huh?
"The Mark" or rabble?
Fri, 2010-02-12 23:20
#1
"The Mark" or rabble?
Fri, 2010-02-12 23:22
#2
[url=http://www.montrealgazette.com/entertainment/Opinion+website+Mark+raises... website The Mark raises funds[/url]
The Mark, an opinion website that is experimenting with new business models for news media, won investor validation by raising an unspecified amount of money this week.
The site, discernably inspired by the successful Huffington Post in the U.S., seeks to be a clearinghouse for commentary from prominent Canadians who get no payment for their contributions, but are rewarded with visibility. [...]
For Wayne MacPhail, a former journalist and emerging media consultant, The Mark takes a "conservative" and "intellectually elite" approach to alternative media - when compared with his more populist news site Rabble.ca.
"If you compare them to us, we're pirate radio and they're more like PBS," he said.
"It's a really valid positioning for them, but they don't seem to be having much of a conversation with readers ... but maybe they want to go more for broadcast than conversation."
Fri, 2010-02-12 23:39
#3
Ever read that sociological study about "the mark" in the vernacular of conmen? Ever feel like you've been marked for some kind of attention? Singled out? :)
Sat, 2010-02-13 00:12
#4
That's what the world needs, another corporately owned media outlet.
Sat, 2010-02-13 00:48
#5
RevolutionPlease
I say, mark it fuckers. Mark it good.
Sat, 2010-02-13 08:52
#6
We're all populists now. We can try to be elite, but it'll probably never happen unless we consult with a new media specialist.
Sat, 2010-02-13 09:15
#7
quote:
"It's a really valid positioning for them, but they don't seem to be having much of a conversation with readers ... but maybe they want to go more for broadcast than conversation."
Conversations with Bob and David, paid for by your local investment specialist, with your long-term financial health in mind. Makes you feel all warm and cared for. Saved, even.
Sat, 2010-02-13 10:50
#8
Contributor list for The Rube:
http://www.themarknews.com/authors?letter=A
I note Navigator is represented in the personage of Robin Sears, and the Fraser Institute has a number of contributors, along with Ken Lewenza and Jack Layton.
Sat, 2010-02-13 11:03
#9
And Wayne MacPhail, and Errol Mendes, and John Baglow, and Yves Engler, and Michael Geist, and Mike Harcourt, and Andrew Jackson, and James Laxer, and hundreds of others.
This Mark thing kind of snuck up on me. It bears watching...
Sat, 2010-02-13 11:46
#10
You know, it keeps striking me from time to time that it would be great to have a kind of "who's who" from our perspective, so we know who is connected to whom in all this.
Also, there's a lot of profs in that list of contributors, and I read somewhere a few weeks or months ago that profs will contribute a column or article for free because it counts towards the requirement that they be published.
But I'm not sure at all how that works, and how that may or may not impact anything. Would appreciate some background on that aspect.
Sat, 2010-02-13 12:11
#11
kim elliott
re: overlap in contributors, there is a lot of overlap, at least within progressive-leaning writers. I don't believe they pay contributors (neither does the Huffington Post), so it is a place to reprint or "curate" the voices the editors believe are "most important" for Canadians to hear... rabble could also run David Suzuki's or Tzeporah Berman's columns, for instance. Maybe we should - I'm curious to know what you think. While we publish original columns, part of our intention is to reprint "the best of the left" from the mainstream media (from those who can give us permission to reprint their work), and in blogs, to do the same thing: host orginal blogs, and co-host some of the most interesting progressive bloggers. We're always looking for suggesting to expand both.
You can see who blogs on rabble here: http://rabble.ca/blogs , regular columnists here: http://rabble.ca/about/bios and podcasters here: http://rabble.ca/podcasts
We don't publish a list of regular contributors, you'd have to wade through the list of feature stories and articles to find that info, but we do round them up in the annual reports, so you could see a list of writers and video contributors in the 2008 annual report.
Sat, 2010-02-13 12:23
#12
rabble could also run David Suzuki's or Tzeporah Berman's columns, for instance. Maybe we should - I'm curious to know what you think.
I think these days, I'm more interested in reading voices that I am reasonably sure are speaking true as they know it, and aren't dancing to someone else's tune.
Expertise is important, but so is giving a much needed platform to voices that don't get heard in the mainstream. I may agree with David Suzuki, or Rick Salutin, for example, and they may bring in people to visit Rabble that might not with a cast of unheard of contributors, but then again, David Suzuki is a voice that's heard pretty much everywhere.
I guess there is a balance to consider.
Sat, 2010-02-13 12:26
#13
re: overlap in contributors, there is a lot of overlap, at least within progressive-leaning writers. I don't believe they pay contributors (neither does the Huffington Post), so it is a place to reprint or "curate" the voices the editors believe are "most important" for Canadians to hear...
Not sure I understand, and reading over their "About" etc. doesn't enlighten me. If you know:
1. I'm assuming all their hundreds of contributors are [i]knowingly[/i] having their articles printed by The Mark?
2. I've looked at a few of them and they don't appear to be reprints. Are all these articles appearing there for the first time?
Sat, 2010-02-13 12:53
#14
kim elliott
[quote=Unionist]
Not sure I understand, and reading over their "About" etc. doesn't enlighten me. If you know:
1. I'm assuming all their hundreds of contributors are [i]knowingly[/i] having their articles printed by The Mark?
2. I've looked at a few of them and they don't appear to be reprints. Are all these articles appearing there for the first time?
[/quote]
----------------
I've met with the publisher of the Mark in the past - mind you that was months ago, so some things may have changed, but as I understand their model, re: point 1. I assume all their contributors have agreed to be published there.
re: 2, I know a number of the contributors have had the same content published in multiple places. I don't know what their policy is re: acknowleding that. That would be an editorial decision on their end, and based on whatever agreement they've made with the authors.
In case you were wondering, on rabble we only reprint with permission, and we always acknowledge the source. We also sometimes co-publish content with another media organization. We are doing that currently with the Maker Culture Series, which is original content published on rabble and TheTyee, and with the Media Links column (co-published on rabble, theTyee, Common Ground and Vue Weekly), and for instance yesterday, with an exclusive story about police brutality in the Yukon, shared with the Yukon News).
Sat, 2010-02-13 13:03
#15
Maybe if we are lucky here at babble they will provide a comfortable space for right wing discourse and they will steal away our resident libertarians.
Thanks Kim for the info above its always good to read you contributions in babble.
Sat, 2010-02-13 13:09
#16
remind
"Tzeporah Berman's"
...agree with your words on this Tommy:
I think these days, I'm more interested in reading voices that I am reasonably sure are speaking true as they know it, and aren't dancing to someone else's tune.
Sat, 2010-02-13 17:06
#17
re: overlap in contributors, there is a lot of overlap, at least within progressive-leaning writers. I don't believe they pay contributors (neither does the Huffington Post), so it is a place to reprint or "curate" the voices the editors believe are "most important" for Canadians to hear... rabble could also run David Suzuki's or Tzeporah Berman's columns, for instance. Maybe we should - I'm curious to know what you think. While we publish original columns, part of our intention is to reprint "the best of the left" from the mainstream media (from those who can give us permission to reprint their work), and in blogs, to do the same thing: host orginal blogs, and co-host some of the most interesting progressive bloggers. We're always looking for suggesting to expand both.
You can see who blogs on rabble here: http://rabble.ca/blogs , regular columnists here: http://rabble.ca/about/bios and podcasters here: http://rabble.ca/podcasts
We don't publish a list of regular contributors, you'd have to wade through the list of feature stories and articles to find that info, but we do round them up in the annual reports, so you could see a list of writers and video contributors in the 2008 annual report.
I'm "curious to know" why we do not now carry Suzuki's columns and are apparently being "scooped" (that old concern out of the days of the dead tree publications). Why would Rabble not feature all of the scientifically valid material that it can lay hands on? Enough of the economics-challenged, nostalgic pieces about what is being lost to a feisty, greedy neo-con blitzkreig. Economics from the perspective of sustainability is the only valid position for people who give a fiddler's fart about their descendants' future.
Sat, 2010-02-13 17:09
#18
There are a lot of impressive people listed as contributors. Pretty hard not to be interested.