Traditional news media has a lot of external challenges - FB, something, something, something - but we've got a lot of internal ones, too. I think a traditional media company needs to accomplish three things if it want to thrive in the future. First, I think it needs to deliver a distinct and unique product in the market. The killer statement in local media, for example, is when we hear people say: You're all the same anyway. We do cover a lot of the same stuff, but how are we different?

Watching #Alive and I think zombies should not kill their kin. If they are running on instinct they could ID loved ones and would go past them. But if they saw someone they could not stand like an old school bully they go into turbo mode. Also, what if they also pursued more aggressively there more succulent or nutritious humans?

And so it begins, @DenverChannel: for the third year in a row I will try to enrich myself with a friendly sports wager with one of your staff members. It has never ended well. @DenverChannel In the first year, I thought @HollyGaunttDen, was an easy mark. But her @Rockies beat my @Cubs in the playoffs and I forked over a team jersey.

“The answer, I think, is that American television hosts need to be liked.” There is so much in this @nytimes piece I wasn’t sure where to begin. But that’s a good spot. nytimes.com/2020/09/06/bus… Also this: “Operators in the subscription business — which includes cable and a growing share of online and print outlets — have found success in telling you what you want to hear, and in signaling that they are, in some sense, on your team.”

My oldest son told his brother he looked like a burned sock. The younger one said he looked like Gazerbeam from the Incredibles. I don’t understand. Older one has countered by calling younger a “Dollar Store K-POP Star.” Younger countered with Gilbert Huff. It’s all Incredibles from the little one.

My dogs are especially needy today. Dogs are prescient. What are they sensing? She won’t stop staring.

My lone reaction to this #axiosmediatrends piece is that after all is said & done with coronavirus local media should seize on the elimination of the newspaper-broadcast cross-ownership rule & TV stations should buy local newspapers in their markets. 1/4 axios.com/newsletters/ax… These audiences – TV & print – should be very different. TV caters to a broader audience, newspaper to a niche. Digital combined. TV-owned paper raises subscription rates w/ special rates for group buys. Circulation falls, product improves & it sells off audience it has. 2/4

"With fewer opportunities in local journalism and less job security at the local level, finding talent to fill local newsrooms has become a central focus." From national pubs, "newsrooms" = print newsrooms. I have thoughts here. axios.com/newsletters/ax… Under-reported in this narrative is local TV's transformation in local communities. Stations are recruiting print journalists, broadening their viewer & reader footprints, and having even greater impact. Few local outlets are on hiring binges. But some stations HAVE added jobs.

As I walk through the aisles at Costco I hum the theme song to Weeds. “In this country, supermarkets are like churches...”

- Sergei from The Wire

I’ve lost my wallet. Many would be raging about credit cards, drivers license etc., but I’m pissed about the wallet. I’m an OG Slimmy owner and now it’s gone, @bolstrxyz. I think I’ve had it for 10 years. I got lots of grief about it. “Aren’t things going to fall out of it?” No, of course not. They never did. bolstr.xyz/collections/sl…

Watching Pretty in Pink. Made the mistake of Googling it while seeing the actors in action. Jarring. And I am old. "If I was in a Turkish prison I'd have a great time with you." #PrettyInPink

Welcome back to It's A Chess Parent's Life, this time from Cleveland, Ohio (a city I care for deeply). Today, the hotel has really put the screws to the parents, leaving them half-a-room to hang out in while their children compete. The most genteel of parents are packing shivs and other homemade weapons to protect open hallway space they've claimed. We're 6+ hours into Day 2 and one parent has been able to keep one chair positioned perfectly by the entryway to the chess room the entire day. #respect

It’s standing room only on the bus again. And once again it’s a debacle. First, the young and fit have long ago abandoned the idea of giving up their seats for others. To clear how broad that definition is, on a Cincinnati bus I am considered young and fit.

Just finished up both #sharktank-themed @geekwire Numbers Geek podcasts. They were pretty amazing – particularly as I listened to the customer-focus/KPIs talk of the companies. It just hit home - and not always in a warm-and-fuzzy way. @ABCSharkTank @geekwire @ABCSharkTank First, @JamieSiminoff: “I think when you focus on your customer … and I mean crazy focus on your customer, success comes from delivering benefit to your customer.” geekwire.com/2019/shark-tan…

My son and I concocted a restaurant idea: serve only food with names your iPhone autocorrects, keep the autocorrected name with accurate descriptions, and provide a 10% discount to first-time guests who guess the right name.

Example: Kimbob (Korean roll) = Jim Bob We got pretty intense about this. We agreed for inventory control we would need to get a list of every autocorrected food and then cross reference their ingredients for efficiency.

One thing other sports/activities could take from chess is the restriction on an audience. It kills me as a parent not to be able to watch but the problems it solves are amazing. Some parents are bending the rules a bit here and the problems with that pop up immediately. I'm not reading from a rulebook. But generally spectators are allowed to dip in and out of the room where the chess matches are played. This is as much rule as tradition. PLAYERS can stick around and watch other matches.

I am at the airport at 5 a.m. - nearly 90 minutes ahead of boarding. This is not how it was supposed to be. But the Delta Sky Lounge (which opens at 5 a.m.)? The thing is PACKED! More on that later... Everyone's competence let me down today. I scheduled a @lyft. When you schedule early-morning ride-shares they usually show up at least 20 minutes later than you request. My guy this morning? 15 minutes early. I was still in various states of undress. But I hustled.

There's a lot of angst about Fake News. But there's something we in the media can do about it. But first we have to accept that the way we define facts and the way news consumers view that word are very different. Media types use the dictionary version of facts: things that are true. OK. But I think average people bestow the word facts on information they believe to be true. Stay with me...

Had some great news this week. My regular food-cart vendor told me he bought his own food cart. It was a cool conversation. Quick backtrack: So I'm a big fan of food-cart nitrates: hot dogs, brats, metts, etc. I like the fancy food trucks, too. But I prefer the old school carts. I regularly go to a guy in Cincinnati's Government Plaza.

I don't think I'll ever get used to Delta Sky Lounges. I'm at the one at LAX right now and as someone who has spent his traveling life never being in Sky Lounge-ie places it's like I've been admitted into some Travelers Secret Society. Folks, I'll just lift the veil here. They give away free ice cream sandwiches. There are always cookies here. At LAX, there is a taco bar. And you can pour your own mixed drinks (issue: I've only used a jigger and they have the bar pouring contraptions at the top of the bottles)

Saw this band last night. 25ish years ago they had national success. Signed to RCA, opened for major bands, No. 1 on Billboard's Alternative chart. Only the lead singer left from original. They were playing in front of 25 people next to a pizza pub. Lead singer could care less. I want to be that lead singer.