Glog

Glenn Fleishman Interrogates the Past

Publishing

Conferences

A Transformative Year

I have sometimes joked that I never know precisely what I will be doing from one year to the next. As a freelancer, I am dependent on both the goodwill of editors and the persistence of business models outside of my control. This means that my primary sets of income one year could have shifted somewhat the next and be entirely gone the year after that. It means I have to be fleet and agile.

In June 2012, I was a very busy lad indeed, as I often am. I was writing a lot: for TidBITS, Macworld, the Economist, Ars Technica, Boing Boing, and others. I had a constant stream of features and short work that was passing through my hands, and wrote a book later in the summer about Messages for Mac OS X.

In the middle of that, I decided to crowdfund a book on — well, crowdfunding. How

Publishing

Shuttered

When I suggested a few weeks ago that journalists who write need to get decent photographic equipment as part of the process of becoming journalists who write, record audio, and shoot video, I never expected that a newspaper would lay off its entire photography staff. The Chicago Sun-Times​, which has a checkered ownership history and, like most papers, dire financials after drinking cream for most of its existence, laid off 20 full-time staff photographers plus part-timers and others in the department on May 30.

The managers told the photographic staff that it would be relying more on video in the future, which is one of the weirdest arguments one could make. What they really mean is that word-based reporters will be expected to shoot pictures and video. They'll go through training in "iPhone photography basics."

In my essay, I discussed the necessity for freelance writers to become more versatile. It's

Journalism

Editor and Publisher

The cow says Moogazine ​.
The cow says Moogazine ​.

You may have already heard the news: I've purchased The Magazine from Marco. This is a great day in my professional life, as The Magazine is one of the very best things I've ever worked on. This is partly because Marco gave me an enormous amount of freedom in editing it, and partly because I get to work so closey with writers on their work.

I love writing, and have appreciated all the time and effort my editors have and continue to put into making my words work in the right order. It's great to work with both new writers and experienced ones to try to find the sculpture inside the block of marble.

It's been great working with Marco, who is an exceptionally decent human being, and overflows with different facets of creativity. He's been the art director, taking photos for the publication (he's got