Scoop from @bopanc: Axel Springer CEO Mathias Doepfner says the company will eventually put Politico’s content behind a paywall and says he’s going on a 100-person hiring spreehttps://t.co/fvCyN7jZcq
— Ben Mullin (@BenMullin) October 15, 2021
As I understand it, there’s already a paywalled version, Politico Pro, for the ‘policy pros’ who can write off the real deep-dive insider legislative phart-sniffing as a business expense. I’m just not sure there’s a viable market space for another subscription-driven competitor to the New York Times and the Washington Post — especially since those two offer recipes and crosswords to go with the political commentary.
In my ideal world, Axel Springer would take the advice of their current employees (Tara Palmieri, looking at you) and hire all the most flagrant media mean girls and professional trolls (Annie Linsky, Ken Vogel, etc.) before flaming out and leaving the whole crew abandoned on a desert island…
politico is mostly just a supermarket tabloid for politics, except that Serious Journalists would never deign to treat a reporter for like, InStyle with the same kind of gravitas they lavish on these bottom-feeding dweebs pic.twitter.com/FGy9YQG0uB
— ? ? GHOSTLIKEHELLMACHINE ? ?⬛ (@golikehellmachi) October 7, 2021
it's all one big club, and you're not in it, and one reason so many politics reporters get defensive when you point out that they're full of shit is because twitter put big, glass paned windows on the club walls that everyone can now see through
— ? ? GHOSTLIKEHELLMACHINE ? ?⬛ (@golikehellmachi) October 7, 2021
Baud
I haven’t read it in a while, but Politico Pro was the only game in town for comprehensive information about what was going on across the federal government. Not as click-baity as the regular politico
Mike in NC
Speaking of supermarket tabloids, I was checking out today and spotted the latest National Enquirer, with the front page article “Why COVID Shots Don’t Work”. What else to expect from a piece of trash put out by the Orange Turd’s buddy David Pecker?
Ben Cisco (onboard the Defiant)
@Mike in NC:
Name checks out.
As for Politiho, it was trash before the buyout, behind a paywall suits me fine.
NotMax
Politico, the Morning Joe of the internet.
efgoldman the lot of them.
debbie
Kids gotta kid!
NotMax
B-J of late has had a dearth of rhythm.
Oldie but goody.
?BillinGlendaleCA
I headed up to the eastern Sierra yesterday, a trip riddled with mishaps, but got some shots of glaciers!
West of the Rockies
@Mike in NC:
Readers of the National Enquirer are low-info, gossip-hungry, gullible wingnuts. I feel a little sympathy for them: they’re being exploited and endangered by the “news” sources they’re too ignorant to quit.
Kropacetic
@debbie: It raised the question for me whether it’s normal behavior for an elephant to trample its food first.
Update: Given their diet, doesn’t seem remotely likely.
Ken
@Kropacetic: Recently I saw this video of elephants eating pumpkins. As you can see, they were smashing them first, though out of necessity since these were giant prize-winners, knee-high to the elephant.
Raven
Absolutely beautiful day for football as the number one Dawgs roll Kentucky. I didn’t know home much I missed being there.
Another Scott
@Ken: It was a previous thread here, yesterday. :-)
Meanwhile, …
Who among us hasn’t been shocked, shocked, when they go restaurant and bar hopping during a respiratory pandemic??
(groucho-roll-eyes.gif)
(via dsquareddigest)
Cheers,
Scott.
Kropacetic
@Ken: Good catch. I wasn’t thinking of such heavy-duty fruit.
See? Now we’ll be expecting them.
Ken
Oh, cool. So in addition to the promised return of Find Mister Frog™, we also get daily elephant feeding videos?
Ascap_scab
I wonder why some Silly-con Valley VC hasn’t come up with a ‘Spotify’ for news papers.
I occasionally would like to read an article from the NYT, WP or WSJ, but I don’t want to buy a $50-100 year subscription for each. If there were some service where I paid them $x and they then sent the NYT 10 cents for every article I read we could all be happy.
sab
@Raven: I watched a bit of the game quietly because my husband was rooting for Ky for some obscure reason. Did Ga crush Akron U ever?
raven
@Another Scott: Maybe 2% masked of 92000.
sab
@?BillinGlendaleCA: You still have glaciers in Ca. Delighted to know that.
raven
@sab: Not since I’ve been here for 37 years. He may have just been pulling for anyone but #1.
eta I checked, they have never played.
JMG
@Ascap_scab: Back in the print days, you could buy a paper for a nominal sum and read all that day’s articles. Why is it impossible in the digital age to allow you to buy a one-day access pass to a website for like a dollar or even two?
trollhattan
@sab: Guessing at this point Mt. Shasta probably has the majority of the survivors.
Another Scott
@raven: Ooof.
Cheers,
Scott.
raven
@Another Scott: I wore mine in the crush getting in and out and in the head.
Urza
@Ascap_scab: Makes too much sense. And if they really were willing to do that it would have been a thing when all the papers realized online advertising wasn’t enough to support themselves and they went behind paywalls. No, at this point its more like the Streaming services. Each one sees Netflix and Disney+ doing well, so they want to try it themselves. But most of them barely have enough content to cover the free month, and just hope people forget to cancel.
Ramalama
@NotMax: Thanks for that.
Gretchen
Charlie Pierce refers to Politico as Tiger Beat on the Potomac.
raven
@Gretchen: As do half the people here.
Ken
blah blah blah synergistic blah blah levered blah blah storyscaping blah blah algorithmic blah blah contextual blah blah hyperlocal blah blah…
Ken
@raven: You mean it’s not their subtitle?
sab
@raven: He has attitudes. I think he thinks bulldogs drool too much, but so does our pitbull.
Benw
I have to admit the Dodgers’ pitcher’s hair is magnificent
Steve in the ATL
@Raven: who were those young people in the front row wearing black suits and red shirts? College Republicans? Visiting dignitaries?
Sure Lurkalot
How did we get a world where communication and information is funded and monetized by advertising? It’s totally perverse.
Ramalama
This movie trailer for a film called Rebel Hearts is so good it put me in a mood: Rebel nuns putting their bodies on the line. With Rufus Wainwright in the soundtrack. USC film school produced it or something with it and are showing it on a ‘webinar’ tomorrow night. Open to the public but you got to sign up for it. For those of you who grew up talking about Vatican II, and guitar masses, and nuns on busses, that is. Here’s the sign up link to view the movie: http://cinema.usc.edu/RebelHeartsRSVP
I have lucked out with mostly good clergy teaching me, though nothing could be done with me later as an a-dult. But I understand anyone who wants nothing to do with Catholicism.
Sure Lurkalot
@Benw: It is! My DH says he looks like the guy in the Liberty commercial with the Afghan dog on a park bench.
ETA Go Braves!
NotMax
@Ramalama
Have linked to it several times previously, a classic I&J performance piece.
;)
Raven
@Steve in the ATL: muggin for the camera I spose. Some dick was selling nasty Biden Harris shirts and I called him a fucking fascist but I think he was just some moron trying to make a buck.
stinger
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
I look forward to an early OTR with your proofs of the global-warming hoax!
sab
@raven: Maybe just because Ky is closer. But that seems weird, since there should be a rivalry and there isn’t one.
Maybe he just flips a coin, or picks to irritate the wife. (TBC I only rooted for Ga because you. Even that poor dawg doesn’t care.)
Gretchen
@Another Scott: I saw on facebook a photo of a friend at “grandparent’s mass” at her grandson’s school. Lots of old people packed into a gym with not a mask in sight. And it’s still in the 70s here – could have easily been done inside. Who thought this was a good idea, and why did everyone go along with it?
Raven
@sab: people like under Dawgs!
sab
@Ramalama: I grew up Episcopalian, which my Catholic husband calls Catholic light, and I call Christian tolerance. Even we are not what we used to be. Money speaks more than values.
Starfish
@Ascap_scab: Apple News gets you some of that, but the NYT and Washington Post are so big they do not have to participate. Some people have NYT access through their libraries.
Cacti
There are people who pay to read Politico?
wow.
Gretchen
@raven: Yes, I just wanted to give credit to the originator.
sab
@Raven: People like all dawgs.
Another Scott
@Ascap_scab: I figure it will eventually come to that. The transaction costs may be what’s prevented “micropayment”-type things from taking off yet.
This Chrome extension claims to bypass lots of paywalls – I haven’t yet tried it myself.
Cheers,
Scott.
sab
@Steve in the ATL: What the phuck is it with southerners wearing cocktail party clothes at football games. Freaked me out as a naive midwestern grad student at Vandy.
SpaceUnit
I didn’t actually need another reason to ignore Politico but okay.
Benw
@Sure Lurkalot: haha yes! And let’s go Braves!
Betty
@NotMax: Thanks. Those were fun.
sab
My dog is meeting her oncologist on Tuesday. I am not optomistic. She is clueless. I am waiting to be devastated. God damn. I know we are all mortal, but those who have had a sucky life deserve some years of comfort. Doesn’t seem to happen with dogs. All they get is a few months of love.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Mike in NC:
I particularly like the stupid tabloid magazines that only ever have the British Royal Family on their covers. I’m sure our British commenters would positively love Us Weekly calling Kate Middleton the “People’s Princess”, because I guess she’s taking some inspiration on her fashion/hairstyle from Diana. Same issue had to take a swipe at Meghan Markle, of course
Another Scott
@sab: Fingers crossed for good days ahead.
Best wishes,
Scott.
Dan B
@sab: Hoping for the best. Your puppy has someone who loves them. They know.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
Speaking of the NYT, I saw a blurb on the front page that McAufflie is having a hard time motivating voters he needs to win, that voter apathy is a problem. Is there any truth to this Virginia jackals? Or just horse race BS by NYT journos?
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@sab:
Wishing the best for your doggo
sab
@sab: best dog ever. She is absolutely adorable. And my cats love her. Even the grumpy ancient cocker thinks she is a good dog.6
sab
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): Thank you. Means a lot.
sdhays
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): As with Diana a generation ago, I am positively mystified by anyone outside of the UK even bothering to know who these people are. I get celebrity, but come on.
mrmoshpotato
@Mike in NC: Wow. That shit’s bound to cause some COVID-19 deaths. Un-fucking-believable. Irresponsible doesn’t even come close.
mrmoshpotato
Hopefully the paywall makes everyone decide they won’t pay for Politico’s shit.
SpaceUnit
@sab:
I’m sorry your friend is sick. We’ll light a candle here. Happy thoughts.
mrmoshpotato
@sab: I hope your pupper is in the clear, but if not, BITES CANCER ON THE ASS!
Major Major Major Major
Wait biden did what?
Benw
@sab: ugh sorry. I hope you get good news. You sound downhearted
Major Major Major Major
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): I wouldn’t be surprised if that was showing up in models, but I’m not too keen on models right now, we don’t really know what’s been going on with polling…
sab
@sab: Right now, ahead of time, my heart is breaking. Such a good girl.
JoyceH
@Gretchen:
So that made me Google, and OMG, Tiger Beat still exists! The print edition ceased a few years back, but it’s an online magazine now. Geez, I had no idea that was still around.
sab
@SpaceUnit: Thanks
Woodrow/asim
I’m shocked so few know about Blendle. It’s exactly that — a legal, approved microtransaction service for paying for individual articles from a ton of the leading newspapers and mags.I pay around 20 cents for most articles, if I recall correctly; I use it sparingly (last major binge was for Ted Lasso articles) and $5 credit has lasted me a while
It has been in beta/invite for a while, so that might be part of it — there may be something contract-wise going on preventing it from opening its doors. But yeah, if you’re looking for a way to actually pay for the articles/writing you want to support, I recommend getting on its waitlist and using it when you get access.
Barbara
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): It’s hard to know because of the uncertainty inherent in trying to evaluate early voting data compared to last year, which was a presidential election in the middle of the pandemic. I think that’s allowing for a lot of “interpretation” of various indicia of enthusiasm.
Villago Delenda Est
Charlie Pierce nailed them with Tiger Beat on the Potomac. Worthless garbage, as is Axios.
Villago Delenda Est
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): Most likely the latter. The Vichy Times is on a par with Tiger Beat on the Potomac nowadays. Call it Pravda on the Hudson.
Villago Delenda Est
@West of the Rockies:
Back in the 70s, I bought the National Inquirer‘s annual psychic prediction issue, and then waited a year to find out how prescient it was. As it turns out, not much. The same sort of thing was done with MSM pundits and their predictions, and chimps throwing darts had a better accurate prediction rate.
Eljai
@Villago Delenda Est: And when the pundits are wrong, they never admit it. They just move on to something else to be wrong about.
Bill Arnold
@Another Scott:
You spotted it. Works OK (also a Firefox version). When I use it, I use a VPN and lots of ad/script/tracker blockers and do not log into google. Also install “Cookie Remover” which resets counter cookies for many sites with one click on a cookie icon. (Also annoying are all the American local news sites that don’t like European VPN endpoints because of the GDPR. (privacy rules))
CaseyL
@Woodrow/asim: Well, now. A sincere thanks for that information; I’ve signed up.
I do subscribe to WaPo and the Seattle Times. But among my fond memories of college was going to Odegard Undergraduate Library. They kept current collections of just about every newspaper and magazine in the country, possibly the world, and I could spend **hours** there, browsing and reading.
Ascap_scab
@Another Scott: I just checked on this. I do have Chrome installed on my Android phone, however this version does not support extensions.
I may try this on my laptop. Thanks for the help.
zhena gogolia
@sab: I hope it’s not as bad as you fear.
Yutsano
@CaseyL: Ooh take me! I can indulge right along with you
CaseyL
@Yutsano:
Wouldn’t that be lovely? But I don’t know if the reading room is even still there…
ETA: It’s still there, sort of – and it’s in Suzzallo, not Odegaard, my bad. But the collections are mostly electronic now. Which makes sense, but it’s not the same at all.
sab
@mrmoshpotato: Mast cell is another cancer that sucks. Sneaks up on them. Dog never smoked a day in her life. I never did either but my mom did.
Mast cell. My dog never did anything bad. Never smoked. Didn’t sunbath much, and only in Northeast Ohio which doesn’t even have sun.
sab
@zhena gogolia: Me also
HumboldtBlue
The rat bastards at Apple TV did not include episode 12, season 2 in the free weekly trial so they fucked us freeloaders on the penultimate episode of the first two series of Ted Lasso. Fuck them.
LivinginExile
@sab: Good Luck. Hope all turns out well. How are your cats? Didn’t they all have upper respiratory infections a while back?
CaseyL
@sab: I am so sorry to hear this, and though you have reasons to suspect the worst, I am hoping the cancer is treatable and survivable.
Nelle
@Mike in NC: If you are still here—Mike Franken has declared he will be running for Grassley’s Senate seat. I’ve got my sign from last time.
Another Scott
@Ascap_scab: Yeah, Google locks down Chrome on Android. It’s very annoying and is why I use Brave on my phone. (I use Chrome + uBlock Origin on Winders and Mac.)
Cheers,
Scott.
Another Scott
@Woodrow/asim: Oooh. I don’t think I’ve heard of that. Thanks for the pointer.
I signed up to Scroll to send micropayments to a few sites I visit semi-regularly (but not enough to “subscribe”) to send them some money in exchange for blocking their ads. Shortly after I did so, Twitter bought them and sent them back into beta… :-/
I hope something becomes a reasonably standard way to do this, but I hope it doesn’t end up being yet another monopoly that eventually follows us everywhere and tries to extract monopoly rents from us…
“Why spend $200/yr for the digital NYTimes when you can get 500 newspapers for the low, low price of $39.95 a month??!”
:-/
Cheers,
Scott.
Mike in NC
@Nelle: Mike was a military advisor to Ted Kennedy. I’ll be sending him a regular contribution.
Brachiator
@Woodrow/asim:
Never heard of this service. Never seen it mentioned anywhere.
I will check it out. Thanks for the tip.
Back in the day, a couple of news stands down the street from me carried out of town and foreign newspapers and magazines. And they would sometimes do special orders. I would sometimes buy an English language foreign paper if there was a news story I was particularly interested about. To get the local angle, even if it were biased.
Sadly, a news site behind a paywall might as well be invisible. Most people expect news to be free, like radio or TV news. On top of this, most people hate advertising, which enables free news.
I am rethinking what I might be able to afford, especially for local news.
I also am looking for the best, most secure payment platform. I would love a secure digital wallet that I could use everywhere.
I only use my credit card in a few places and for a few services.
Benw
Holy shit
Morzer
A billion bucks for Politico? Truly, a fool and his money are soon parted.
Brachiator
@Sure Lurkalot:
Publishers discovered that having advertising was an easy way to keep newspapers and magazines cheap. Cheap meant you could go after more readers. More readers were gold to advertisers.
Historically, the first newspapers provided information about what was happening in other market towns to merchants. These were specialized subscription services. Pay financial magazines and sites continue the tradition.
Gossip and misinformation transmitted via Twitter and Facebook and other social media for free is filling the vacuum for news and information. Gossip has always been around, but depended more on word of mouth and letters than a stable platform.
NotMax
@Brachiator
Oxymoron gold, that.
Brachiator
@NotMax:
Some of the payment options used in less developed countries actually look pretty good.
Isn’t some payment option on Whatsapp used for things like this outside the US?
?BillinGlendaleCA
@trollhattan: Eastern Sierra has quite a few.
brendancalling
Every morning I make myself a strong cup of coffee. I prefer the French press, using Cafe Bustelo, which my friend Laura once described as tasting like cigarette butts, but which I quite like.
Anyway, I like to drink this cup of coffee while reading the news—typically the Washington Post—and skimming my favorite comics—Mary Worth, Mark Trail, Judge Parker, Arlo&Janis—when I’ll feel a familiar gurgle in my stomach. M
That’s the coffee, making itself known. So I head off to the bathroom and make a healthy Politico in the toilet. Then I wipe my backside, flush, wash my hands, and finish my morning reading.
JAFD
I’ve found that Politico’s New Jersey Playbook covers stuf that the MSM does not. A lot of what it covers is trivial, but since there’s no media, based either in or out of state, that covers NJ thoroughly, it’s almost necessary. So as long as it’s free…
The Lodger
@brendancalling: congratulations on finding a use for Cafe Bustelo. Mind the dosage.
Mary G
: sab : They say dogs can’t tell time and whether you were gone for 15 minutes or all day. So as far as she knows she’s been with you her whole life happy as a clam.
Or else may her oncologist be as good as JGC’s Lily’s were and get her several more years of great life. If treatment is spendy, I’ll happily chip in, and I’m sure others will too.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@stinger: It’ll be a while, I have a lot of stuff for OTR.
Mary G
Everybody but me had no insomnia?
Geminid
Stacey comin’.
Ms. Abrams will campaign with Terry McAuliffe in Norfolk, Virginia today. Then she will appear at a campaign rally in Northern Virginia this evening.
Former President Barak Obama will campaign with McAuliffe next Saturday. Polls show McAuliffe holding a narrow lead over his semi-billionaire opponent.
oatler
@brendancalling:
So now Dondi’s not good enough??
lowtechcyclist
Mornin’, y’all.
Geminid
@lowtechcyclist: A good Autumn morning to you! Fall came in quick yesterday afternoon.
No name
@Mary G: Would rather have had insomnia than the bad dreams I had all night ?
oatler
RIP Alan Hawkshaw
oatler
RIP Alan Hawkshaw (remember the theme from “Dave Allen At Large” if nothing else?)
lowtechcyclist
@Geminid:
Yep, looks like autumn’s finally here. So far this September/October, I’ve had the heat turned on for approximately fifteen minutes. That’s fixing to change today.
Wormtown
@NotMax: that is great! I’ve not seen this before. thanks!
evodevo
@sab:
They’re all still stuck back in the Sixties, when all the Greek societies would dress up in sunday clothes for football games at “party schools” (I went to UK, so I know…)
WaterGirl
@Woodrow/asim: Speaking of Ted Lasso, that’s the topic for tonight’s Medium Cool with BGinChi. 7 pm blog time
Kathleen
@Ramalama: Immaculate Heart nuns taught me when we lived in Stockton, California. I really loved those 2 years at St. Bernadette’s. I was in 5th grade in 1960 and one of the nuns had a Nixon button on her habit.
Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet taught me in high school. A 72 year old SJOC nun was arrested while protesting at School Of The Americas when it was still open. Though my high school closed they use the space for community outreach and social justice activity. While I am no longer practicing Catholic I still get a lovely weekly newsletter from them with prayers and information about their events. I’ve often said if I had my own company I’d hire one of them to be CEO. They know how to get stuff done.
Thank you for this link!
RAM
It’s not for nothing that Mr. Pierce calls Politico “Tiger Beat on the Potomac.” Their crap usually isn’t even worth reading for free. The American bothsides political coverage press is, for the most part, (as my father used to say) not worth the powder to blow them to hell. And Politico is at the bottom of that dismal scale. Doubt there are enough suckers to make a paywalled version break even.
lowtechcyclist
@RAM:
Or it was, until Axios came along. It succeeds in making Politico look good by comparison.
And then there’s Punchbowl, an even newer entrant into that market. I haven’t bothered to figure out yet whether it’s even worse than Axios.
But none of that changes the fact that TBOTP is still garbage. That there might be even worse garbage out there doesn’t change that.
J R in WV
@sab:
Good friend became very involved with her Episcopal church, felt the call, went to seminary, learned Aramaic, Greek, Hebrew, Latin to read Holy books in the original texts.
Was pastor of small working-class parish, then promoted to larger city parish, now a Bishop.
Amazing to think I’m well acquainted with a Bishop!! Also has advanced degree in epidemiology… very smart person!!
Another Scott
FTFNYT can’t let the WSJ get all the clicks…
I’m shocked, shocked.
FWIW.
Cheers,
Scott.