True confession: I’m a huge fan of Felix Salmon (who I follow on Twitter). I’m already a big fan of Counterparties, which will turn into a must-read each morning. And Reuters? They’re making some really smart moves lately. We’ll be talking about this later today, in fact…
I’ve tagged these links for possible show topics/background notes on September 8th:
- NYMag: Slate’s Jack Shafer Is Headed to Reuters [Updated] – Yes, Reuters IS hiring everyone. Good for them! From the NYMag article: "The press critic confirmed the move over Twitter and to Intel. "My ambition in life was to be the Felix Salmon of Reuters," he told us, "but then I found out that there already was a Felix Salmon of Reuters. I'm settling for being the Ryan Adams of Reuters. " By which he probably doesn't mean putting out beautifully sad alt-country, but maybe he does plan, like Adams, to turn a harsh breakup into bigger and better things. He said he's excited to "collaborate with the geniuses at Reuters," and "mix up genres." "
- Gawker: Will You Remember to Read Reuters, Now That They’ve Hired Everyone? – Gawker weighs in with their customary snarky take: "Have you been reading Felix Salmon's new "Buzzfeed for Finance" blog, Counterparties? (At Reuters, natch.) All links! All Felix Salmon! All the time! Does Felix Salmon ever sleep? Jesus Christ. You think we're being funny? We're worried, Felix."
(That's all there is. No use going to Gawker for more…)
- Counterparties – You have to love an aggregator where the very first story on the page this AM has *this* headline:
Bartz: Yahoo "f—-ed me over"
- The New York Observer – Felix Salmon’s New Blog Will Teach You to Read Like Felix Salmon – More on Counterparties & Salmon's approach: "Counterparties aggregates only linked headlines: No Huffington Post or Atlantic Wire-style rewrites. But unlike other algorithm powered headline-aggregators, like Techmeme, Counterparties has a little bit of voice. The site is edited by Ryan McCarthy, who re-writes headlines and adds tags in a dead pan style reminiscent of The Awl.
Aggregation done right encourages people to read more–a pet topic of Mr. Salmon’s blog lately. He thinks journalists especially need to do more reading than writing.
In case the aggregation battle lines weren’t drawn clear enough: A small box at the bottom of the screen houses “Stuff We’re Not Linking To.” Today these include headlines from Mr. Salmon’s nemesis Henry Blodget’s site, Business Insider and Mr. McCarthy’s former employer, The Huffington Post. And yes, they are linked."
