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Visualizing NYT Co. Paywall Math, Part 2

admin — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 16:12:58 +0000

Here’s the flip side to that New York Times Co. paywall data from yesterday. It’s the share of paid circulation revenue to total revenue for the two Times Co. newspaper groups dominated by the Times and the Globe. That is all.

Visualizing NYT Co. Paywall Math

admin — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 21:45:04 +0000

Wonder why the New York Times Co. is working so hard to monetize its web traffic? Have a look at this chart, updated with data from the Times Co.’s fourth quarter earnings. I’ve plotted gains and losses on Times revenue streams, in nominal dollars, indexed to a peak of 1. It’s an ugly picture, where ad revenues, which make up the bulk of all the cash flowing in, are getting hammered by a crappy economy. That’s where the imperative of driving non-ad revenue comes from. You can see that even though higher prices for paper copies and paid online access stop the bleeding, they haven’t been enough to reverse it yet.

Mitt Romney’s Tax Returns Meet Watch the Throne Comics

admin — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 21:24:46 +0000

Here’s What “Not Very Much” Money Looks Like

admin — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 15:22:29 +0000

Last year, Mitt Romney made more than $374,000 in speaking fees. He averaged just under $41,600 per speech. He does not think this is “very much” money.”

Here’s what “not very much” money looks like: If Romney only made speeches, and wasn’t mostly living off his low-tax investments, he would be well within the top five percent of earners in the country. On speeches alone.

The haul from a single speech would put him in the middle of the pack, nationally, although it would place him at the upper end of the lower middle class if you’re just looking at Massachusetts households.

What you see above is the average household income in 2010, sorted by quintile, and with the top five percent of the top quintile thrown in for perspective. By any reasonable measure, “not very much” money is a great deal of money to 95 percent of the country.

Then again, the Census Bureau and I might just be envious.

Wasting Opportunity

admin — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 20:18:00 +0000

My latest for the Globe looks at the proposal to turn an 8-acre block on the Orange Line into an independent minor league baseball stadium.

Given the recent history of locals losing interest in minor league teams full of players outside the major league pipeline, it looks like a risky business venture. But more importantly, the stadium would be astonishingly unproductive as a tool for revitalizing Malden’s struggling downtown. Right now the city needs as much mixed-income transit-oriented development as it can grab, and giving away a prime site across from the T isn’t the way to get there.

Read the whole thing here.

Kick ‘Em When They’re Down

admin — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 15:32:46 +0000

This chart, which accompanies a WSJ story about how nobody inside the Fed knew how a fake housing boom was propping up the entire economy, just seems mean. Poor Ben Bernanke. It’s like the paper thinks he goes around kicking puppies or something.

Anatomy of a Roadblock

admin — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 21:24:15 +0000

My contribution to CommonWealth‘s winter issue — online over here! — focuses on a nasty development fight in Freetown, and the state agency in the middle of it all.

It turns out that when an aggressive regulator operates with little accountability, things tend to go wrong. Projects get held up for months, or disappear altogether. This agency I write about, the Mass. Historical Commission, is one of the most feared agencies in the state. It wields enormous power over development, and that power is often used in such a way as to make life miserable for developers. The interesting part is, it’s not at all clear that Mass. Historical is the villain in this Freetown case.

Read the whole thing here.

Whopper of the Day

admin — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 19:26:27 +0000

Here’s a regular ol’ Rick Perry supporter in South Carolina, explaining to a Times reporter why she’s wild about Rick Perry. It’s not just the fact that there’s Jesus dripping from everything the guy says. He also has his wife who knows her place: “And his wife is a great asset. She’s submissive to him, as she should be.”

Filene’s: Call Their Bluff

admin — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 16:29:23 +0000

My latest for the Globe looks at the recent noise emanating from City Hall about using a Suffolk Downs casino to pressure Vornado into filling its Filene’s pit. The problem with these threats coming from City Hall is, there’s no way Hizzoner will actually throw the brakes on Suffolk Downs as payback for Filene’s. The mayor can’t credibly threaten Vornado when he’s been in the tank for Suffolk Downs for yeas.

Which is not to say those threats can’t or shouldn’t be made. The solution: Take the casino question out of the mayor’s hands, put it to a citywide vote, and unleash an angry electorate on the developers.

Read the whole thing here.

[Creative Commons image via]

Better Than Nothing?

admin — Fri, 06 Jan 2012 18:57:58 +0000

A quick update on efforts to restore this here website to, I won’t say its former glory, but to whatever it was before it got broken into and wiped clean a couple months ago: Some clips are back! They’re old ones, but it’s better than nothing.

Also, while there’s been no luck restoring posts from old backup files, I was able to import posts from my old wordpress.com site. So enjoy this version of me from four years ago, marginally employed and blogging frequently. (Turns out those two are related.)

That still leaves three years worth of missing content, but it’s better than nothing. Isn’t it?