Archive of UserLand's first discussion group, started October 5, 1998.

Re: davenet/weblogs

Author:Dave Winer
Posted:5/31/1999; 9:34:51 AM
Topic:davenet/weblogs
Msg #:6897 (In response to 6891)
Prev/Next:6896 / 6898

remember: brick and mortar are not greater liabilities today than they were in 1992. the cost has not gone up, and the benefit has not been diminished. we still need them, and they will still thrive.

Financially, as reflected in a company's market capitalization, they are. Egghead Software, a brick and mortar software retailer was on the edge of going out of business. Egghead.Com is doing much better as an Internet stock. What's the difference between Barnes and Noble and Amazon? The brick and mortar that B&N has. Why is Amazon's market cap so much higher than B&N's?

About serving masters, the master is the economics of brick and mortar. In the news business, it's built around highly paid, highly polished, groups of people and their lawyers, pollsters, lobbyists, etc. Ted Turner is a player in Washington and other capitals, trading off news coverage against favors other people can do for him. Diversity is the victim here. We see lots of staged diversity on CNN but how much of the diversity is real? We only see what the news crews can get in and see.

I agree that individuals writing on their own, serving their own masters, are not likely to be more objective, or be closer to the truth, whatever that might be, but at least there's hope that the diversity will be for real, not staged.

There are responses to this message:

This page was archived on 6/13/2001; 4:50:32 PM.

© Copyright 1998-2001 UserLand Software, Inc.