Tribune.com

The Tribune's incessant quest for an identity continues with today's debut of yet another new design for its website. The site has been reinvented at least three times since Sam Zell purchased the paper, ushered in a new management team and presided over a bankruptcy at the one-time corporate colossus.

I like the current design, but the repeated overhauls administered to both the print and web versions of the paper suggest an ownership without a coherent plan to compete in the fluid media marketplace.







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REST OF POST

Oh the Woes of Bloggers

I found this humorous post on one of my favorite sites, gawker.com, about a Wall Street Journal story reporting on new blogger woes. Apparently, the unemployed are invading blogger home turfs: coffee shops with free wi-fi access. As Gawker eloquently puts it:

...places that used to be exclusively blogger wi-fi campgrounds have been infiltrated by the unemployed who are too poor to afford wi-fi in their apartments, so they have to go to coffee shops for internet access to look for jobs...

Luckily, I get to blog from my office. Internet access included.

(image via gawker.com)

Obama's Apology

This hastily scheduled press conference by President Obama illustrates the perils involved when a public official disowns his remarks. There's little doubt that the president's communications consultants wrestled mightily with the decision to make this quasi-apology. As often as not, these disavowals end up perpetuating the very discussion they're intended to quash.









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The White House obviously felt that the attention showered on the President's remarks about the arrest of Henry Louis Gates, threatened to overshadow more important subjects. But as often as not, these sorts of apologies compound the problem, first because they fuel more discussion on the original problem and then because the apology becomes problematic, in itself. In this case, Obama's apology "choice of words," gives risk to a new risky narrative: President defensive over remarks on race.

So now the White House may not only need to contend with protests over his comments on a racially charged issue, but also allegations that he lacks the courage of his convictions.

The irony, of course, is his comments represented a rare moment of frank, authentic emotion for a President who has so assiduously dodged discussions of racial dynamics in America -- a tendency that has perturbed Obama's pivotal supporters in the black community.

Because they seemed out of character, the media magnified the remarks, and at least the illusion of a national "controversy," as the Tribune account describes it, ensued. Whether the reaction to Obama's comments truly resembled a "controversy" is debatable. Obviously, the media was obsessed with the remarks, and the Republicans tried their best to enflame racial tensions. But there's not a lot of evidence that the mass public is fixated on the issue.

In the end, Obama's original remarks were intended to acknowledge the pain of longstanding racial wounds. Let's hope that in backtracking from those comments, he hasn't inflicted his own political wound.

Will Public Housing Residents Benefit from Transformation?

One of the sadnesses of public housing transformation has been that it can take up to five years before new, mixed income housing gets built and becomes available. Residents, whose income, by definition, is limited may have moved several times in that period and either are not locatable or don't want to move again.
In the larger, global sense, it may not matter who inhabits the new units designated for low income people in the mixed income developments scattered around the city. After all, it is meeting the needs of someone who needs help with safe, decent, affordable housing.
But in the immediate, personal sense, it is sad that many of the people who were uprooted to make the change, probably won't benefit from it.

Politics in Color: Sources for "Race-Based" News

Among the usual talking heads that dominate news circuits, very few are people of color.

However since the election, more African-American and Latino pundits and scholars are offering their take on the political scene. The blogosphere is also bubbling with commentary from a race-based perspective.

In this era of Obama and Sotomayor, we should examine how our new multicultural political leaders impact future policies and society as a whole. A few of my choice sources for "race-based" news after the jump.







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Danielle Belton, provides her daily take on politics and pop culture as the self-proclaimed "The Black Snob." I can't get enough of her hilarious and often spot-on commentary on the Obamas in the White House. A must read!

Many of us in Chicago know Roland Martin from his days editing the Chicago Defender, but Roland hit the national scene during last year's election as a regular on CNN. He's due with his own show Washington Watch with Roland Martin on TV One this fall, focusing on African-American issues.

@UrbanJibaro fills my Twitter feed with fascinating links and info on the urban Latino community. From cultural trends to what the Sotomayor nomination means to young Latinas everywhere, blogger George Torres brings a unique voice to the online world and encourages other Latinos to join the dialogue.

Ester Cepeda, Chicago's first Latino metro columnist, chronicles immigration, education, and other topics of importance to Latinos at her blog, 600 Words. She recently featured 10 Latinos making a difference, to give props to Chicago Latinos always being left out of mainstream publications’ "Who’s Who" lists.

So these are the folks I'm checking out these days - give 'em a visit and let me know what you think in the comments section.

In Case You Haven't Gotten Enough Twitter Info Yet

Good Wall Street Journal article - Software That Makes Twitter So Much Tweeter - on tools that make it easier to use Twitter.

Tribune Gets Into User Generated News

Check out this new feature of the Chicago Tribune. Select your town, write your own local story and then post it, with pictures, to the site. It includes tips for writing and even editorial assistance.

Though the site looks neat and works well, there is a disturbing problem: Neither Chicago or do many of the predominantly African American suburban communities appear to be options on the click down menu for choosing the city you want to report from.

Can it be possible that the Tribune is only soliciting stories from predominately white communities? What am I missing?

Another One Bites the Dust

One more publication, The Printed Blog, closed up shop this week. This new kind of newprint publication--which compiled posts from local blogs in a printed format-- was, in my opinion, a novel idea. But due to lack of outside investment capital, The Printed Blog folded. And alas, bloggers will continue to find their audiences online, and not in newsprint.

How Bad Are the Illinois State Budget Cuts?

Progress Illinois has developed an online tracking system and is asking groups to send in their information. This is a badly needed tool in helping people around the state understand that these cuts affect everybody.

How Much is Your Brand Worth?

In today's New York Times, there's a story about a study conducted by Cone on the most valuable nonprofit brands in America. Not suprisingly groups like the Y.M.C.A., Salvation Army and United Way top the list, and all of these organizations have spent considerable investments ensuring the public knows who they are.

What is surprising is that while environmental groups had less name recognition, their revenues from donors are the fast growing in the sector. This suggests these groups have done a lot to raise awareness of environmental issues, but not as much with their organizational brand.

Nonprofit groups seeking to boost their brand, should check out the full analysis here.