text:
San Diego dining scene getting better?
Matt Gordon of Urban Solace fame seems to think so:
There is no explanation in the whole article why the San Diego food scene is now better then for example 5 years ago beside Matt stating his opinion without any facts. In addition, his restaurants are successful but part of it is based on the food which is good but nothing special and which wouldn't work as good in for example LA or SF. Based on this if you count more successful burger places than 5 years ago as a better dining scene in SD he is correct but if you go beyond your standard SD menu the dining scene got worse over the last few years.
re: honkman
It's total B.S.
Comparing Linkery or ETIEZ to places that source from standard distribution networks is an apples-to-oranges comparison. Lots of restaurants in San Diego do well, Jay never claimed otherwise.
re: honkman
Good point...when I stop seeing these weekly "San Diego is getting better or San Diego is now a foodie town" articles or posts, then I will know the San Diego dining scene HAS improved dramatically. I've never seen a top 10 city so insecure about its status.....if you have to talk about it all the time, it tells you something---like the guys in college who talked about getting laid yet didn't vs. the ones who never talked about it but did.
re: El Chevere
That's a reasonable view of it, but I'm not sure what was in it for Matt to write that. It obviously is a counterpoint to this interview with Jay from last week (not sure it was covered here):
I don't think Jay was that negative; it sounded like "it is what it is".
re: El Chevere
My, what an EXCELLENT analogy! lol.... But you're right. We are perpetually on the junior varsity team of the food scene. We have food trucks, so that's a new wrinkle, but it seems like every time we get a Farmhouse or god rest it's soul, a Region, they only last for glimmer in time, then poof! They die like a falling star.
At least we have good beer.
re: Dagney
Food trucks - don't most of them pretty much do the brewery tasting room circuit these days?
re: RB Hound
Well, yeah. Sigh.
re: honkman
Have to agree, I haven't seen much change in the last 5 yrs+/-. I don't put much stock in the health care cost issues either, most places keep jobs as part-time and will keep the employee counts below 50. As for improving well, the exception are burgers and beer, we cant be topped!
I'd still like to see better seafood, Indian, Greek, Peruvian, Lebanese, even Italian options.
Oh, and if you want to charge $$$ for a burger, it better be something. I've eaten $40. burgers in NYC and enjoyed them because they had some good quality in them, not because we were in NYC. Just don't think you can charge me that just because we're in SD, it won't work.
re: Tripeler
No. Just no. I know where you are going with this, but don't even think about it, Tripeler.
re: RB Hound
+1 to that
re: DiningDiva
A tip of the fedora to you both...
re: Tripeler
Maybe different hat styles, no?
re: Tripeler
they expanded way too aggressively. they honestly have great concepts and usually great execution, but they need to work on customer service and quality control of what they already have..
re: jsabalos
Actually, I have never been to any of them, but was always amused by the stories about Chef Malarkey.
Why does it matter if the dining scene is "getting better"?
Better than what? And who cares?
Will you be taller, more beautiful, smarter because your hometown is now officially a "better" dining destination?
Isn't the more important, and relevant, question whether you enjoy dining and eating out in San Diego?
I, for one, do.
Is it the greatest food city in the country? Probably not, but that can't possibly be the goal, or point of reference.
If a person is not happy with the dining scene, hoping that it gets "better" (whatever that may mean) will not necessarily make that person more personally content with dining and eating out in the city.
re: ipsedixit
If nothing is better than anything else then why discuss restaurants at all?
re: Fake Name
What's better: a loaf of country levain from Bread and Cie or a loaf of Wonder Bread?
I don't recall your complaints about Brooklyn Girl being phrased in a way where you said your meals were hunky dory. If you're describing bad meals then you are indeed indulging in the tacky practice of having opinions and making judgments.
If nothing is better than anything else then shut down Chowhound and let's just eat at Carl's Jr.
re: cstr
Can anything be objectively true? Because when people claim that nobody can say if one thing is better than another thing you're essentially saying that truth is nothing more than opinion.
I'm not asking if there are people who prefer Wonder Bread to artisanal loaves - I'm asking if one can say that the artisanal loaf is objectively better as a thing to eat.
re: Josh
"Can anything be objectively true?"
Certainly, math is one place, science another. But is the Mona Lisa better than "Nude Descending Staircase?"
I've enjoyed reading Ian Fleming more than Thoreau, which might make me an idiot, but to me, it was better.
Can't declare a winner.
Wasn't it you who pointed out many years ago that each CH post should include, in some silent way, the words "in my opinion?"
re: Fake Name
Is food the same as art?
re: Fake Name
" math is one place, science another" - That's certainly not correct, the results of the majority of science experiments can be interpreted in very different ways and come to very different conclusion.
Coming back to your example of Ian Fleming and Thoreau - you might like personally Fleming more than Thoreau but if you ask a large majority of experts in a specific field and they overwhelmingly clearly can point put why somebody is better than somebody else I think it is fair to say that this author for example is better than somebody else. Wouldn't you agree also in your field of work that if you show photographs of a well known professional photographer and just somebody who starts taking pictures that a large majority of experts in your field could clearly lay out why the photos of the professional photographer are objectively better. That's doesn't mean that there might not be some particular photo of the beginner which you might like more. The same can also be said in the field of food, e.g. Addison is objectively better than McD
re: honkman
If you put one photographer's body of work against another of less experience and talent, I'd agree.
But if you put two images side-by-side and asked to choose one or the other, I might pick the less-experienced photographer.
And then..did I tell you Ansel Adams bores me to tears? Technically, a master- no doubt, the guy was a wizard. By all the objective criteria, he's amazing.
And bores me.
re: ipsedixit
IMO, *hoping* it gets better might not improve the dining scene, but acknowledging that there's room for improvement could be a good first step in actually improving it.
The piece wasn't generally about how nice it is to live in San Diego all things considered. It was a specific discussion of the dining scene.
I love living in San Diego, but I've had enough dining experiences in those other places to which it is presumably being compared to arrive at the conclusion that it could improve and think it would be great if we came closer to those standards.
Am I any less happy with myself or my life because we're not there yet? No. Will I be happier with the dining scene when we are? Absolutely.
re: RB Hound
You may have missed your calling, RBH...
re: RB Hound
You forgot the important harmony between those lines:
[But I can't complain!]
Here is my true lithmus test. of when you will know San Diego has 'arrived'...if you moved away from San Diego or lived elsewhere but visited San Diego on business or pleasure, is there a restaurant or two you actually anticipate what you are going to eat a week before you arrive and cannot wait to eat at and have your expectations met??
I can honestly say if I moved away from San Diego there is not one place that would have me working up my appetite a week before a return visit....I travel a lot and can tell you when I visit Vancouver, I cannot wait to eat at Vij's; when I visit SF, I cannot do without Delfina; when I visit Seattle I cannot wait to visit Metropolitan Grill; when I visit Portland, I cannot wait to eat at Caffe Mingo.
Not saying there are not good places I enjoy here, but not enough and/or "wow" places where I anticipate and cannot look forward enough to dining at a particular place.
re: El Chevere
re: Fake Name
Taking Ms Name to either place for V day?
re: El Chevere
Great point, and I actually experienced this very thing last weekend. I had to travel to SD for a day and had rented a car for my visit. I was only in town for a few hours, around lunchtime, and couldn't think of a single place that I felt compelled to eat at. Early in our residency in SF I would have been craving Mexican food, but now that we've found really great spots for that here it's taken the shine off of what was once SD's trump card.
All was not dark, however. Bird Rock Coffee Roasters had some outstanding coffee that rivaled anything I've had here.
re: El Chevere
Good point but I would say it has to be more than one or two places until a city has "arrived". Even in SD are places like George's with TBL3 (or Blanca under Schmidt or Neroni) which we would always looking for to visit if we would live somewhere else but still it's not enough to define the city as "there"
re: honkman
definitely agree with you about more than 1 or 2 places per city....just threw up some places off the top of my mind...trust me--in PDX, SF, and NYC there are a number of places....perhaps someday SD will get there....but not yet.
re: El Chevere
Here is my true lithmus test. of when you will know San Diego has 'arrived'...if you moved away from San Diego or lived elsewhere but visited San Diego on business or pleasure, is there a restaurant or two you actually anticipate what you are going to eat a week before you arrive and cannot wait to eat at and have your expectations met??
I think we have to careful here, and be clear what we mean by "arrived" as a dining scene, or even a good food city.
There is a difference, and not an insignificant one, between a good food city for a tourist/visitor versus a good food city for a resident.
Even with your standard litmus test above, I don't think it captures the quiddity of what defines a city as having "arrived" for purposes of culinary excellence. While your test may work for places like NYC, SF, etc., it is overinclusive in the fact that there restaurants in, say, Nashville that I personally as a visitor yearn to return to (e.g. The Catbird Seat or Husk) but at the same I also think it would be a inapt to call Nashville a city that has "arrived" in terms of culinary excellence. And I say all of this about Nashville being a strong, strong advocate of Nashville as a wonderful dining city. But arrived? In the sense of a SF or NYC? No.
But even without a litmus test -- or really any hard and fast brightline rule -- I think most of us can agree that cities like NYC or SF are great dining destinations for tourists and visitors.
And we can probably agree, also, that San Diego is not.
But this is the point where we have to be careful, and be explicit in what we are talking about.
Do we want San Diego to be a "better dining destination" for tourists? OR for its residents?
I, for one, vote for the latter.
But the common riposte at this point is usually that a good food city for tourists is also, by logical if not factual extension, also a good one for its residents.
I think that's too glib.
Take NYC for example. Undoubtedly one of the finest dining destinations in the world, and a culinary gem in the United States. With the likes of EMP, Per Se, Le Bernardin, Ko, Masa, etc., tourists flock to Manhattan just to eat. And rightfully so.
But if you ask many of the residents (and I have, as I have many friends and colleagues who live there and I find myself in NYC more often than I care to admit), most of them don't go the above-mentioned restaurants all that often -- if at all. Michelin restaurants are sort of like Disneyland for LA folks, or maybe Sea World for San Diegans. It's primarily for tourists. Like the fine china you break out when you have company over for dinner.
EMP these days is more restaurant cum amusement park than it is just a pure restaurant. Which doesn't mean that it's not good (because it is outrageously fabulous) but it is event dining qua entertainment. The majority of NYCers don't really ever dine at EMP, if at all. No one really has the time, and if they did, they probably don't have 8 or 9 bills for a dinner for two there.
Sadly, most residents of Manhattan actually eat out at mediocre, nondescript restaurants that are just like the ones San Diegans all complain about, and lots of them end up at bodegas buying takeout and eating gloppy veggies from chafing dishes sitting under heat lamps.
So if you were to ask me whether SD is a better food city than NYC for *its residents* my answer would be "hell yes". We get fresh, local produce year round at bargain basement prices -- try doing that in NYC. Heck, try buying an apple during a snow storm like the one they had yesterday. Good luck with that.
And don't even get me started on the weather. Where else in the world (maybe Santa Monica) can you grab a paleta and stroll along the beach in 80 degree weather in mid Feb? That alone makes SD a better food city than about 50% of the places in the country.
People visit SD for the weather and the beaches, as well as they should. They will never come here just to eat. We should just sort of accept that. But at the same time I think we should all cherish the fact that SD -- for all of its restaurant issues, of which there are many -- it's a pretty damn good place to live AND eat. Which I think is probably a more important metric (at least for me) than whether SD is a good food city for tourists/visitors.
(Off to Julian to pick up some pie!)
re: ipsedixit
I disagree pretty much on everything you wrote and it is boils down to what you expect from a food city. There is no difference for me if I evaluate a city about food indepently if I am a resident or a tourist. I go to the same types of restaurants if I live in SD or would live in NYC, LA or SF with the difference I can't do it in SD because SD simply doesn't have the quality and depth of restaurant I would visit on a weekly basis, e.g. high end, some "bistro-style", and ethnic ones. SD is a great city to live in if you exclude food.
re: honkman
The last line should be "if you exclude restaurants". Our food compares quite well - most of my New York friends would kill to have access to the same quality of produce.
Yes and no. For restaurants like Urban Solace, the restaurant scene has improved. There are a number of restaurants at that mid-level of restaurant that are growing and improving. And I do think that Jay Porter did a lot of good to the local restaurant scene, especially in promoting local farms and produce.
What San Diego doesn't do especially well is the ultra fine dining. My wife and I were in Chicago for Christmas, and as a Christmas gift to each other, we had a meal at Blackbird, where the chef has been nominated for a James Beard award pretty much every year for the past 10 years (the meal was 7 courses and was fantastic). We don't have any restaurant producing a meal that you'd save up for.
re: jmtreg
I had a damn fine meal at Georges last week that I'd put against just about anywhere, and I'd sure as hell would have to save up for it.
But I understand and share your point.
Let me add- as shown by my selections, the flavors I crave most don't correlate to expensive- just remarkable.
re: jmtreg
People are saying that the mid-level restaurant scene has improved over the last 6-7 years in SD but I don't see it. Some restaurants have replaced existing ones but at the same time the menus of the existing ones have become more mainstreamed and boring (only exception is the improved Napoli-style pizzeria scene in SD)
re: honkman
I can tell you that, from discussion I've had with people who owned "mid-level" restaurants in the center city area, the amount of money that customers spent in those restaurants declined notably starting with the crash in 2008 and continuing for several years afterwards. Bistros that had $40+ guest spend averages (which is computed before tax & tip) in 2007-08 were finding that their guests were spending more typically $25. (Remember, this is an average, not any one person.) That shift has obviously had an effect on the menus, formats, ingredients, and product mix of center city restaurants. Also I think it's why, even for mid-level bistro places, you see them expanding/moving to North County Coastal, where it may be possible to keep check averages up higher (cf Solace, Cucina Urbana, and now potentially Farmhouse).
To oversimplify a bit, basically a $40+ per person spend is kind of the minimum average you need to do a good mid-level bistro with the kind of offerings and quality that, for instance, posters on this board would appreciate. And you need to be busy with customers while keeping that average high. When a market can't support those numbers, you're going see a lot operators explore other business models, the kinds of places that have become familiar now in central SD: bar-centric venues; counter-service casual; flour (pizza/pasta/ramen) based menus; burgers; beer. Given that the options are limited for operators in the area, I think central SD restaurants are acquitting themselves pretty well and doing amazing work given the constraints they operate in.
That said, a bunch of other bistro-style restaurants may figure out the code for how to get the margins they need in central SD (for instance, Smoking Goat may start a trend in that way). So it's not like what's happened the last few years needs to define the future. But I think that's why the ecosystem has changed in the way that it has.
[One quick edit, there are couple ways to calculate guest spend average, in this post I'm using the lower way. For restaurants that use the higher way, the numbers might be, say $50 and $35 instead of $40 and $25, I'm not totally sure. Basically the difference is if you include people who don't order a main dish, i.e., if they're coming in just for drinks or snacks or dessert. Restaurants usually pick the method depending on their own circumstances and goals.)
Enough already. There's never going to be agreement among CHs on this topic, or even on the metrics needed to discuss it.
El Chevere and ipsedixit got it right on their first posts on this thread. Enough said. Amen.
We are what we are in SD; we have what we have. The past is history and the future will arrive soon enough. Let's enjoy what we have today.
re: DoctorChow
If failure to arrive at consensus meant no discussion the internet would be about 9/10 smaller.
re: DoctorChow
This country could have internet that runs 100, 1000, even more times faster. Instead, we settle for crappy quality, just like San Diego settles for mediocre restaurants. :)
And Josh is wrong, because his message is too broad. He should say something like "discussion groups would be 99% smaller".
I think Jay nailed it. It's the economy, stupid - or something like that. We don't go out much at all, beyond grabbing crappy mall food after my daughter's skating practices, because I've been out of work for months. But hey - being able to rant on the Internet is pretty much free.
re: RB Hound
I agree with Jay the economy is a big part why we are struggling with the quality and diversity of restaurants in SD and that's why I am always surprised when people are so optimistic that the (mid-price) restaurant scene had improved (that doesn't mean that there are no good restaurants who try to do their best in this situation). But it is also frustrating to see how the life science industry ( which was one of the key industries in SD) has nearly imploded over the last few years (which was actually independent and prior of the financial crisis) and which is also one of the reasons why I don't believe that the situation will improve in thr next 3-5 years but more likely getting worse.
re: honkman
Those darned optimists at it again are they, honkmann? Making us think that there's nice places to eat in this culinary Chernobyl...
We'll show them, by gum! With our bottles of wine in our blenders and our Fine Dining Tasting menus!
Or just go to Starlight and pretend to like the good-for-nuthin' food.
re: SaltyRaisins
If they would have better cocktails... More recently Lion's Share is becoming our late night stop - also good (bar) food as Starlite but much, much better cocktails
re: RB Hound
One thing that I found somewhat shocking as I drove around was the number of empty storefronts and "for lease" signs. Things definitely seem to be worse economically than they were a couple of years ago.
San Diego has absolutely great places for Thai food (Sab E Lee, Supannee), Japanese food (Wa Dining OKAN), taco's (Oscar's Mexican Seafood, TJ Oyster Bar) and a couple of good places for lunch and breakfast. What is lacks is restaurants that offer great creative dishes. Upscale restaurants tend to be unadventurous and somewhat conservative.
re: travelprof
"Unadventurous and somewhat conservative" describes San Diego to a T. Given our demographics, trying to improve the restaurant offerings is a severe challenge. I expect this to improve, however slowly, as the knock-on effects of better education and increasing high technology/high earning job growth spawns a greater number of adventurous and well-heeled diners.
Another shoutout to Jay for adding substance and metrics to the discussion.
re: MrKrispy
I just want to know why the heck in a large city with an abundance of Chinese and Indian people we still don't have a couple of fantastic or so-called "authentic" restaurants of those ethnicities.
At least with respect to Chinese, we do have the latter.
They're just not very good. And some are just awful. Terribly so.
re: MrKrispy
Some day, maybe.
I like the Chinese food at Mr. Chin's but wouldn't say that it's "fantastic".
re: ChrisVFoodie
"San Diego will be a foodie city in the future undoubtedly" - Good to know. What about the lottory numbers for this week ?
"The plethora and variety of cuisine will only be magnified by tourism" - Good point because tourism helped so far with getting better food in SD
"Let's hope this means increasingly amazing food here!" - Hope never dies, by the way I have a bridge to sell you
re: honkman
"It's all for naught."
re: honkman
I see SD more on par with Santa Barbara than being anywhere close to the food scene of LA or SF.
Dining scene?
Pssst, guy in the kitchen making $13/hr and paying down $60k in culinary school loans - don't look now, but the tattooed gent behind the bar making your girl a $12 cocktail? He's running the show. You had your fifteen minutes, scram.
If an operator can pay the two guys from Mumford & Sons $8/hr to bang out $2k worth of "burnt hair and linseed oil" martinis all night long, what's the point in taking on the cost (or risk) associated with a fancy chef? A couple of high-margin craft cocktails puts you halfway to the $40 spend Jay Porter discussed in this thread. A no-name chef de platos pequeños can bring it home with short ribs, burgers, truffle fries, mac-n-cheese, etc., etc. Again, why risk it when the mean streets of San Diego are littered with the memories of restaurants that actually thought their business was about the food.
This is why we will remain on the gerbil wheel of casual fare here in San Diego for the foreseeable future.
Dining scene? We have a bar/beer scene where food is pretty much served in order to maintain a license issued by the CA Dept. of Alcoholic Beverage Control.
re: Stiflers_Mom
I'll have one of you Gerbil Wheel Tapas and a glass of Merlot.
re: Fake Name
I see you're stepping outside your sphere of comfort, watch out for the merlot!
re: Fake Name
re: Beach Chick
Gawwwd this is funny, BC.
Too bad I had a mouthful of beer when I read it.
But the screen and keyboard wiped clean.
re: Tripeler
; )
Hopefully, it was a small mouthful of beer..don't want to go a wastin' good beer!
re: Beach Chick
Especially if it was localbrau...
re: DoctorChow
Actually, it was Worthy IPA from Bend, Oregon.
I live in Tokyo, so it certainly wasn't local.
A friend imports it, so I bought a case.
It is incredibly good.
But BC's post was so funny it was worth it.
Of course, Naked Fame's "Gerbil Wheel" was also hilarious.
re: Tripeler
Gosh Trip. . where were you when I was headlining at the Tick Tock Inn.
re: Beach Chick
Probably drinking a good Belgian Tripel someplace.
You do stand up?
re: Tripeler
I guess you weren't drinking a stout or porter, then. Maybe a nice Trippel? Uncle Karl's Four Scowling Owls? Green Flash's concisely named "Trippel"?
Edit: ooops, I should have read down before yapping.
re: Stiflers_Mom
A bit on the cynical side, but sadly at least partly true.
Fortunately, even though scattered, we do have enough restaurants with enough items on their menus to keep us busily chowing down on good stuff for a long while before repeating the same item at the same restaurant. For me anyway.
re: Stiflers_Mom
Aaaaaand...scene. Well put Stifler's Mom.
re: Stiflers_Mom
Gerbil wheel of casual fare...priceless.


text:
Things to see and do - Sicily
Leaving for Italy
Nearby hotels
Riviera from60 €Book
Hotel Plaza from34 €Book
Hotel Bristol from55 €Book
Things to do nearby
Palermo City Hop-on Hop-off Tour
- 20 €
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Messina City Hop-On Hop-Off Tour
- 15 €
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Palermo Shore Excursion: Hop-On Hop-Off Sightseeing Bus Tour
- 20 €
- Book
Hotel Tre Torri :
Nearby tourist sites
Nearby Restaurants
Demetra Resort
Cotation :
Type de cuisine : Italian
Re di Girgenti
Cotation :
Type de cuisine : Sicilian
Trattoria dei Templi
Cotation :
Type de cuisine : fish and seafood
Hotel Tre Torri
Hotel Tre Torri
Address : Viale Cannatello 7 I - 92100 Villaggio Mosè
from : 44 EURBook
Located a 5 minutes' walk from Villaggio Mosè centre, Tre Torri Hotel offers indoor and outdoor swimming pools and a sauna. The Valley of the Temples is just 3 km away. Hotel Tre Torri offers classic rooms with air conditioning and modern Italian furniture. The continental breakfast includes cheese, ham, and fresh fruit. The restaurant serves traditional Sicilian cuisine and fine wines. The air-conditioned dining room overlooks the sun terrace with swimming pool. The hotel is complete with a free gym, a ping pong table and a TV room. The Tre Torri offers free parking. San Leone and the seaside are a 10-minute drive away.
Useful Information
- Address : Viale Cannatello 7 I - 92100 Villaggio Mosè92100Villaggio Mosè
Main services
- Restaurant
- Air conditioning
- Non-smoking rooms
- Internet
- Animals allowed

subset: commoncrawl


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text:
I am [spoiler alert!] a woman. But women's magazines have nothing for me. They're great when I'm in the salon, but when it comes to reading magazines with bones, with guts, with something to say, the men take it every time.
I'm not talking about lad mags, those British imports from 15 years ago. I'm talking about "gentlemen's magazines": namely Esquire and GQ, but I also love Details, the dandier kid brother of the other two.
I have subscribed to these Big Three for years. I first started reading my father's Esquire when I was a teenager. Its commentary on music, film and literature was second to none, and its tone was hilarious. Plus it was so cleverly wrapped: a high-end glossy chock full of honest, no-nonsense stuff that I felt smarter for knowing. Sure, it was peppered with self-indulgent photos of female celebrities barely concealing their ladyparts. But to me, it was an obvious statement on American consumerism: that to get people to read smart content, you're going to have to sell it with sex.
My girlfriends were engulfed in the world of Self, Glamour and Marie Claire. Some of us even dabbled with Sassy, and later, Jane and Bust. They were the cool smart chicks of the bunch, but I always felt they were just...lacking. Sassy and Jane fell under (but Jane Pratt is going strong on xojane, and though Bust is still chugging along, its voice has gotten younger, cheekier and hipster. It may be the major magazine for a good pop-feminist read, but I've outgrown it.
Consider the sequence of a typical women's magazine: letters, trends, fashion spreads, maybe an interview with a celebrity, more on trends (fashion, beauty, exercise), some obligatory group of "light" recipes, along with a longer editorial on A Serious Topic like genital mutilation or being catfished by a prisoner. It's content crafted to make women feel guilty for not knowing what's hot, smart for knowing that this magazine will reveal it, then ashamed for not being able to afford whatever this magazine has revealed. It's cyclical, and it's boring.
I thought perhaps I was in the minority, being a woman who loves men's magazines. All of the Big Three's media kits boast audiences with 30 percent women, so I'm clearly not the only one. Do women read men's magazines differently from men? In a very unscientific survey (of my two brothers in their twenties and my friend Greg, in his forties), I asked what they liked about Esquire and GQ. My brothers prefer GQ and its fashion tips, the profiles of the women and food. Greg only reads Esquire. As he puts it, "Esquire is not about being a well-dressed, cool man. It's about being the best man you can be. And even though you can't necessarily glean any of that knowledge from a magazine, it does a valiant job of trying."
Men's magazines revolve around cultivating taste: fashion, music, film, books, food, celebrity, sports, cars and (in Details' case) design. They review where we've been and where we're going, culturally speaking. They'd do better to incorporate more female writers—Stacey Grenrock Woods is a shining example of excellent men's writing by a female and Jessica Pressler has pushed out some decent profiles for GQ. They don't always get it right, but the point is: they dare. Yes, they, like women's magazines, often commoditize gender and make money on reinforcing certain gender stereotypes. But they're just so glib about it. Where women's magazines champion us, trying to help us channel our inner sisterhood and answer our Burning Questions, men's wryly acknowledge that, like most Americans, they're just stumbling through this crazy mixed-up world, and even they don't have all the answers.
I have plenty of female friends who read women's mags because they're mindless entertainment, and I get that. More than anything, I'm an advocate of reading what you enjoy.
But that's just the point that men's magazines make: entertainment needn't be mindless.
Men's magazines don't curate culture; they curate content. They tell me what's going on culturally and how they feel about it. Women's magazines ignore what's going on, because they themselves don't know how to feel about it. They seem stunted, like the world is just too big for them to comment on—or worse!—that we won't appreciate a woman magazine's commentary on larger cultural paradigms. So women's magazines overcompensate for telling us nothing by telling us everything about nothing (the healing powers of purple fruits! animal prints!). Men's magazines have their share of frivolity, but they give me the thought stuff too—the national budget, war and PTSD, robotics, a profile of the Vice President. One of the best articles I read was Chris Heath's coverage in GQ about the massacre of the escaped exotic animals in Zanesville, Ohio. It was a tragic story brilliantly told; and the story of the war between GQ and Esquire competing for the story was just as good. Both magazines published accounts of tragedy; both had writers (Chris Jones for Esquire) on site in the same hotel chasing the same story; both ran in each's March 2012 issue. I read both articles voraciously, and came out in favor of GQ's coverage. To my happiness, GQ got an ASME nomination for its story; Esquire didn't.
That's the other thing I like about men's magazines: they're nominated for awards for their journalism, like actual awards, against giants such as The New Yorker, the Atlantic and Rolling Stone. GQ and Esquire are for literary-minded people, for people who care about the actual words on the page.
Women's magazines don't say anything interesting about the state of culture, they just buy into it. They don't have a sense of humor about themselves.
That's why I'm sticking with the men—they're funny, self-effacing and have some of the best editorial content around. None are offering the keys to the universe, but they have a good time trying.
Like most show managers, you probably view sponsorship sales as an opportunity to increase revenue for your event. As we all know, well-positioned sponsorships can enhance the look and feel of your event and, at times, impact attendee perceptions of your event. This is especially true when you think of banners in common areas that can impact how an attendee views your event before even setting foot on the showfloor.
In understanding the importance of sponsorships, are you thinking strategically about the development and fulfillment of your sponsor offerings? Have you taken a close look at your approach to sponsorship sales? Here are a few things you should consider before your next event:
• Have you reviewed your menu of opportunities recently? You should review your past sponsorship menu and pull off items that have run their course or that no one is buying. In this case, less really is more.
You should direct your customers to the items that are most popular and most profitable. You can always bring things out of the vault if there is an opportunity, but overall you should keep it simple.
• Have you recently reviewed your pricing model? Is it high or low, based on the health of your event and competitive set? Are you only charging rights fees, or are you positing your offerings as a turnkey program?
You never want to gouge your customers, but don't be afraid to publish your offerings at a premium. It is always easier to go down in price instead of up midway through a cycle.
You should strive to charge a "rights fee only" for as many of your offerings as possible to avoid variable costs like printing, materials and installation. If the customer wants a turnkey program, you need to charge a premium for that service, as it will require resources to fulfill.
• When creating a custom program for an exhibitor, what sort of elements do you include? Of course, you want to create an offering that meets the customer's specific needs, but consider adding elements that carry little additional cost to your event P&L.
This could include logos on kick panels, directory advertising, list rentals, publication distribution, blog posts, etc. If planned properly with enough lead time, you can leverage these low- or no-cost items and maximize your return.
• Often overlooked are programs and offerings for the smaller exhibitor. While not the big-ticket items, a few modest program offerings can drive new revenue streams from your customers with smaller budgets.
Take another look at your sponsor offerings and their price points. They can have a significant impact on sponsorship revenues at your next event.
Brian Pagel is a vice president at Emerald Expositions, where he runs The Kitchen and Bath Industry Show. Since re-joining Emerald Expositions (formerly Nielsen) in 2001, Pagel has also served as a vice president in the Decorated Apparel Group. A 15-year veteran of the publishing, convention and exposition industries, Pagel has also held senior account executive positions with Leader Publishing and Bill Communications. He can be reached at email@example.com...
While the evolution of the magazine media business often rests on the shoulders of experienced executives, the younger generation is a constant source of innovation and change.
Here at FOLIO:, we're always on the lookout for new ideas that change the way magazine publishers do business and in that spirit it's time once again to turn the spotlight on the younger set with our 15 Under 30 list.Â
With this annual recognition franchise, we profile selected rising stars and innovators across traditional publishing roles, never-before-seen positions in new lines of business, and market-shaping start-ups.
Last year's list featured a cross-section of talent responsible for ad ops, editing, technology and design.
Tell us who you think deserves to be on the list by filling out our simple online form. Our list-makers will appear in the October issue.
The only catch? All nominees must be younger than 30.
The deadline for nominations is August 30. Good luck and thanks for participating!
Given the changing landscape of content publishing, it's no surprise that a social media community like Pinterest has emerged as a power player for driving traffic, growing communities and fostering reader engagement. For some, Pinterest drives more than 20 percent of website traffic, topping legacy referrers such as Google and Yahoo. Others are seeing follower acquisition on Pinterest increase at a strong-and-steady 15 percent month-over-month. Recently I participated in a Pinterest webinar with social editors from Martha Stewart Living, Men's Health, Women's Health, and media agency Huge. Here are the five common themes that emerged.
1. Pin During Active Times
Rather than dumping 30 pins into Pinterest's news feed a couple times a day, use a tool such as Piqora or Curalate to schedule 10 to 12 pins across several time zones. This way, content is surfacing when users are most engaged. For example, when I shifted pin times for SELF, we were able to increase re-pins and click-through rates by nearly 30 percent.
2. Collaborate and Co-pin
Connect with on-brand partners, whether a celebrity cover star, a contributing blogger, a chef or an entertaining expert, on a co-branded board. You'll leverage the built-in followers from their Pinterest footprint and expand both profiles. Also consider organic co-pin opportunities with advertisers and brand sponsors. While "pin it to win it" contests are popular, look for meaningful ways to activate your most influential or active pinners. The goal is always more re-pins—they're like a simple yet powerful social "thumbs up."
3. Realize the Lifespan of a Pin
A pin lives longer than any other piece of social content. A Tweet can disappear within minutes, and thanks to Facebook's algorithms, a post might not even be seen by 70 percent of your audience. But with Pinterest, a site might experience a spike in traffic from content pinned 30 days ago.Â
4. Pinning Indicates Purchase Intent
In a recent survey, about 35 percent of users under 35 said that pinning led to a purchase and 24 percent said they found the item they eventually purchased on a stranger's board, not a brand or retailer. This suggests the power of a brand placement on an editorial board or, better yet, a Pinterest user's board. Your editors also play a role here when recommending a product on their personal boards. And it's worth thinking about what Pinterest can do for ad partnerships or value adds.
5. Leverage Insights to Inform Editorial Content
Take a cue from top-performing pins and incorporate them on your site, either within a newsletter or as a slideshow (with proper crediting back to the original source). You can also think of Pinterest as another avenue for A/B testing. Trying to decide whether to lead with a food or a fashion image? Look at the native Pinterest analytics or those within your third-party tools to help you make that choice.
A few weeks ago, we reviewed some of the things you can do with gift offers, especially within your own magazine, and it can be very easy to lose sight of what you are trying to achieve.
Offering a gift subscription is not the same as creating a house offer, although many people do fall foul of this. When creating a house offer, be it an off-the-page advertisement, blow in or bind in card, you are trying to sell the magazine to the person reading your promotion; when creating a gift offer, you are selling the idea of giving someone a gift-the offers are not the same.
Copy for a gift promotion should be about the product and why your gift will give pleasure to the recipient, so avoid words like "you" and use "they" instead. A little flattery never hurts either, so copy such as "...they'll thank you for your generous gift all year long" could certainly be in order. And gift acknowledgement cards sent to recipients are much prized by gift givers, so be sure you mention that you send them to recipients in the donor's name. It you have price savings for multiple gifts, be sure to mention that in your gift ad, as well as how to enter multiple orders by phone.
The gift offer should not be over-designed (actually, nothing should ever be over-designed, but you know what I mean). The important things on a blow in card are the "from" and "to" address boxes, an offer that is clear, concise, easy to understand and an uncluttered form. You do not need covers galore, in most cases you don't need a cover at all-which is just as well, because there is not much room on a card measuring 4.25 x 6 inches.
Because of the information you have to include on the form, avoid using too much reversed-out copy. Stock for blow in and bind cards can soak up ink like crazy and with fonts tending to be smaller size, you can end with a fuzzy mess on your hands. If you are running an advert in your magazine, just about the reverse is true. You can drop out copy because fonts are generally larger and the paper stock usually better.
Bind in cards can be stacked so that you can have at least two cards and even three gift cards if you wish. Design the bind in so the bottom of your card gets trimmed off. That means there is one less perforation you have to worry about. Your run-of-the-page advertisement, blow in and bind in cards do not all have to have the same design, they can all be different.
Recognize the difference between gift ads and house ads, otherwise you may lose out on a lot of orders and at a time of giving, who wants to do that?More...
How do you decide whether to bundle print and digital subscriptions? Some say that we need to stop offering separate print and digital subscriptions so the audience can get used to the idea of reading magazines digitally. Why? Because that's where we are moving and it's our job to get our readers comfortable with the idea that they can get the same value out of reading a magazine on a desktop, tablet or smartphone. So how do you decide what to offer?
Here, I'll discuss the different subscription models that we have at NewBay Media and the pros and cons of each; plus what we do to keep track of our digital circulation in all the different platforms in order to report them as qualified circulation in the BPA and AAM statements.
All of our Kindle, Nook and Google Play editions have a paid model. However, our Apple editions are more complex. We have 14 magazines with a paid model and 9 with a log-in for free activation.Â
Paid Model: Apps Only
Under this model the magazines do not offer a combined print/digital subscription offer. When we refer to digital under this model; we are only referring to digital on the Apple, Kindle, Nook or Google Play editions. This model is straightforward. We have 3 offers: Single copies, one-month and one-year subscriptions.
Pros: It's simple to execute. Offering one delivery method; subscribers get it on their smart devices. No programming expense to communicate with your subscriber database.
Cons: Subscribers complain about wanting a bundle subscription or they want to transfer their print subscription to a digital subscription on one of these devices.
Paid Model: Bundle
We currently have two magazines under this model. The subscriber is offered a print bundle that includes an all-access plan where they get the print, the desktop edition, iPad/iPhone edition and online access to the website. Or they can opt to get everything except the print.
Pros: Subscribers use the form that is attached to our database. We have a handle on how the offers are doing and how our audience is reacting to the print bundles versus the digital-only access.
Cons: There is a lot of programming that needs to be done up front to create a log-in process within the app that pings our database when a subscriber wants to activate an account. Sometimes the log-in process is not very user friendly, which results in higher customer service calls or emails in the first couple of months.
Free (Activation Required) Model: One-Year Subs Only
This is one of the most involved models. We currently have 7 controlled magazines that offer free access to the iPad/iPhone edition, but the subscriber needs to authenticate a print subscription. This model works almost identically to the Paid Bundle Model referenced above; with the difference that we only allow free access to those controlled one-year subscribers on the file at the time they activate their subscription.Â
This was set up with some programming between our fulfillment house and the app vendor. Immediate access is granted to one-year subscribers when they activate their iPad account. But two-year or older subscribers see an error message that tells them to fill out a form, available within the app. Once they fill out the form it feeds directly to our fulfillment database and grants access.
Pros: Our fulfillment house is able to flag the subscribers that activate their accounts and those that renew their subscription, which means we know exactly who those readers are. And we now have a new benefit to offer our readers to get them to requalify sooner.
Cons: The programming involved to get this to work properly. The log-in process asks for an email address to log in. If they don't have an email address on file with us then they need to contact customer service to have it added in order to grant them access.
As you can probably imagine, keeping track of all these apps and the different models takes time and a good detailed BPA approved report. That's why we had to invest many hours to create a report that provides all of this information in one place. The report has been set up to feed from the raw data provided by all the vendors and our goal is to supply this report to the auditors so they can have a one stop shop of all the data they need to verify the digital circulation for all of these platforms—and in turn reduce the auditing hours that this will likely bring. As of today, we have BPA's approval on the report, but we will not know how good it is until it passes through an audit. I'll be sure to let everyone know how it does. Â
Next Time:
I'll talk about metric reports, what they should have and why they are important to almost everyone in the company.
Until then…
Back in 2005, I proudly debuted my first audience database for a b-to-b media company focused on residential construction. Working with our fulfillment company, I'd pulled together all the subscribers from forty-some magazines and email newsletters into one consolidated database.
"Look at this!" I told the sales and marketing groups working with surveys and events and webinars. "Rather than just pull a list for our home builder magazine versus our remodeler magazine versus our architect magazine, we can identify all the builders and remodelers and architects we reach across all our products."
The response was pretty much:
"Wow, that's great! But for this particular effort, we only want to focus on remodelers. So let's just use the remodeler magazine list."
Yes, for all our hype about audience integration, many b-to-b marketers still think of audience as a mailing list or email list for each product and brand. Maybe it's because we've done such a good job of establishing brand identity for advertisers—"If you want to reach Group A, you have to use our Magazine A!"—that we find it hard to look beyond brand and see our audience as one pool of customers whom we touch through multiple channels.
Even many of the new integrated database systems being offered by fulfillment and email vendors focus on audience as a collection of lists. I've worked with several systems that simply compile multiple lists, so that an individual involved with several products ends up with multiple separate records. Yes, those individual records are matched up, so when you combine lists you'll get a de-duplicated total. But the database is essentially just a big merge-purge, with no real integration of the records.
That type of database is sometimes called a "unified" structure, as distinguished from an "integrated" structure that builds a single consolidated record per individual. On a practical level, you can see the difference in the actual process of building a selection. Can you start by selecting all customers with a particular characteristic—everyone in certain states or with a valid email—regardless of what list they are in? Or must you always start by selecting List A and then List B and then List C, and combining the three for a de-duplicated total?
Both approaches have their advantages. A unified database is generally simpler to set up and manage. The structure makes it very easy to add new lists from multiple sources—a big help for media companies struggling to combine contacts and registrations from different channels. You don't have to map each new source to update a consolidated individual record, with endless business rules for when one mailing address should override another or which business demographics have priority.
The "list first" query process of a unified structure also matches the way many of us think about list selection. In fact, if all you really need from your audience database is the ability to create targeted lists for promotions, a unified database will more than meet your needs—and probably cost substantially less in both time and money.
However, if your company is looking beyond easier list creation, and hopes to move into the big data world of communication and advertising targeted by individual behavior, then a simple unified list of lists won't take you too far. You will need a true integrated database structured around the individual audience member, with a single record that ties together all of that individual's registrations and history and activity.
I think most b-to-b media companies are still struggling to find big data business models that work in our small industry-specific niches. Most don't need a true integrated audience database right now. But if you are picking a database solution today, keep in mind the structure you may need tomorrow.
One of the great promises of digital journalism is that it breaks down barriers between publications and readers.
Consider print: You publish a story, wait for the reader emails to arrive, choose the most interesting, run a fraction of those (heavily edited for space) in a letters-to-the-editor section, then wait for readers to see your selections in their next encounters with your magazine or newspaper. (If that sounds cumbersome, recall that as recently as two decades ago those letters came not by email but as dead-tree contributions.) Sometimes even the best letters can be confusing to readers, since they respond to articles that may have been read days or weeks ago—if they were read at all.
Now consider digital: You publish a story, make it possible for readers to write comments that appear directly beneath the article, and encourage them to respond to each other as well as to the author of the piece. All in real-time; at Atlantic sites, as at other web properties, comments typically start appearing minutes after a story is published. The average post may attract a dozen or two comments, but it's not at all uncommon for a post to have hundreds. Or (less commonly) thousands.
At their best, comment threads can put topics in a new light, stir discussions, create community, even uncover new talent. Richard Lawson, now a senior writer at The Atlantic Wire, rose through the Gawker ranks from anonymous commenter to star writer. At The Atlantic, senior editor Ta-Nehisi Coates had a particularly incisive commenter who went by the handle Cynic. We thought his observations in the comments section were so good that we asked him to contribute to the site under his own name. Now Yoni Appelbaum, a doctoral candidate at Brandeis, writes for us on everything from the Civil War to presidential politics to Amtrak.
Of course, commenters frequently are not at their best. Too often, comment sections are cesspools of vitriol, magnets for haters and trolls and spammers. Threads get hijacked so they are only tangentially connected to the topic of the underlying post. The lack of friction—mere seconds elapse between furious keystroking and posting to the world—can privilege snark over enlightenment.
The main issue here is whether comments create such a negative environment that they detract from the reading experience, a proposition to which many would answer yes. But some researchers fear the problem is deeper than that. A study by professors at the University of Wisconsin-Madison found that people who read a neutral article about nanotechnology followed by uncivil comments were more likely to perceive risks with the technology than people who read the exact same article with civil comments appended. The alarming implication here is that the comments affect how readers understand the journalism.
So what's a publisher supposed to do in the standoff between the world of good and bad comments? Some are, understandably, giving up. The ABC affiliate in Washington, D.C., became so exasperated by the "mean-spirited, and at times hateful comments" that last month it pulled the plug. "These comments provide no value to our readers and are time-consuming to moderate," wrote the station's director of new media.
There's the rub. It takes a lot of moderating time to foster a positive commenting section. Writers or editors have to jump into the conversation to keep it on track, or to mete out justice by removing comments or even banning the worst offenders. It's nice to think we'll just let a thousand flowers bloom; in reality the garden needs to be weeded. But who's got the resources? Coates says that at one point he was spending as much time moderating his comments section as he was writing posts for the site. That's untenable—though, it must be said, Coates's hard work created a terrific environment for readers and for himself. (When Ta-Nehisi won a National Magazine Award earlier this year for his magazine essay, Fear of a Black President, he thanked his commenters for the good suggestions they had made as he reported and wrote the piece.)
So if you believe—as I do—that comment sections can be good when aggressively moderated, but you don't —as we don't—have the human resources to undertake that moderating, what's the answer? There are software solutions out there, like up/down voting systems that privilege the "best" comments by promoting them higher in the thread. Likewise, publishers have tried various star systems to reward the best commenters and algorithms to identify and promote Most Favored Commenters, so the good stuff stays at the top and the bad stuff recedes. Some sites require commenters to register with their real names, a solution that can certainly promote civility but has its own costs.
At The Atlantic, we're also trying something more radical. Earlier this year, we deputized two of Coates's most faithful readers, giving them the keys to the site and assigning them to moderate his comments. They have the power to discipline and even ban. Ta-Nehisi says he chose readers who are "wise" and who had already "done the work of moderating by cooling down threads that were on the cusp of becoming knife fights." The verdict: So far, so good. We're watching this experiment closely, wondering if it can scale to other parts of our sites.
There's an argument, of course, that in the age of social media, traditional commenting threads are archaic. If the purpose of a comments section is to foster discussion by amplifying reader feedback to an article or column, certainly much of the worthwhile discussion is taking place on Facebook and Twitter, not just at the bottom of a post. So a better system might integrate social media with traditional commenting.
New technologies and creative thinking will no doubt combine to build a better commenting system. In the meantime, publishers and readers alike have to decide whether our current imperfect system adds or subtracts to the journalism.
You buy a home and you get insurance to protect it. You buy a car and immediately sign up for insurance coverage. But, how many web publishers are insuring their content, which is their most important asset? The stark truth is none, or at least very few.
I'm not referring to insurance that protects media companies from hackers stealing their information or people re-using content on their own websites without permission. Rather, I'm talking about publishers making sure they're not losing money on every page view and that they're getting the most out of every site visit.
I've heard Steve Horowitz, COO of Ziff Davis, liken visitors coming to websites as a game of "Plinko for publishers." Users come in, bounce around and fall into a slot. If the chip falls correctly, they land in the $100 slot, but, more often than not, it's the $1 slot. It's a complete game of chance. And this is a very risky game, now more than ever, as publishers and marketers find themselves shifting more of their budget from SEO to traffic acquisition.
Risky why? SEO has helped publishers yield readership for more than a decade. The rule was you spend a $1 on SEO, and you could predict the return. The recent changes in search algorithms (e.g., Panda and Penguin 2.0) have turned this upside down for publishers, effectively shaking this very predictable model to its core. Enter content marketing and other direct traffic-acquisition models. While these new techniques are a more stable and predictable way for publishers to spend money on readership acquisition, they're also producing smaller margins.
To succeed in the Plinko analogy, publishers need to do their due diligence before acquiring readers and bringing them to the site to ensure they'll remain engaged once they get there. This includes optimizing them for engagement, and instituting a process to funnel visitors to their most valuable pages and sections. Without this forethought, they can quickly find themselves with a bleeding budget. Â
Here's an example: A publisher named someawesomesite.com gets traffic on their site organically. They make a $20 RPM from ads or other monetization strategies, which equates to 2 cents per page view. Each visitor spends about three pages per visit (PPV), which puts 6 cents into the publisher's pocket. If it costs them 4 cents to build their content and keep their site running, their profit is 2 cents or a 33 percent margin. Not bad.
But, if they are also buying some of their traffic, then this formula could quickly go sideways into the gutter of unprofitability. Think about this—6 cents in revenue, 4 cents in cost, and now 4 cents to purchase a visit? They just instituted a program that could cause them lose 2 cents on every visit. Ouch. This is actually a common occurrence within larger companies that have disparate teams responsible for purchasing traffic, operating the site and selling ad unit space.
So what about this insurance idea? How can publishers safeguard against losing money when rolling out their traffic-acquisition strategy? First and foremost, before any publisher decides to launch a traffic-acquisition program, they need to take a hard look at their website and figure out how to squeeze every ounce of engagement they can out of each visit. A/B testing must be employed to peer into the effectiveness of changes made to page architectures and layout, in addition to analyzing which content performs better than others. Are visitors drawn to video, slideshows or text articles with photos? What are they inclined to touch or click on to go deeper? Are in-content text links, interstitial or sidebar units effectively guiding readers to other high-quality pages? It must be balanced to ensure you're upholding a premium reader experience, yet tested to determine the best efficacy with the audience itself. Rinse and repeat when the analytical tealeaves show their pattern.
By optimizing their websites, publishers can ensure that their marketing dollars are stretched to the limit. The math starts getting better too. If our publisher someawesomesite.com can increase each user visit from three page views to four, the 2-cent loss they were seeing now turns to break even. And, if they can stretch this to 4.5 or five pages per visit (not impossible), they are back in the black.
Traffic acquisition should be one of several techniques to increase awareness of a publisher's website and generate page views. However, it's exceedingly important that publishers and marketers take the time to optimize their websites before they acquire traffic or they risk quickly losing money on every visit. In essence, insuring their content to protect their profits.
Here's the thing with Lauren Green's interview with Reza Aslan about his new book Zealot: The Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth that aired on FoxNews.com, which you've absolutely seen passed around Buzzfeed and Facebook like a cheerleader's slambook post-prom: It's 'gotcha' journalism. It wasn't meant to inform or engage (that is still the goal of journalism, right?). It wasn't meant to be thought provoking or to inspire debate.
FoxNews.com brought Reza Aslan on for an interview to boost ratings, period. He was asked that first question: "You're a Muslim, so why did you write a book about the founder of Christianity?" because it was incendiary. FoxNews knows who is not its audience as well as who is its audience, and if they're not going to make money off you for clicking a story because you like them, then they may as well make money off you for clicking a story because you don't like them. The network wanted a viral story, something with bite even if it had no teeth, because crazy press is bad journalism, and bad journalism equals good press, and all press leads to clicks, which leads to those sweet dollar bills, y'all. I mean, the first thing I thought was, "Craaaap... is Rupert really losing that much money?"
Aslan has over twenty years of experience researching religion and history. He is a graduate of Harvard Divinity School, putting him the ranks of those other rabble-rousers, Horatio Alger and R.W. Emerson. Saying Reza Aslan, a known scholar of religion, shouldn't write a book about Christianity because he's Muslim is like saying Paul McCartney shouldn't write a book about vocal harmonies because he's a guitarist. [Did that make sense to you? No? Good.]
Let's be honest: No one really cares that Reza Aslan wrote a book about Jesus even though Aslan is a Muslim. Murdoch doesn't care. Ailes doesn't care. Lauren Green didn't even care enough to read the second page of Aslan's book where he notes his Islamic faith. And the bravado with which she goes after him is alarming, considering that she herself is a Christian who, as noted by Eric Hananoki at Media Matters, frequently reports on Islam.
The people who care about the Aslan-writing-about-Jesus bit are those easily-manipulated, fear-mongering Americans, because FoxNews has told them to care, and it's spent a decade building an empire that depends on a good chunk of its audience being afraid of Muslims.
In an interview with John Oliver on The Daily Show, Aslan talked about who Jesus really was, in the context of his time: "... [he] stood up for the weak and the powerless, the outcast and dispossessed... [Jesus] went to the cross on behalf of these outcasts he was fighting for..."
According to Aslan, Jesus was a rebel badass. And FoxNews can't have you agree because FoxNews doesn't make money if you agree. Jesus loved the underdogs so much, that he went to bat for every single one of them. It's pretty hard to find controversy in a selfless Jesus, regardless of your religion. So instead, FoxNews switches the focus to the seemingly incongruous notion of a Muslim writing a book about Christianity. Otherwise, the network doesn't have a story, its audience doesn't have anything to get worked up about and the rest of the media has nothing to jump on.
So is FoxNews' crappy journalism a pretty genius marketing move? Only their ad team knows for sure. But given that Aslan's book just hit number two on the New York Times bestseller list, I'd bet they're happy to argue all the way to the bank.
If you're like most b-to-b publishers, you're delivering a PC-optimized Web experience in a soon to be post-PC world.
So it's time to migrate your website(s) to responsive design: Displaying content that arranges automatically based on the device and screen size of the viewer. Â This lets you provide optimal reading, navigating, and viewing from any device, from a desktop PC to a mobile phone.
In this post, I'll tell you about the transformation underway at GreenBiz to mobile-first, what we've discovered—and what we have yet to learn.
It's true that most b-to-b users are still using PCs to browse websites, but that's rapidly changing. In fact, PC shipments are forecast to drop 7.8% worldwide in 2013, IDC reports.
So it makes sense that Mashable declared 2013 the year of responsive design (conveniently announced shortly after launching its own responsive-design site). With the rise of technology to support multiple platforms, you'd think every publisher would have made the switch by now.
The diminishing clout of the PC is further highlighted by the dramatic rise in mobile traffic:
Tablets are clearly picking up ground. They have so far surpassed laptop sales in 2013, and are projected to outsell all PCs by 2015. And smartphones appear unstoppable, on pace to sell nearly a billion units this year.
At GreenBiz, our site has won awards for years. We want to continue winning awards, and so we are midway through a site overhaul, having drunk the Kool-Aid for adopting a mobile-first strategy. But like many things in life, what seemed like a no-brainer decision still presents a few challenges.
What we are finding:
1. Mobile Loves Pictures
Creating multiplatform news requires rethinking the role of images. In a desktop environment, our images are often an afterthought, stock photos providing a graphic complement to a largely text-based news item or blog post. On a mobile device, the feature image plays a larger role (literally) in drawing the reader into the article. Our editors are going to be spending more time thinking about images and how they contribute to telling the story across platforms.
2. Farewell My Leaderboard
Ad-serving technology is still playing catch-up to responsive design. There's just not a great solution for 728x90 leaderboards, and while you can use javascript code to swap ad tags based on device size, it's an inelegant solution with a decidedly workaround feel. But the 300x250 size is a happier story, as it works just fine across all platforms. And sponsored content is particularly well-suited for mobile.
3. Plug-Ins Need to Catch Up
Like a lot of publishers, we've added capabilities to our website that involve skinning third-party tools to appear native on our site. Things like our job boards, directories, e-commerce tools, and marketing automation, all neatly integrated into our site are going to stick out like a sore thumb when applied in a tablet or mobile phone environment. We're re-evaluating these vendors based on their mobile roadmap, and in some cases will be seeking new providers.
These are just a few of the challenges we've encountered, and as we near launch in the coming months there will undoubtedly be more. I'll keep you posted.
Brands get a lot of power from metrics, and everyone should take advantage of useful quantitative data. But although they're key indicators of brand health, page views and unique visits aren't everything. Social media should absolutely be part of your 360-degree view.
Why? Because social media creates a consumer narrative, telling you where users are coming from, what they're doing and what they're saying when they get there. This kind of qualitative data can fill gaps in your brand strategy.
A monitoring tool such as Adobe Social, Hootsuite, Chartbeat, or any of the Salesforce products (like Radian 6) will help you craft your social consumer narrative. And there are five critical metrics (often overlooked!) that you should focus on:
1. Social Referral Activity
Do your Twitter followers behave differently than Facebook fans once they land on site? For those coming in via Pinterest, are they consuming more pages than those who came in from Tumblr? Pinpointing what social followers are doing on-site allows you to anticipate consumer needs and will help inform your editorial calendar.
2. Quality of Your Followers
Sure, you may have 200,000 likes on Facebook, but how many of these users liked your page to get a deal or as part of a sweepstakes entry? (And complicating matters, less than 15 percent of them sees your Facebook posts thanks to Facebook Edge Rank). I'd argue that it's more valuable to have a small, highly engaged social following than a large, flat number-especially if advertisers want to see click-throughs, conversions and comments.
3. On-Site Social Engagement
Having a grasp on the most pinned, liked and tweeted content is important because it indicates what stories have the most virality. Include share buttons on slideshows and blog posts and pin-it buttons on all images. Encourage readers to share, comment, tweet and pin on every page. And when you discover something's hot, by all means, repurpose it: Consider leading your weekly newsletter with one of your most-pinned images, or incorporate copy from the most-tweeted blog post as part of a subject line, then monitor open-rates.
4. Share of Voice
How does your brand perform during a key moment in time? Whether it's a b-to-b trade show or a red carpet event such as the Oscars, is your brand surfacing as an authority in its space? Set metrics that will demonstrate how your social media presence boosted the number of @ mentions on Twitter, lead to heightened activity on Pinterest, increased tags and followers on Instagram or influenced more connections on LinkedIn.
5. New and Returning Visitors
Consider your seven-day and 30-day visitors. There may be a loyal following that returns to the site every day, but how long can you depend on that traffic? Are returning visitors exploring new sections or coming back to a specific page or tool? If your brand's audience refreshes seasonally (Bridal magazines, for example), it's important to have social strategies in place to keep unique traffic consistent.
What do you think? Tweet me the most over (or under) rated metrics @StephaniePaige.More...
Tuesday, December 09, 2014 -- Join this upcoming Folio: Webinar to discuss the survey findings, and to learn how one publisher, Advanstar, streamlined their process to intensify the focus on audience engagement strategies.Pre-Register Now


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It was a resurgent, special season for the Warwick Vets field hockey team, but it finally came to an end on Thursday night. Playing top-seeded Classical at East Greenwich High School in the … more
Kevin Pomeroy, Sports Editor | 11/4/14 | 77 views
The Pilgrim High School football team scored 38 unanswered points to run past intra-city rival Toll Gate High School, 38-14, on Saturday morning. It was a big win for the now 3-3 Patriots, who … more
Matt Metcalf | 11/4/14 | 84 views
The Toll Gate unified volleyball team, in its inaugural season, captured the Division IV state championship on Sunday with a win over Lincoln at Johnson & Wales. Pictured left to right: coach … more
11/4/14 | 71 views
After receiving a bye into the Division II quarterfinals, the fifth-seeded Toll Gate girls' soccer team punched its ticket to the semifinals on Saturday morning. The Titans defeated … more
11/4/14 | 38 views
The Bishop Hendricken cross country team knew what it was up against heading into Sunday's state championship meet at Ponaganset High School, and the Hawks weren't dealt any surprises … more
Kevin Pomeroy, Sports Editor | 11/4/14 | 52 views
The road to a repeat is never easy to manage, but despite entering the postseason as the No. 9 seed, the Toll Gate boys' soccer team has taken the first step. The Titans struck twice in the … more
Nick Sczerbinski | 11/4/14 | 36 views
The Warwick Vets boys' soccer team got its postseason off to a flying start last Wednesday, knocking off No. 8 seed Ponaganset 3-0 in the preliminary round of the Division III playoffs. The … more
11/4/14 | 32 views
Warwick native Nicole Leahy is heading down the homestretch of her collegiate career, but not before putting together some fine performances between the sticks for Wentworth. After spending much … more
Brenden Soares | 10/30/14 | 58 views
Outside of undefeated East Greenwich, no one in Division II was hotter than the Pilgrim girls' volleyball team heading into Monday's match-up with Cranston West. The suddenly surging Falcons … more
Kevin Pomeroy, Assistant Sports Editor | 10/30/14 | 70 views
Thursday, the CCRI women's soccer team traveled to Franklin Massachusetts to take on Region XXI rival Bulldogs of Dean College and won 3-0, capturing the region title for the 14th consecutive … more
10/30/14 | 34 views
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Carly Rae Jepsen Among Artists on NOW THAT'S WHAT I CALL MUSIC1 Vol. 44
The world's best-selling, multi-artist album series, NOW That's What I Call Music!, has gathered today's biggest hits for NOW That's What I Call Music! Vol. 44, to be released November 6. NOW 44 will be available on CD and for download purchase from all major digital service providers.
NOW That's What I Call Music! Vol. 44 features 16 major current hits, including five #1s, seven Top 10s, and five Top 20 pop and mainstream Billboard charters from today's hottest artists, including P!nk, Flo Rida , Psy, Owl City & Carly Rae Jepsen , Maroon 5, Justin Bieber Featuring Big Sean, David Guetta Featuring Chris Brown & Lil Wayne , Nicki Minaj, Karmin, Chris Brown , Katy Perry , Kelly Clarkson , Usher, Swedish House Mafia Featuring John Martin, Train, and Little Big Town, plus four free up-and-coming "NOW What's Next" New Music Preview tracks.
The "NOW What's Next" bonus track program featured on each numeric NOW release continues to preview hot new artists with tomorrow's biggest hits. NOW 44 showcases up and coming tracks from Ryan Star , Britt Nicole , The Ready Set, and Toy Connor.
The NOW That's What I Call Music! series is a joint venture from EMI Music North America, Sony Music Entertainment, and Universal Music Group. NOW That's What I Call Music! Vol. 44 will be distributed by EMI Music North America. NOW and NOW That's What I Call Music! are registered trademarks of EMI (IP) Limited.
Following 15 years of multi-platinum international success, the NOW That's What I Call Music! series debuted in the U.S. in 1998. The series has generated sales exceeding 200 million albums worldwide, including more than 86 million copies in the U.S. Every album in the numeric U.S. series has reached Billboard's Top 10, and the series' most recent numbered edition,NOW 43, was the 16th U.S. NOW release to reach #1, second only to The Beatles in chart history.
NOW That's What I Call Music! Vol. 44 [CD; digital]
1. P!nk
Blow Me (One Last Kiss)
2. Flo Rida
3. Psy
Gangnam Style
4. Owl City & Carly Rae Jepsen
Good Time
5. Maroon 5
One More Night
6. Justin Bieber Featuring Big Sean
As Long As You Love Me
7. David Guetta Featuring Chris Brown & Lil Wayne
I Can Only Imagine
8. Nicki Minaj
Pound The Alarm
9. Karmin
10. Chris Brown
Don't Wake Me Up
11. Katy Perry
Wide Awake
12. Kelly Clarkson
Dark Side
13. Usher
14. Swedish House Mafia Featuring John Martin
Don't You Worry Child
15. Train
50 Ways To Say Goodbye
16. Little Big Town
BONUS TRACKS: "NOW What's Next" New Music Preview
17. Ryan Star
Stay Awhile
18. Britt Nicole
19. The Ready Set
Give Me Your Hand (Best Song Ever)
20. Toy Connor
Be In Love Tonight
SOURCE EMI Music; Sony Music Entertainment; Universal Music Group
About Author
- Producer Says No 'Concrete Conclusion' for THE WALKING DEAD Series Finale
- HOW TO GET AWAY WITH MURDER Stars Reveal Their Murderer Theories
- Anna Kendrick and Jeremy Jordan-Led THE LAST FIVE YEARS Movie to Hit Theaters, VOD on Feb 13
- Photo Flash: Key Art for GIRLS Season 4 Released
- 'BREAKING BAD (Original Score From The Television Series) Volume 2' Double LP Out Today
- President Obama Praises Icons Meryl Streep, Alvin Ailey and More at Medal of Freedom Ceremony
- NBCUniversal & Millennial Trains Project Announce New Partnership
- Official: Rachel McAdams, Taylor Kitsch & Kelly Reilly Join Cast of HBO's TRUE DETECTIVE
- Showtime to Air HOMELAND, THE AFFAIR Marathons this Weekend
- David Dobkin to Direct AMC's BADLANDS Pilot


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Posts by Sam Cogan
5 posts • joined 17 Feb 2009
Vodafone eyes iPhone switchers for fresh Sim-only deals
O2 iPhone Simplicity
I found that the cheapest tariff I could get now I've come to end of my iPhone contract is in fact to stay with O2 and get their iPhone simplicity tariff. They don't advertise this but if you ring cancellations and ask for it they will give it to you.
£20 a month for 1200 texts, 600 minutes, and the same unlimited data and openzone wifi you get with the standard iPhone tariff. This seems to be the best iPhone deal I could find whilst keeping unlimited data (or o2's version of unlimited anyway)
Asus serves up Windows 7 Home Server box
Windows 7 Home Server??
There's no such thing as Windows 7 Home Server, the version of Home Server designed to work with Windows 7 clients is Windows Home Server Power Pack 3.
'Something may come through' dimensional 'doors' at LHC
Resonance Cascade
I never thought I'd see a resonance cascade.....
Snow Leopard to ship this Friday
If you've only just bought a MBP you hsould be eligible for a free upgrade to Snow Leopard.
Surreal appeal of Sun's JavaFX for mobile
Wrong subtitle?
any particular reason why the subtitle for this article is :
"Review On day two of the Pirate Bay trial, the prosecution has sensationally dropped half the charges against the four men behind the notorious file-sharing website"
Most read
- Comment Renewable energy 'simply WON'T WORK': Top Google engineers
- Nexus 7 fandroids tell of salty taste after sucking on Google's Lollipop
- Useless 'computer engineer' Barbie FIRED in three-way fsck row
- Game Theory Dragon Age Inquisition: Our chief weapons are...
- 'How a censorious and moralistic blogger ruined my evening'


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October 17, 2013
This is a great organization that helps people in developing countries improve their lives and financial standings. My parents have been involved with Mentors for many years and have traveled to Guatemala to see first hand the great work be provided through business loans. This teaches others how to take care of themselves, a true hand-up not a hand-out.
More feedback
Will you volunteer or donate to this organization?
How much of an impact do you think this organization has?
When was your last experience with this nonprofit?
MY ROLE:General Member of the Public


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The Whole World is Watching Revisits the Chicago Riots of 1968
* Additional fees apply.
The last date listed for The Whole World is Watching was Saturday June 9, 2012 / 8:00pm.
Currently at Victory Gardens Zacek McVay Theater
One Missing Person, Many Lost Souls in Tender, Heartbreaking Drama Rest
- Full Price:
- $42.00 - $50.00
- Our Price:
- $21.00 - $25.00
A nursing home in northern Idaho is shutting down, making the futures of the longtime employees a...Learn More
Venue Details
No intermissionThe Gospel of Lovingkindness info • Mar 03 2014 star this tip starred
I wore a sweater, flip-flops, etc..Appropriate dress • Nov 11 2013 star this tip starred
Reviews & Ratings
Featured review from Goldstar Member
view more less of this review
It was one of the more interesting and unique theater experiences that we have attended
Three million people are in Chicago in August 1968 with three million stories about the events that unfolded. Through a collage of viewpoints from police officers, journalists, clergy, and demonstrators, we visit the Democratic National Convention and the riots that ensued. New live music, projections, and a standing-room performance all result in a fast-paced look at a piece of Chicago's history.


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Q: Where do I vote?
April 20, 2009 | By Tammy C. | 4 answers | Expired: 2031 days ago
- Sort by:
- Latest |
- Rank
Apr 21, 2009
You are so cute already that you don't need to vote! Let's hope your Mom's shelter comes in on top.
Thumbs Up: 0 | Thumbs up!
Apr 20, 2009
If you are referring to voting in the shelter makeover, that voting started at noon on April 13th and ended at 11:59PM on Sunday, April 19th. They will give those results on April 27th.
Thumbs Up: 0 | Thumbs up!
Apr 20, 2009
If you're asking about the shelter make-over, voting is over. If you mean Pet Wars do what yerpik suggested.
Thumbs Up: 0 | Thumbs up!
Apr 20, 2009
for pet wars? go to the pets & people tab then click pet wars
Thumbs Up: 0 | Thumbs up!
Got a question about your pet? Get the answers you need from Zootoo's community of pet experts and owners.
Know the Answer?
There are always new questions that need answers. Contribute your knowledge about pets.
S.O.S.! | Behavior & Training
Need to know | Zootoo Website


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May 21 - 25 2014, shop our fantastic selection of Warehouse Sale items online and save BIG on your favourite toys! While quantities last. Warehouse Sale items are final sale (no returns
accepted unless product is defective).
Sorry, there are no products to display.
It's that time of year, our 2014
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jump-start the season of surprises and holiday delights. We know the way kids
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read more...
We're now hiring staff for our brand new locations in Sherwood
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resumes to firstname.lastname@example.com
We are thrilled to announce the opening of our new store in Coquitlam, British Columbia!
Details Here


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HoopsHype Law rumors
The woman behind the lawsuit is Nina Rawls -- the widow of R&B legend Lou Rawls -- who claims Gloria approached her back in March and asked to borrow $150k for a TV project produced by Gloria and Matt's production company. TMZ.com
Former NBA Phoenix Suns basketball player Dejan Koturovic was arrested on September 13 at the border crossing "Bogorodica" after the police determined that he entered Macedonia from Yunanistan with a stolen car, Press24 reports, citing police sources. The police has established that the "Honda CR-V" he drove had Bulgarian license plates, was stolen, and the number of chassis was changed. MINA
Former Chicago Bull Scottie Pippen is expected to take the witness stand at the federal trial of his one-time investment adviser. Prosecutors in U.S. District Court in Chicago say the six-time NBA champion is expected to testify briefly on Friday at the bank fraud trial of Robert Lunn. Lunn has denied trying to defraud clients and Oak Brook-based Leaders Bank of more than $3.2 million. The Garden Island
A pretrial hearing on domestic assault and other charges filed against Charlotte Hornets forward Jeffery Taylor was adjourned Wednesday for three weeks. Taylor, 25, is accused of assaulting his girlfriend, who is a Michigan State University student, as well as an employee of the Marriott Hotel in East Lansing on Sept. 25. Court documents allege Taylor also caused between $200 and $1,000 in damage to hotel property. USA Today Sports
Taylor, a native of Sweden who resides in Charlotte, N.C., faces up to a year in jail and has pleaded not guilty. USA Today Sports
Charlotte Hornets forward Jeffery Taylor is expected to attend a pre-trial court hearing in Michigan on domestic assault and other charges. Taylor is scheduled to appear Wednesday morning in East Lansing District Court for the hearing, a week before jury selection is set to take place. Taylor has been charged with domestic assault, assault and malicious destruction of property stemming from a Sept. 25 incident at the East Lansing Marriott at University Place. USA Today Sports
A South Beach bling king from Ohio might be partly to blame for the Heatles break up, and for not only LeBron James going back to Cleveland, but also Mike Miller and James Jones joining the Cavaliers as well. Haider Zafar of Ohio, who allegedly conned Miller, Jones and Rashard Lewis out of millions in 2013, is expected to plead guilty to multiple wire fraud charges, according to court documents filed on Wednesday in Columbus, Ohio. The Heat amnestied Miller in 2013, but not before a Heat employee introduced Miller, Jones and Lewis to Zafar, who then swindled them to the tune of $7.5 million, according to a grand jury indictment. Miami Herald
It's well known at this point that the Heat angered LeBron by amnestying Miller not long after Miller helped the Heat repeat as NBA champions in 2013. Miller said earlier this week in Cleveland that LeBron thought the move "was an unnecessary change." That's Miller being nice, of course. Really what probably made LeBron most angry is that the Heat amnestied one of his best friends to save money and then squabbled with Miller over money a South Beach bling king stole from Miller and then, in an odd twist, gave to the Heat. It's a bizarre tale, and one that certainly infuriates Miller, Jones and Lewis. It's probably not a coincidence then that all three of those players no longer play for the Heat. Miami Herald
Of course, when lawyers get involved, stuff gets ugly. Long after Miller, Jones and Lewis figured out the game, Miller's attorney leaked news that Miller was thinking about suing the Heat. Zafar used $700,000 of Miller's money to buy the tickets and Miller wanted the Heat to give the money back. When the Heat and Miller couldn't agree on a settlement, tensions frayed even further. LeBron, of course, knew about all of this last season. Miami Herald
Beverly Hills police were called to the home of Donald Sterling after his estranged wife, Shelly, reported a burglary, but found no crime. Instead, officers found Sterling hosting V. Stiviano -- the woman whose recordings of him making racist remarks led to his removal as owner of the Los Angeles Clippers and a lifetime ban from the NBA. ESPN.com
A Brooklyn stock trader is crying foul against Madison Square Garden - claiming he was ejected from a Knicks game in January after just for yelling "Carmelo, You Stink!" Now the trader, Anthony Rotondi, has gone to court demanding the names of the MSG security guards who had him arrested. Rotondi's lawyer says in court papers that MSG guards lied to cops by claiming that he had become disorderly and used vulgar and abusive language to them. New York Daily News
Howard Lorber, who was sitting near Rotondi on the night of loss to the Pistons, said he went far beyond just yelling "You stink." "I've never heard a fan sitting around there carrying on like that," Lorber said. He said Rotondi was waving his arms, told Melo, "You suck!" repeatedly and then launched an F-bomb at him. "The loud part of it went on for a few minutes." New York Daily News
While speaking at Celtics media day Monday, second-year center Vitor Faverani shot down Spanish media reports that he was arrested for drunk driving in Spain this summer. "There's no truth," Faverani said of the story. "Somebody in Spain tried to kill me [in the media] but he can't. So there's nothing of it. I'm here, you know? Everybody knows in Spain: There's no truth. So I don't care about [the report]." Boston Globe
"It was not a car accident," Faverani declared. "I just broke one light right here, but [the author wrote] a lot of things like I'm in jail. This is not true. He lied." Boston Globe
As University of Connecticut basketball legend Tate George reaches the one-year anniversary of his imprisonment Tuesday, prosecutors are blasting him in court papers over his request that a federal judge overturn his four felony convictions. George was convicted by a federal jury of four counts of wire fraud last year in connection with running a Ponzi scheme to defraud investors, including former UConn star Charlie Villaneuva, and prosecutors said he could as much as six to nine years in prison. CTNow.com
Jeff Zillgitt: Michele Roberts' first statement as NBPA executive director is on Charlotte's Jeffery Taylor: http://t.co/L98naq6qxa Twitter @JeffZillgitt
Rick Bonnell: Players union issues statement on Jeff Taylor situation: Says fine for him to be away from team if no "disciplinary" action taken. That sounds like union expects Hornets to continue paying Taylor's salary. I'm told Hornets already planned to do so. Twitter @rick_bonnell
Rick Bonnell: Hornets announce Jeff Taylor will not be participating in any team activities following his arrest Thursday in Michigan. Hornets say they have spoken with Taylor about this decision and he accepts it. Twitter @rick_bonnell
Rick Bonnell: NBA: "We support the Charlotte Hornets' decision to separate Jeffery Taylor from the team during the investigation." Twitter @rick_bonnell
Any rumor missing? E-mail us at email@example.com.


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November 25, 2014
March 11, 2014
Building Goodness in Charlottesville is celebrating a milestone.
The organization has been operating for 15 years, helping to make a difference across the world.
Tuesday morning, volunteers gathered to share their stories of success, including a trip to the mountains of Haiti after the earthquake in 2010.
Starting April 5th, Building Goodness will team with students from the University of Virginia to help renovate 10 homes in the Charlottesville area.
Click Here to access the online Public Inspection File
Viewers with disabilities can get assistance accessing this station's FCC Public Inspection File by contacting the station with the information listed below. Questions or concerns relating to the accessibility of the FCC's online public file system should be directed to the FCC at 888-225-5322, 888-835-5322 (TTY), or firstname.lastname@example.com.


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Tina Fey in Talks to Join Ricky Gervais for MUPPETS Sequel
According to the Hollywood Reporter, comedy goddess Tina Fey is officially in talks to take on a lead role in Disney's upcoming MUPPETS sequel.
Should Fey accept, she would join Ricky Gervais and MODERN FAMILY's Ty Burrell as the lead human characters in the film. The site reports that Fey would play a Russian prison guard.
Though the script is being kept heavily under wraps, Fey, Gervais, and Burrell would join Kermit, Miss Piggy, and the infamous Muppet clain in a European adventure. James Bobin, who helmed the MUPPETS movie in 2011, has signed on once again to direct. He also co-wrote the sequel alongside Nicholas Stoller.
The 2011 film, which starred Jason Segel (who is not returning for the sequel), followed Walter and his friends Gary (Jason Segel) and Mary (Amy Adams) from Smalltown, USA, discover the nefarious plan of oilman Tex Richman (Chris Cooper) to raze the Muppet Theater and drill for the oil recently discovered beneath the Muppets' former stomping grounds. To stage The Greatest Muppet Telethon Ever and raise the $10 million needed to save the theater, Walter, Mary and Gary help Kermit reunite the Muppets, who have all Gone their separate ways: Fozzie now performs with a Reno casino tribute band called the Moopets, Miss Piggy is a plus-size fashion editor at Vogue Paris, Animal is in a Santa Barbara clinic for anger management, and Gonzo is a high-powered plumbing magnate. The film was released on Nov. 23, 2011.
The first Muppet outing of the new millenium arose when Segel and Stoller approached Disney in 2008 with the idea of reviving the Muppet characters into a feature length film.
Fey is also set to host the Golden Globes on Jan. 13 with former SNL co-star Amy Poehler.
About Author
- MYSTERY SCIENCE THEATER 3000 Reboot in the Works
- J.K. Simmons to Receive Palm Spring Film Fest's 'Spotlight Award'
- Rentrak Announces Top Entertainment Rankings for Week of 11/25
- VIDEO: ELLEN Attempts to Record Steamy 50 SHADES OF GREY Audio Book!
- HBO to Air Documentary KURT COBAIN: MONTAGE OF HECK in 2015
- UTOPIA and More Top 2014 International Emmy Awards; Winners List!
- Sneak Peek - Rapper T.I., Meredith Baxter & More on Next OPRAH: WHERE ARE THEY NOW?, 11/23
- EGOT Winner & Entertainment Icon Mike Nichols Dies at Age 83
- VIDEO: Charlie Day, Jason Sudeikis Talk New Comedy HORRIBLE BOSSES 2 on GMA
- VIDEO: First Look - Snoopy & The Gang Make Big-Screen Debut in THE PEANUTS MOVIE!


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