I established a Facebook account in 2008. My motivation was ignoble: I wanted to distribute my journalism more widely. I have acquired since then just over four thousand “friends”—in Afghanistan, Pakistan, India, the Middle East, and of course, closer to home. I have discovered the appeal of Facebook’s community—for example, the extraordinary emotional support that swells in virtual space when people come together online around a friend’s illness or life celebrations. Through its bedrock appeals to friendship, community, public identity, and activism—and its commercial exploitation of these values—Facebook is an unprecedented synthesis of corporate and public spaces. The corporation’s social contract with users is ambitious, yet neither its governance system nor its young ruler seem trustworthy. Then came this month’s initial public offering of stock—a ... Continue reading →
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Starboard Value, the activist hedge fund that seeks to replace three of AOL’s directors with its own nominees next month, has laid out its disagreements with the internet giant’s current management in a 96-page presentation to investors. Whether you agree with Starboard, which owns 5.3% of AOL, or have faith in chairman Tim Armstrong, the presentation makes for some hair-curling reading. Here are a few highlights: -AOL is losing $500 million a year on its display advertising businesses, ie. its premium content sites. Since 2009, those losses have totaled $1.3 billion. -In the past three years, it has spent $668 million acquiring display-based business, including the Huffington Post, on which it spent $315 million. It has pumped another $235 million of investment into Patch. -Its ... Continue reading →
Long form writing has found all sorts of outlets in our digital world of tweeting and blogging. There are curators like Longform and Pocket, Kindle Singles for novellas and non-fiction exploration, and digital publishers like the Atavist and Byliner. Now, The New Yorker will tweet the entirety of Jennifer Egan’s latest short story—all 8,500 words of it. The story, called “Black Box,” will be published in next Monday’s magazine. But starting tonight at 8 p.m., @NYerFiction will be tweeting the story every minute for an hour. This hour of story-tweeting will last 10 days, and was born out of the author’s inclination to explore serialized fiction. As Egan writes on The New Yorker’s Page Turner blog, “This is not a new idea, of course, but ... Continue reading →
Bill ClintonSURROUNDED BYPORN STARS Exclusive Bill Clinton just out-Clinton'd himself -- posing with two famous porn stars in Monaco moments ago ... and one of them's a real up-and-comer.Clinton's in a Monte Carlo casino right now for a special "Nights in Monaco" gala event -- and several celebrities are in attendance ... including Diane Kruger, Joshua Jackson ... and a BUNCH OF PORN STARS.The two porn stars on Bill's arms are Tasha Reign (left) and Brooklyn Lee -- AVN's "Best New Starlet" in porn. Brooklyn -- who just posted the pic on her Twitter account -- also just won the award for "Best Sex Scene" in "Mission Asspossible." As for Tasha's film credits ... those include "Baby Got Boobs 8" and "Farm Girls Gone Bad."Our ... Continue reading →
Hillary ClintonThe Secretary of PARTYING In a move more reminiscent of something her husband Bill might do, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was photographed last night dancing and knocking back a beer at a club in Cartagena, Colombia.Clinton, in town for Summit of the Americas, showed up at a bar called La Havana at around 12:45 AM and stayed for about 30 minutes.According to a local paper, Clinton and her party of 12 ordered a dozen beers, two glasses of whiskey and bottles of water. Nice to see Hillary let loose a little.Hillary was photographed the day after her Colombian beer session, looking real worn -- the pic is pretty great. Continue reading →
Help Global Overview includes the Secretary of State's preface and the overarching introduction to the Country Reports on Human Rights Practices. Hover over Countries/Regions for a list of countries and other areas. Click a region to narrow the list. Click a country or other area to see that report. Within a report, hover over Table of Contents to see the topics covered in the report. Click a topic to jump to it in the report. To return to the top of the page, click Back to Top on the lower right. Click Build a Report to create a custom report across countries/areas and topics. Click Step 1 to select the topics, Step 2 to select the countries/areas to be included in the report, and Step ... Continue reading →
Help Global Overview includes the Secretary of State's preface and the overarching introduction to the Country Reports on Human Rights Practices. Hover over Countries/Regions for a list of countries and other areas. Click a region to narrow the list. Click a country or other area to see that report. Within a report, hover over Table of Contents to see the topics covered in the report. Click a topic to jump to it in the report. To return to the top of the page, click Back to Top on the lower right. Click Build a Report to create a custom report across countries/areas and topics. Click Step 1 to select the topics, Step 2 to select the countries/areas to be included in the report, and Step ... Continue reading →
A new company - the NOLA Media Group, which will include The Times-Picayune and its affiliated web site NOLA.com - was announced today by Ricky Mathews, who will become its president. The change is intended to reshape how the New Orleans area's dominant news organization delivers its award-winning local news, sports and entertainment coverage in an increasingly digital age. NOLA Media Group will significantly increase its online news-gathering efforts 24 hours a day, seven days a week, while offering enhanced printed newspapers on a schedule of three days a week. The newspaper will be home-delivered and sold in stores on Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays only. A second new company, Advance Central Services, will print and deliver the newspaper. Both of the new companies are owned ... Continue reading →
