feature image via my favorite song about Working From Home, “Work From Home.”
Welcome to the 30th “This Business of Art / Media / Web Fix,” in which I share with you things I read that I loved relating to the work I do here — online media, business, entrepreneurship, women in tech, start-ups, journalism, publishing, management, queer visibility, and so forth. You can expect this sucker to drop every-other Wednesday.
Where Do You Work (from Home)?
There aren’t any stand-out stories today to lead up the fix so let’s just talk about the world’s most interesting topic, which came up earlier today: sitting on the couch.
If you’re in school or you work from home or take your work home with you, where do you do it? I often find myself changing locations during the day — this has become more complicated since moving into an actual house, because I have more than one room to choose from. I know I always work best at my desk, but often find myself on the couch. Back in the day, I ran Autostraddle while sitting on a mattress, employing a cardboard box or chair as a desk, which wasn’t great for my back! This came up today:
Rachel: how is everyone
Yvonne: i’m doing fine! i finally am working at my desk instead of my couch
Rachel: oh nice
do you find that you get back pain if you work on the couch too much?
Yvonne: yes, i don’t ever work there normally
i slouch and get sleepy
slash lethargic
Rachel: it’s such a catch-22, it’s so comfortable to be there but makes me so uncomfortable in the long run
Yvonne: yeah for sure
Riese: yeah it’s hard
sometimes i feel on my couch like i’m not being serious
like that if i am on the couch i’m not REALLY working
which doesn’t make sense at all, but
Rachel: sometimes i will use the couch to bargain with myself
like if i’m really not looking forward to looking at sad stories for the news fix, i’ll be like, ok, i am allowed to do this on the couch
which ultimately just makes the whole thing take longer, kind of? idk
THOUGHTS/FEELINGS?
This Business of Online Media
+ Longform.org, an app I use every day and a site I frequently check, is testing a redesign which’ll include a ranking of the site’s most popular articles powered by a very complicated algorithm. I obviously hate it because everybody hates change at first, right? Also, its two founders “are embarking on new projects.” Also they never featured any of the wonderful Autostraddle articles we recommended on their site, BUT IT’S FINE, Longreads does!
+ Parse.ly looked into the statistics behind which political candidates people actually want to read about, and the answer is not “Donald Trump.” Hillary Clinton gets more page views than all the other candidates, and Bernie Sanders is the most popular social referral. Meanwhile, The AP “advised staffers to “practice situational awareness” at their bureaus and offices in the wake of social media pushback from supporters of Bernie Sanders who were angered by its decision to call the Democratic nomination for Hillary Clinton.”
+ How People’s Opinions Actually Change Because of Social Media: “…people’s opinions are formed in part by knowing that others share their opinions. So while a single post on social media may not instantaneously change their minds, that post could affect their opinions in the long-term: Even seeing just a few comments over time may affect someone’s stance on what they thought was a commonly held belief.”
+ Facebook reach is down, down, down for publishers, which is bad news for publishers. We’re a publisher, but whatever, F*CK YOU FACEBOOK.
+ The New York Times is exploring the possibility of an ad-free digital subscription.
+ Nick Denton burns Peter Thiel, the Paypal co-founder who funded Hulk Hogan’s lawsuit.
+ The Tribune has received a very bizarre and unfortunate rebranding, but its problems go far beyond the name “Tronc.” But, speaking of “Tronc,” which stands for “Tribune Online Content,” its vision “calls for perhaps the most concentrated mess of buzzwords that digital publishing has ever seen, and that’s some feat.”
+ There’s now more Americans writing for digital-only outlets than print newspapers.
+ That dreaded Instagram algorithm change starts now
+ Buzzfeed will not be taking any more ads from The Republican Party, because Trump.
+ DEAR JOURNALISTS STOP CALLING IT CONTENT
Businesswoman’s Special
+ The importance of a “don’t be boring” fund
+ productivity is really about what you don’t do
+ 10 ways to get relevant experience if you didn’t land an internship
+ how to avoid equating “spending money” with “getting stuff done.”
+ finding work/life balance with the four burners theory
