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Tomorrow is the 20th anniversary of 9/11. Of course. As with any big historic anniversary, there is media reminding us it has been a-number-divisible-by-five-years since it happened. The media, as it surely was in 2006, 2011 and 2016, is reflective of the year or years in which it was produced.

In 2021, this is among the crop of content:

It, well, it makes sense.

I’ll admit, I haven’t watched any of the September 11th content that has been produced. I know there are pieces that are surely outstanding, poignant, illuminating and heartfelt. It’s just, I can’t. I don’t really want to go back to then.

Because then, then was weird.

And looking at it through a 2021 lens can’t quite capture that.

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Continue Reading The permanence of digital media is hitting us—and it is weird

This is the lamest humblebrag that has ever existed but I’d put even odds on me having read or perused more law blog posts than anyone ever. For the better part of a decade, I wound down every workday perusing the posts that flowed out from the community at LexBlog—more than 1,000 blogs producing upwards of 200 posts a day.

I’ve seen what stands out and I’ve seen what’s worked for lawyers—sometimes the tune of life-changing success.

It isn’t law-specific. It’s stuff I try utilize myself, almost never writing about the law. Here’s what I got, three things I relay to almost any lawyer I talk to looking for the fundamentals.

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Continue Reading The three things I tell every law blogger I talk to

There was a time when it felt like Facebook could save journalism. There was also a time when you could only access the platform with a .edu email address, the Newsfeed didn’t exist and there was a ‘Wall’ on your profile that was basically just a .txt file that anyone could edit or even delete completely.

Which is to say—things change.

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Continue Reading Facebook’s supposed TL;DR feature sounds pretty awful for publishers

Working in sports and social media is weird. The amazing and mystifying things you see on your favorite teams’ feeds aren’t always a result of someone’s brilliance or creativity—sometimes it’s another team trying something and someone in the building being like “Hey, why don’t we try that?”

All the while, you’re not quite sure if it’s smart and impactful or just something that looked cool and we’re all just following one another hoping for the best.

That was where I was on YouTube and teams following the Cubs’ lead on producing a ton of content for the platform. About this time last year, I was at the MLB Marketing Meetings in Portland listening to how the Cubbies produced outstanding documentaries on Kerry Wood’s 20-strikeout game, their progressive scouting efforts and players’ off seasons. (Hint: they threw a ton of resources at the endeavor.)

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Continue Reading This mundane iOS feature is getting me into YouTube

Anything that puts money in journalists’ hands, I’m in favor of. Hell, anything that puts money in any hard-working folks’ hands, I’m in favor of. But given the industry has had its ass kicked—with writers bearing the brunt of it—you can’t blame anyone jumping to tab something as the potential savior for journalism.

Enter Substack. The premium newsletter platform is all the rage these days and, if you follow any number of journalists on social, odds are you also follow a journalist who’s been laid off—and, after that, started a Substack.

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Continue Reading Substack is a step for journalism, but in what direction?

If you ever hear that an athlete doesn’t read what people write about them, don’t believe it. They read it. At the very least, their dad or their brother or their wife reads it—and they pass it along. Blog post, newspaper, even the occasional tweet. It gets in front of them.

That’s why Colts QB Philip Rivers’s colorful and candid comments yesterday made the rounds.

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Continue Reading If you want to get to know someone, read what they write

Being into golf isn’t original. It’s been around forever. Old people love it. A lot of young people, too. In American culture, it borders on being ubiquitous—particularly given certain demographics.

So as I spent a chunk of this year getting back into a sport I played a lot when I was younger—a bunch of rounds with my brothers, a nice new driver, even an official GHIN handicap—I couldn’t really do the natural fallback people do these days when they’re newly passionate about something, trying to share it with others and saying stuff like “Have you tried this thing called golf? It’s amazing!”

About everyone’s tried it. Not everyone loves it.

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Continue Reading In praise of ‘No Laying Up,’ a digital media empire done right