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Four days in and I really do like Quartz. I like the catchy categories like “Energy Shocks,” and “Low Interest Rates,” and “Modern States.” I like the simple and clean look. And I like the ease of navigation on my iPad and my iPhone5 (just had to throw that in—kinda like a middle school student who inserts, n’est pa? at the end of sentences, because, well, n’est pas?).

It has its quirks and bugs to work out (some bylines show up with name and “Today at Invalid Date”). It runs a tad slow compared with other sites on my devices (today). But they are smart people and wil More...

My grandfather passed away many years ago at the ripe old age of 88. He left a legacy that included perpetual fruitcakes (not referring to my brother, but to a multi-year post-death pre-paid Christmas delivery of doorstop cakes to everyone in the family).  

This happening in the 1980s gave the family an annual holiday giggle and we wondered why grandpa did this (was it a six-year special or a legacy joke?). Since this was pre-Internet and, most likely, pre-credit card renewal, grandpa, likely wrote a check, mailed it and ultimately balanced his checkbook (a real book).

Which gets me to 2012 and other types of legacies. How about the legacy subscription? I spent an hour Saturday morning trying to cancel More...

Did you see the new Apple Newsstand magazine called Huffington.? Arianna (I don’t know her but that is how she signed the introductory editor’s letter so I guess we are on a first name basis) tells us that “Huffington’s content will emphasize the rich—and richly rewarding—interactions that come from uninterrupted time spent in the company of creative minds.” Oh, dear. That grand statement comes after a 2-page ad for Prius V that, because as in true print magazine format, Huffington. must be read vertically (no turning of yo More...

Journalists get a bum rap these days if they don’t “write for the Web” in an optimized manner, or if they write stories that are too long and detailed (I still miss the twenty-page profiles of Amazon butterflies in The New Yorker from decades past).

There are just too many rules about writing, these days. We have all of the Twitter-pated editors and publishers spewing out 140-word stuff, which is sometimes nonsense (I am guilty of this, too—felt kind of dumb last weekend, so I tweeted about the weather).

So I guess—as a businessperson with a J-degree—I pity the journalist who is being bombarded with figuring out ways to make a buck. It used to be that they could write smart things and the sales folk w More...

It’s 6 p.m. on a typical Monday and my office e-mail box has logged in 110 e-mails today. As is true of most workdays, about 20 percent of them were from people or businesses I knew or people or products I want to know. The rest were solicitations or introductions from those who shall be know as the “deleted mob.”

I’m not complaining, mind you . . . I can tie a chunk of my own compensation to efficient and targeted e-mail as can most modern day publishers. We live by the marketer who wants to use our qualified readers to target, often in some sort of adjacency to content. But does anyone else think it’s just gotten out of hand?

Here are just a few of the things that some publishers are doing today that re More...

For 35 years—mostly living in Manhattan—I have owned a car. This past weekend I gave up my car at lease-end and did not replace it. I realized that in four years I hadn’t driven 9,000 miles and the cost and annoyance of owning was not worth it. I could rent when needed.

I decided to use the cathartic experience to think of what else I don’t need (another glass of wine…well…). Could I give up magazines? I’m a magazine junky (I've had a New Yorker sub since 12). I counted. I get 28, mostly monthlies, meaning likely 300 issues in my mailbox each year. It’s staggering and impossible to get through.

Then I thought about my day and what I do. My i More...