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Kottke: My weekend reading

One quip I’ve always heard in almost every media company that I’ve been apart of is the question: “How can we be more like ESPN?” Whether its the speed, production value or infotainment aspect of ESPN, newsrooms across the country from local TV affiliates, to large websites (CNET!) and even other national sports broadcasters all aspire to produce as quality a product as ESPN. One of my earlier childhood memories is watching my dad watch Berman era Sportscenter. He was catching clip after clip of a baseball came, and my slightly-more-than-toddler brain couldn’t parse if he was watching a whole game, or the magic involved in getting the best parts. He explained to me the concept of highlights, and that since sometimes he didn’t have time to catch up on an entire Red Sox game, he could see the best plays and feel satisfied.

I think someone else has mastered the highlights aspect of the web, but it’s not any video producer… it’s Kottke, and the other linkbloggers like him (fimoculous, Waxy, etc.)

I started reading the Wall Street Journal this week, giving an honest try at reading the morning newspaper. I found I simply couldn’t do it. It was too much stuff I already knew about by the time I picked it up off of my door step, and in a format that feels, frankly, uncomfortable and unfamiliar. I’m sure there are some great nuggets of wisdom in that mass of compressed tree fiber, but I’m not going to be the one to sift through and find them. Likewise, the weekend paper wasn’t much better, though since I also now subscribe to Barron’s and some other magazines, they’re a format I’m somewhat more willing to accept.

Kottke, on the other hand, does a great job at giving me the highlights of internet sites and topics that are sometimes current, sometimes just random, and has a way of adding a Stuart Scott level of highlight presentation mastery. He doesn’t tend to make himself the focus, but lets the work speak for itself and punctuates it with his own form of “booyah!”-esque laser on the most important parts of the article. Add in the fact that he’s reading sources that I’d never read, (sorry, no matter how hard I try, I just don’t care about most New Yorker articles) and I’m picking up more than I could ever hope to do on my own.

I know this is sort of an old hat concept to most web-savvy people, but for the subscribers of my blog who are my friends and family, and who sort of look to me as a filter for what they should be doing online, check out Kottke, Fimoculous and Waxy.

With these three sites, unlike highlights on Sportscenter, sometimes I’ll actually go and read the full article whereas watchers would never watch a full game after the fact. Also, unlike ESPN, these guys have created an art form that isn’t largely commercialized, it’s basic discovery of interesting nuggets of wisdom that take the effort out of finding cool things, with none of the Sharebuilder.com ads.

I feel like another component to these blogging-gods’ mastery of the shortform linkblog might be the fact that they don’t overpost. I feel like Engadget and Gizmodo in their Rojas-ian (heh!) form was more linkbloggy and a pointer, but has somehow evolved into a parody of that style which instead focuses on some sort of cohesive voice between authors that entertains the reader. Sort of like a PTI-style show to Sportscenter, if you will. Add in the fact that there can be sometimes 50 posts per day, and its easy for casual readers to feel overwhelmed like they might have missed something.

My solution to the gadget-blog overload? Two fold. One: Engadget’s featured and breaking news feeds seem to be the ticket to finding the most interesting nuggets of gadget goodness that you can’t overlook. And two: the site I’m trying to create over at TechVi. The front page is the need-to-know stories of the day, while we’re working on creating sections that are useful for exploring the more deep parts of the interwebs. The video shows should feel like clips featuring tech news highlights and brief commentary that keeps people up to date without the investment in reading every news story out there.

I wish I could say that TechVi was the real answer, but as it stands right now, we don’t have enough resources and people to really do the job that I dream of doing. (AKA, we need more than just me working full-time on the project. I seriously think if I had two people, we might be able to get it done.)

Regardless of how I’m trying to fix it, I think Kottke, and the other peeps should know that they are my source of weekend reading… not some magazine or newspaper that tells me what’s important by their front page or cover… it’s the people who’ve cultivated voices and perspectives that focus on the highlights that I care about.

More companies and media outlets should look to Kottke, et. al, for inspiration, the same way they aspire to be ESPN.