Like everybody in the business of spewing out opinions and news on the Internet, I’ve been keeping a close eye on the Ezra Klein’s new venture.
I want Klein to succeed. Not just because he’s a nice guy. And not just because I am itching at the opportunity to write for him. I want his new venture to succeed, because I like reading smart stuff and I want to read more smart stuff. I see a few of my favorite “smart” online journals folding under the pressure to produce “link-friendly” and “search engine friendly” articles. It makes me sad when I see headlines that have nothing to do with the content below. I makes me sad that smart writers leave the profession, because of poor compensation.
Is there enough room for another online source of smart content? Are there enough people like me, who want more conversation about smart topics? Will increasing the content providers mean less money for writers?
I’m not sure.
Apt. 11d 
I hope so too, but I’m not optimistic. When I look at it, I can’t help but expect the same thing I see in tech blogs. There are some great tech blogs out there, with some incredibly knowledgeable people writing them. When they write about patent lawsuits between smartphone players though, they are terrible. They have virtually no idea what any of the legal events mean. And it’s not that they’re not smart people. They are incredibly knowledgeable, just not about everything. It’s incredibly hard to give really good in-depth coverage of a wide range of issues.
But I sure hope it works, because there is nothing more annoying than finding a news story you think may be important, and seeing short and vague stories that don’t really explain what is actually going on.
Completely unrelated: you asked on twitter why free iphone games are better than free computer games. It’s advertising. Free iphone games can easily be built with a hook to paid advertising, so the publisher can make money off a free game. Computer games are much harder to make with paid advertising, so they tend to need another way to get you to spend money. Buying in game stuff is one way that works, and honestly it may well be that the business model is better developed on mobile.
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