Category: Riffs

H.L. Mencken’s “Life of Kings” quote does the industry a disservice and in this column I argue that publishers should use an older framework, noblesse oblige, to better understand their social obligation.

A statue should be erected in Gerry Lenfest’s honor at City Hall to remind future generations of this man who made it his mission to give away as much wealth as possible before he died.

Ben Franklin’s 1731 Apology for Printers, translated into modern vernacular.

I’m excited and frustrated. The promise in news tech has never been greater. But neither have the challenges.

Local doesn’t scale, been true for a while now but not so in the historical sense. Frank Gannett, Walter Annenberg, and William Randolph Hearst would all have contended otherwise. Have you ever wondered whether Jeff Bezos might want the same?