From Justin Ellis' post on Nieman Journalism Lab blog about USA Today Sports Media Group's deal yesterday to buy news aggregator Quickish:
Dave Morgan, senior vice president of content and editor-in-chief of the USA Today Sports Media Group, said Quickish-style aggregation could be popping up on a number of their sports sites, as widgets or themed modules -- perhaps a Quickish for high school sports or a Quickish for MMA.
When I spoke with Morgan yesterday, he said aggregation has an important role to play in delivering sports news. “I think the right answer for us is not one or the other. We’re going to be creating something unique for our properties and audience," he said. “I always think the human touch on top of anything we can do from an algorithmic standpoint will be very key."
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When I spoke with Morgan yesterday, he said aggregation has an important role to play in delivering sports news. “I think the right answer for us is not one or the other. We’re going to be creating something unique for our properties and audience," he said. “I always think the human touch on top of anything we can do from an algorithmic standpoint will be very key."
The Sports guys seems to have a plan. I give them credit.
ReplyDeleteCould someone please translate what he said, in English, please?
ReplyDeleteHe means you can't just have a formula for a computer to follow that will give you the content you want on your site; you need a human being to curate the content.
ReplyDeleteIt's a pretty basic idea (though not one Gannett has appeared interested in up to this point). The question is why they felt the need to buy a company (Quickish) that had someone doing this instead of just following the example. Quickish was just a guy, not an algorithm. Couldn't they figure out how to do what he was doing through hard work?
MAybe the Quickish owner is a friend of somebody important?
Glad he likes the "human touch." But, didn't he just fire a bunch of humans a few weeks ago? I'm sure they feel "touched."
ReplyDeleteAn inhumane effort done with ruthless ineptitude.
DeleteNot really. But nice speech.
DeleteI really dislike the growing use of the high falutin' verb "curate" to describe what amounts to editing.
ReplyDeleteHistorically, curate and curators were found in fine art museums.
In its current use in journalism, I guess it sounds better when you're talking about something that's as humdrum as aggregation.
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ReplyDeleteJim you are starting to sound like an old fart.
ReplyDelete