Going back in time

The first edition of Crawdaddy came straight off the typewriterMusic aficionados of all ages bemoan the loss of great music publications that played big roles in their lives.

For me, the closure of Trouser Press was killer. It’s one of the few times in my life where I stopped in my tracks and went into a daze when I heard bad news. I’ve experienced that to a lesser extent with the downfall of Musician, Creem and Yeah Yeah Yeah.

But the Internet has brought some of those publications back to life. TrouserPress.com isn’t quite the same as the fun print mag, but has all its reviews online. And today I discovered that Crawdaddy is online – and offering complete versions of the original printed mags from 1968-69.

Crawdaddy was way before my time, but it helped shape and give credence to rock journalism. It’ll be fun to pore through each of those issues and see what I discover.

Any great lost mags you’ve discovered getting second lives online?

Wisdom of Colin Cowherd

I've said this before, but I'm constantly amazed at how much marketing and business insight I get from listening to ESPN's Colin Cowherd on the way to work.

His most recent gem came in discussing how the National Spelling Bee attracted TV ratings that rivaled prime-time Major League Baseball. It was a topic on his show because hardcore baseball fans had complained that the spelling bee was a dog and not equal to baseball in interest or importance.

"Don't listen to the diehards and the purists," Cowherd said. "Do not let them drive the bus."

His point was that diehard fans and baseball purists are blind to new possibilities.

I heard Cowherd's take at the same time we're tackling a dramatic redesign of our newspaper that could take us in bold new directions and question many of the strategies that have served newspapers so well over the years.

Consistently throughout this redesign process the voice in my head has been saying, "Don't listen to the diehards and purists."

Getting back on the grid

I've been off the Twitter-Facebook grid for about two weeks. Just been buried at work and home; lots going on, in a good way.

But living without key social networks when I'm in the business of creating social networks has been an interesting experiment. That "digital silence" has crystalized some things for me in terms of how and when social media can be effective.

But tomorrow, plan is to dive back into Twitter, catch up on Facebook and immerse myself into finishing a PRD (product requirement document) for a cool new site we're building that'll stretch our social commenting efforts in new ways.