NY Times Says I’m Remarkably Dull
Posted by Allison Fine on April 21, 2009
I was relaxing and reading the national edition of the NY Times on the train ride home from DC yesterday. As I finished the sports section I found myself on the weather page. This is a page I clearly don’t read often enough as I wandered around DC and NYC yesterday in torrential rain without a rain coat or umbrella!
The little blurb next to the weather icon for yesterday, Monday, read, “Remarkably dull. Thunderstorms.” Huh, that’s strange, I thought, I’ve never seen the phrase, “remarkably dull” in a weather forecast before. It’s not like it was 72 degrees and sunny which might might make some sense. (Remember the terrifically funny movie L.A. Story wherein Steve Martin pre-recorded the weather as sunny and warm in LA?)
I threw out the paper in Philly, makes an awful mess around your seat on the train, and made a mental note to show this strange forecast to my husband when I got home. I opened up yesterday’s paper this morning at breakfast to show him, and there was yesterday’s blurb: “Thickening clouds will yield showers by midday.” What the heck????? My friend Lisa has been telling me that the social media wizards at the Times have been cooking up some really cool stuff; and they have see here. But this seems amazing; is it possible that I am getting my own personal weather report from the Times, and such an accurate one?
And then it occured to me that the Times wizards have leap-frogged over Jarvis and Rosen and Doc Searls. The Times isn’t micro-targeting ads to my interest and searches; it is altering the hard copy CONTENT to my moods and needs. Ha, take that Google! Can’t wait to see what these guys come up with next.
2 Responses to “NY Times Says I’m Remarkably Dull”
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Doc Searls said
I get that the Times is doing cool stuff. Just not sure how I’ve been leap-frogged. Not that I mind. Or care, really. Just curious to know how.
Cheers,
Doc
Allison Fine said
Hi, Doc, apologies if I was too clever by half here. I was reading your great post on the New Ecology of Journalism and was struck by this line, “the larger trend to watch over time is the inevitable decline in advertising support for journalistic work, and the growing need to find means for replacing that funding.” I took that a bit further (again to my amusement but perhaps not others) and thought that the NYTimes would think it would be really cool to personalize all of their content not just their ads. Anyway, the weather report blurbs story is all true! Thanks.
Allison