Comments on: Don’t Believe The Hype: Digg, Businessweek, and Accountability http://www.businesspundit.com/dont-believe-the-hype-digg-businessweek-and-accountability/ Entrepreneurship, Startup Companies and Business Philosophy Fri, 20 Nov 2009 20:31:15 -0600 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.5 hourly 1 By: ricardo http://www.businesspundit.com/dont-believe-the-hype-digg-businessweek-and-accountability/comment-page-1/#comment-1303 ricardo Wed, 30 Aug 2006 13:13:30 +0000 http://www.businesspundit.com.php5-6.websitetestlink.com/?p=2800#comment-1303 Should the Digg article come as a surprise? No way! Business Week magazine is in financial trouble, barely profitable at best, so the company is looking to the website to make its money. The story was written by an online reporter and, according to people I know who work there, forced down the throat of a very weak magazine by the woman who runs online. Apparently she's been telling people that the magazine editor isn't going to hold on to his job for too much longer, so forcing her unit's story on the magazine was a power play to show the suits that she's the real live wire in the organization. Trouble is that BW's online operation is now a schlock fest of Forbes-style "wealth porn" and shock-horror financial journalism (count how many times in the past six months the site has opredicted the property market is poised not just to cool but to collapse). Moreover, all the good journalists have quit, leaving nothing but kids and weak reeds who do what the online boss tells them. Most interestingly, the woman now running online was the head of BW's eBiz unit in the pre-Bubble days, when she got her reporters to hype every madhouse business plan that came down the pike. She talked up that bubble; now she's taling up another. Thank God for blogs, because now we can call the "news professionals" on their sins -- and the Digg story is a mortal sin against accuracy. Should the Digg article come as a surprise? No way! Business Week magazine is in financial trouble, barely profitable at best, so the company is looking to the website to make its money. The story was written by an online reporter and, according to people I know who work there, forced down the throat of a very weak magazine by the woman who runs online. Apparently she’s been telling people that the magazine editor isn’t going to hold on to his job for too much longer, so forcing her unit’s story on the magazine was a power play to show the suits that she’s the real live wire in the organization.

Trouble is that BW’s online operation is now a schlock fest of Forbes-style “wealth porn” and shock-horror financial journalism (count how many times in the past six months the site has opredicted the property market is poised not just to cool but to collapse). Moreover, all the good journalists have quit, leaving nothing but kids and weak reeds who do what the online boss tells them.

Most interestingly, the woman now running online was the head of BW’s eBiz unit in the pre-Bubble days, when she got her reporters to hype every madhouse business plan that came down the pike.

She talked up that bubble; now she’s taling up another. Thank God for blogs, because now we can call the “news professionals” on their sins — and the Digg story is a mortal sin against accuracy.

]]> By: vaspers the grate http://www.businesspundit.com/dont-believe-the-hype-digg-businessweek-and-accountability/comment-page-1/#comment-1302 vaspers the grate Tue, 08 Aug 2006 19:44:38 +0000 http://www.businesspundit.com.php5-6.websitetestlink.com/?p=2800#comment-1302 MySpace "successful"? By what standards? Porn? Traffic? 6 million poor kids promoting crummy music to 6 million other poor kids, everybody's blinking and flashing, but nobody's buying. MySpace “successful”? By what standards? Porn? Traffic? 6 million poor kids promoting crummy music to 6 million other poor kids, everybody’s blinking and flashing, but nobody’s buying.

]]>