There’s no question the traditional newspaper business model is facing profound challenges. The number of those willing to pay for home delivery is shrinking and advertising revenues are shifting as a result of increased options for local advertising… meanwhile costs are going up. Daily metro newspapers simply can’t make enough money to support their old traditions and they didn’t embrace or leverage change to their benefit.  Instead they “sold” web advertising as an add on, which diminished the value (plus most newspaper web sites stink).  Read More

I couldn’t help but smile and reach for my camera tonight as I glanced over and saw these two cats laying across my laptop.  They are two peas in a pod.  Elliot is the latest foster cat in the home for wayward animals (a.k.a. our house).
It seems everyone in our house has a soft spot for animals.  In addition to the standard fare like two dogs (both of which have since passed away) and cats (more on this craziness later), Read More

I feel incredibly fortunate.  My family is healthy and happy.  I have a great job.  A comfortable home.  And a little bit of a cushion should disaster strike.
But many aren’t so lucky.
Thankfully my circumstances are such that I’ve never needed to reach out for assistance.   But I’ve had lots of exposure to the enormous need as a result of serving on non-profit boards and through volunteer work.  To see a grown man or woman in need weep because they have no choice but to ask for help….to see staffers weep in frustration because there just isn’t enough to go around….is a humbling and eye opening experience. Read More

Last week AIGA Nebraska held the “One Inch Round” design contest awards show at the Bancroft Street Market . This was a contest where everyone was invited to create 1″ button designs – as many as they wanted – and upload for professional review. Over 400 buttons were submitted from Nebraska creatives, and the entire show was concepted, designed and organized by a Bozellian, Ryan Sorensen, who’s on the AIGA board.
The judging was based on a point system and whoever had the most points, Read More

I’m venturing a little off-genre today. This might fall into the tips/advice area of commentary but I think it’s important because of the impact that something as simple as email has on our lives. It’s time to address something: You have too many email addresses. Well, you most likely do. Just about everyone I know has at least two that they view as interchangeable. Usually many more depending on how long they’ve been using email, how many jobs they’ve had, and how much they pay attention. Time to suggest ways to simplify.

I have your Reader rather than a Kindle (I received it well before the Kindle frenzy). And your latest decision makes me feel very good about that.  And would probably sway not only my next purchase of an upgraded device to your brand, but also builds my loyalty your brand overall.  Bravo!

Dear anyone else that cares,
What decision?  On Thursday, Sony Electronics announced that by the end of the year it will sell digital books only in the ePub format, Read More

Answer:  The same way you reach other human beings.  Which means that preaching at them in a dogmatic and officious manner and/or trying to scare them with dire predictions of an imminent and grueling death if they make a wrong choice is probably not going to work either for them or you.  That seems pretty logical, right?  So then why does everybody do it?
It’s like no one has taken the time to realize that the menopausal woman is a person.  Read More

Textbooks for rent for the semester (i.e. a NetFlix for textbooks.)  What a simple, yet brilliant idea for the times!  And here’s why.
College textbooks (or any textbook for that matter) are outrageously expensive.  Last year we forked over nearly  $1,100 for my daughter’s college textbooks. At the time that seemed way out of whack to me and I attributed it to the specific cluster of science classes she was taking. But since then, I found some eye opening stats:

textbook prices have nearly tripled since the late 80s; Read More

Several of us attended a lunch yesterday where the speaker talked about reality. That is, REALITY in relation to all the stories and not-necessarily-factual information that one can conjure up as the reasons why things are or are not the way they “should be.” If you cut out all the things you can’t verify as fact, a lot of stories we spend needless time on and stress out over become a lot less significant.

I’m an avid reader…like a 5-book-a-week reader.  And I’m a digital zealot. So I love my Sony e-book.   And my family likes that I no longer have books piled everywhere throughout the house.  I load it with a dozen books at a time and that gets me through a week (or two).  It’s almost always with me.  But the last two weeks it was good old paperbacks that prevailed.
After less than an hour on the beach in Tahoe with my eBook I realized that it is simply not cut out for the beach.  Read More