Archive for October 8th, 2011

October 8th, 2011

Creative Economy and Steve Jobs: NYT Business Day

by PaulM

Mr. Jobs’s legacy will be ‘the blending of technology and poetry. It’s not about design per se; it’s the poetic aspect of the entire enterprise.’

James B. Stewart today writes about Steve Jobs’s passion for great design in a long article in the Business Day section of the NYTimes. If you want to know what I mean when I use the term “creative economy,” this article captures the meaning better than most of what I’ve read about the creative economy. It’s not about “the arts”—it’s about a way of seeing the world through the dual lens of ideas and emotion and doing things that haven’t been done or haven’t been done better up to now. Read the article here, and get the NYT if you want more.

“Most people underestimate his grandeur and his greatness,” Gadi Amit, founder and principal designer of New Deal Design in San Francisco, told me. “They think it’s about design. It’s beyond design. It’s completely holistic, and it’s dogmatic. Things need to be high quality; they have to have poetry and culture in each step. Steve was cut from completely different cloth from most business leaders. He was not a number-crunching guy; he was not a technologist. He was a cultural leader, and he drove Apple from that perspective. He started with culture; then followed with technology and design. No one seems to get that.”

 

October 8th, 2011

In the Merrimack Valley: Media Empire Building to Our North?

by Marie

The Nashua Telegraph has an interesting article this morning about a former GOP Senate candidate’s plan to build a new media empire across the New Hampshire landscape – even dipping down into the Massachusetts end of the Merrimack Valley. The hot times of a New Hampshire presidential primary season may be a big help toward his goal. The recently launched  station WBIN – owned by  former Republican U.S. Senate candidate Bill Binnie – has also launched its own nightly news program. The station will co-sponsor the upcoming Republican presidential debate at Dartmouth College  on October 11, 2011 .

To create this media empire Binnie and his Carlyle One Media group has purchased several low-power stations and transmitters throughout the state as well as station WZMY – the Derry, NH  station that is a definite part of the Boston media market – the seventh-largest in the country.

Locals might remember that before it was WZMY, it was WNDS. That’s  the station that made meteorologist and quirky personality Al Kaprielian a household name in New Hampshire and beyond. Kaprielian is heard locally these days Monday through Saturday with weather forecasts and chatter on WCAP/980AM. WNDS was for a while  a partner at the Lowell Folk Festival. On another local note – WZMY had a camerawoman and a reporter on scene canal side  in Lowell last Monday to cover the Congresswoman Niki Tsongas endorsement of Elizabeth Warren in the US Senate Democratic primary.

How will the Binnie plan fair in this market dominated for a longtime by WMUR? In the article Gary O’Neil, principal at 02 Creative Energy in Manchester and a longtime New Hampshire advertising executive notes:

“His strategy of getting in between WMUR and Boston is a good one, because if you look at growth areas and growth patterns, it’s southern New Hampshire and Middlesex and Essex counties in Massachusetts,” O’Neil said. “That’s a huge population with a really good income.”

Binnie has already lured some WMUR staffers on board as well as other media veterans. Stay tuned as this media move plays out to our north and in the lower Merrimack Valley.

Read the full article by Kathleen Callahan here at nashuatelegraph.com.

 

October 8th, 2011

Virginia Postrel on Steve Jobs

by PaulM

I picked this up from Cliff at Right Side. Virginia Postrel writing on bloomberg.com. A good read on Steve Jobs’ influence. For more of Cliff, go here.

October 8th, 2011

Leymah in NYT Today: ‘The World Is Upside Down’

by PaulM

Today’s NYTimes includes an article by Meredith Hoffman about Leymah Gbowee and the Nobel Peace Prize.  Leymah heard the news while in New York promoting her book, “Mighty Be Our Powers.” Read the NYT report here, and get the paper if you want more.