In two weeks, Morning Sedition as we know it will be no longer. I got XM just in time to find out that after 12/15, Marc Maron is gone. Mark Riley will continue from 5-7 and Rachel Maddow is on from 7-9. No more characters, no more comedy. This is so incredibly lame I don't know what to say. Maron's site is down today due to excessive requests. Probably people wanting to express their opinions about the changes. Put me down for "This Sucks."
I was in Best Buy this weekend picking up a game for my PSP. Best Buy is one of those stores (like Home Depot) where I walk every aisle, just in case there's some manner of consumer electronics sweetness that I've managed to miss. Problem is, there are these weird floor associates who won't leave you the frick alone. You can't take a stroll two feet without some over-caffeinated tech dork breathing down your neck. "Can I help you? Can I help you?" they chirp. Even a disinterested "Nah" without so much as a glance upward doesn't work. They stick to you like glue.
I was walking down the aisle where they have cheap portable keyboards. I have a nice, expensive one at home, but as I walked by, I wanted to see how the cheap ones sounded. So I walked up to one, cast a glance around to make sure there were no weird sales dorks lurking around and tapped out the first few notes of the piano solo from "A String of Pearls." I swear to you - I barely touched it before a sales dork came up behind me and started asking me questions.
"Hey. Howareya? Howlongyoubeenplaying? Thisoneisnicebuttheonebelowitisnicer. Blah, blah, blah, blah..."
He must have teleported in. And he was acting like that little cartoon puppy who used to follow the big cartoon bulldog around, going "HeySpike, howzitgoing? Huh? Huh? Huh?"
Overzealous floor salespeople really tweak me. I ended up getting rid of this guy by telling him I already had one, but he wasn't getting the message that I didn't want him tailing me all over the store. He followed me almost all the way back up to the counter.
It's not like these guys know what they're doing, either. Ask one of them a basic computer question and it's like someone blew their buffers. They just kind of stand there and stutter like idiots until you get frustrated and walk away.
Stores like this should issue customers a little pager when they walk in. Press the button and help shows up (and not before). And they should actually train people to know what the heck they're selling.
Joseph Chernov of BzzAgent wrote this on the Spin Board:
You have repeatedly asked for others to enlighten you on ways that WOM makes sense. Several posters have replied with opinions and insight. Some of that information complements your argument; some counters it. Yet each time someone challenges your case, you dig your heels in to defend yourself.So which is it? Do you want to discuss this very interesting subject or just prove yourself "right"?
Both. That's what this board is all about. Spin writers put an opinion out there and the topic is debated openly on the Spin Board. I'm doing my best to respond to the points as they're coming up, but there's only one of me and several of you. (And pretty soon, my lunch hour will be over and I'll be done posting until I get off the clock at my day job.)
As far as this thread goes, I haven't seen much that would change my opinion. I am keeping an open mind, though.
Of course I'd dig my heels in to defend myself. This isn't Marketing Happy Talk Hour. This is about making an assertion and having a conversation. But the conversation is debate style. Think I'm full of crap? Then challenge my assertions with some citeable facts and thoughts of your own, but don't ask me to stop defending my assertion in the first place. It wouldn't produce any meaningful dialogue if I just rolled over and played dead, right?
Jeff Jarvis had it right. There is no end of inventory. But that doesn't stop The Wall Street Journal from looking like it's a hop, step and a jump behind the conversation regarding the long tail.
It's one of my biggest frustrations about the online media business - Too many media planners believe that the "Big Three" are where the only action is because they're the biggest, traffic-wise. Either they believe that deals with smaller sites aren't worth the trouble or they fail to realize that aggregating huge chunks of their target audiences in one place is no longer a prerequisite of doing business. Or they like seeing their ad on the home page of Yahoo just like they like seeing their commercial in the Super Bowl.
Whatever.
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