Caroline Kennedy To Save Old Media!

Now that Caroline Kennedy has been cured of her allergy to the Democratic Party, she should certainly be designated Senator from New York just because she feels like it. Think of how a slide show a day of old Kennedy family photos could breath life into old, flagging media plantations!

The never-flagging, trend-setting Huffington Post shows you how it’s done. They’ve likely had 10-trillion hits to their front-and-center slide show already.

In other Kennedy matters, Matt Towery talks about the Kennedy family role in the Obama nomination here. It’s all in his new book, Paranoid Nation. Order your copy by clicking ad to your right. On book store shelves this week too.

No, Thank YOU HuffPost’s Off The Bus

Amanda Michel, Den Mother of the Huffington Post’s 2008 presidential election, groundbreaking citizen journalism project, Off The Bus, takes a moment to thank their contributors here.

I thus took a comment moment to thank Off The Bus for their media vision and leadership. It was an honor and a thrill to have been part of the 2007-2008 political process via Off The Bus. My comment back to Amanda and John and the other wonderful OTB editors is re-pasted here:

Thank you Amanda and John, etc. so much for giving me the opportunity to participate in the political journalism process in innovative and exciting ways that were not open to me elsewhere. Being an OTB contributor has renewed my passion for journalism, taught me new skills, returned me to my MSM roots while allowing me to try new things, and provided a wealth of ideas and concepts I will take with me and share with many as I grow my small media business locally.

It’s been an honor and a pleasure. I like to think I played a small part in these historic media times. OTB made that possible, and inspired me to look for any way I could to get involved in the new political media going on around me over the last year or so.

Plus, doing totally indie, one-woman video packages was just a whole lot of fun! You should see how I can unfold my tripod now with a few flicks of the wrist. Even an old NABET camera-dude would be impressed. Well maybe…

All the best as we all move forward.

The NEW National Enquirer Is The HuffPo

Supermarket tabs ain’t got nothin’ on celeb news and views at HuffPo lately.

Arianna Schedules New Media Domination Appointment

Could it be Drive ‘Ole Dixie Down, Part Deux? Arianna Huffington has moved on Chicago’s local readership. If that is the case, you can bet she’s got Atlanta in her scope too. If so, all local bloggers, citizen journalists, small publishers and small papers, indie and alt media of any kind, will be swallowed-up whole. And your best sources of user-generated (free) content will be the first to go over to the Huff Side. Let alone your best writers. From media consultant John Wilper’s blog:

It’s scary, or it damn well should be. Unlike Craig’s List, she’s telling us in advance that she’s coming (to Chicago), how and when (not where yet, but I wouldn’t wait to find out!).

With her clout and visibility, she may succeed at the aggregation game where others have failed or are struggling. She plans to grab YOUR content and the best local bloggers and citizen journalists — something we should have done long ago. (It’s not too late, but it’s ALMOST too late.)

And she won’t be blowing large amounts of investor money, either. One editor. One reporter. That’s it.

But add all the current and future local bloggers who will be attracted by the opportunity to have the address of: “HuffingtonPost/my name,” and she’ll have critical mass in one hell of a hurry. And those people will be buzzing about HuffPost’s local site rather than your newspaper and its website.

Full blog post here. What are you going to do to keep YOUR Georgia-based eyeballs off the Huffington New Media Plantation? Better come up with some kinda plan. Quick. Aggregate something! Anything! In other words, have you hugged a blogger real nice-like today? Gawd, I can’t wait to see the Huffster put a serious audience hurtin’ on Cox Plantation here. Now that’ my idea of new media spectator sport.

Anyone think I’m messing around… just keep saying those two words that have fatally stricken the most powerful publishers on the planet – Craig’s List. Craig’s List. Craig’s List.

Citizen Journalist for Off The Bus Broke Big Campaign News

Mayhill Fowler, a regular contributor to the Huffington Post’s Off The Bus citizen journalism project, broke some big-time news over the course of the Presidential primary season. From today’s LATimes:

Tim Russert, Katie Couric or Larry King eventually may deliver telling blows of their own, but score Round 1 in the contest to extract the most provocative presidential campaign quotes to . . . Mayhill Fowler?

The 61-year-old self-described “failed writer” and amateur Web journalist helped create two of the most unexpected moments in the 2008 election — most recently on Monday, when she recorded former President Clinton’s fiery denunciation (“slimy,” “dishonest”) of Vanity Fair writer Todd Purdum.

That scoop came six weeks after Fowler rocked the Democratic race for president by reporting (from a “closed press” fundraiser in San Francisco) Barack Obama’s now infamous discussion of “bitter” small-town Americans who “cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren’t like them.”

Full story here. Local video contributors to the Off The Bus project include Shelby Highsmith and me.

Ladies Feeding The Internet Beast

Arianna heads into Drudge territory. From the NYObserver:

It took a while, and surely the brighter prospects on the left side of the aisle have changed things since Mr. Drudge was acting as the steam vent for a country fed up with the Clinton White House. But, nearly three years into its existence, Huffingtonpost.com is getting there, with unique visitors logging on at three times the rate they did just six months ago.

In the 30-day period ending Feb. 18, the Huffington Post has had roughly eight million unique visitors, up from the 2.7 million that were visiting the site as late as May 2007, and up from the 1.5 million that visited the site when it launched in January 2006, according to stats provided by its chairman, Ken Lerer.

This is like Mostly Media overtaking Peach Pundit! (Maybe next year kiddies.) As I always say about Internets stats, the only place they have to go is up. And at one point, Arianna too had just 100 uniques a day. Way back in 2005.

CNN Producer Fired For Pimp Rolling

Not exactly. Rather he was fired for blogging, at the Huffington Post of all places, about the recent “pimp as a verb” issue over at MSNBC. (Since the producer didn’t run this one up the management flagpole, it’s going directly to both WTF and Corporate Land catagories.)

CNN spokesmodel says, “We don’t comment on employee matters.” Well hon, we at Mostly Media sure do. Seems MSM just isn’t ready for the verb “pimp.” Another one uses it, then promptly loses it. From TVNewser:

A CNN insider tells TVNewser (CNN’s) Pazienza was let go because, “he did not get permission to publish personal writings.”

Those personal writings come from The Huffington Post, where Pazienza has been blogging since January 23. His most recent post, on February 10, took on the controversy surrounding MSNBC correspondent David Shuster.

Dated February 10, the post was titled “Pimp My Riot: In Defense of David Shuster.” In addition to supporting Shuster, the post also attacks MSNBC where, according to his LinkedIn profile, Pazienza worked from 2001-2003. 

More dirt here. Welcome to the blogosphere, the hard way, Paz!