.

Who says they are all in on it? And media has held back articles several times due to govt request - maybe this one just got through. Not saying I'm right - only saying it's possible .

Because it would require hardware, network and general security engineers to perform the investigation. And along with that would be a dozen aides or delegates to these professionals that would be very familiar with the investigation.

It would be obvious if the results were opposite what Cook said publicly, or if the investigation was suddenly stopped and made inconclusive.

Apple would also be counting on the US government and Bloomberg to not leak "the truth" so that Tim Cook's statement would not be revealed as a lie.

The idea offers intrigue but doesn't pass any kind of reasonable pass of consideration.

Re: Bloomberg chief editor: We publish too many mediocre and long enterprise stories

#180

Post by sammalloy »

JMTQp8lwXL wrote: post #78
greatgib wrote: post #36

The point of the chief editor is so true that I'm surprised to read that from them. I have noticed that a lot of times with this kind of web media. - You have a clickbait title like this: "How a normal guy managed to hack WallStreet with a simple pen" - Then, you have one page of interesting introduction on the topic but without the reply to the title question. "In november 2018, WallStreet was busy with the introduc…

This is merely a consequence of SEO. Have you tried searching for recipes? It's absolutely miserable. I don't need irrelevant life stories-- show me the ingredient list and instructions.

> Have you tried searching for recipes? It's absolutely miserable.

Yeah, I went down this rabbit hole a few weeks ago while I was trying to find the perfect pizza dough recipes.

On the other hand, I've had much better success getting right to the ingredient list and instructions using Pinterest and Instagram instead.

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