Yesterday was an interesting day. I'm part of a team who will be launching a new product at The Times in the next few days. It's not going to be the total answer to what ails the newspaper business but it's something fun and a way of getting something out to folks in a relatively short period of time.
Whenever it's for a launch, tons of different things start popping up ranging from meetings that all of a sudden show up on your calendar to company functions. Last night was our division's Christmas party. It was a nice diversion from launch issues but I honestly was hoping for something more. But everyone was there including one of newest employees. Tony gives his overview of his first day including what happened at the Christmas party. And yes, I was one of those wonderfully dressed geniuses that was talking to him.
In the next few days, we'll be soft-launching our product and I'll be blogging about it and various other things. Hopefully this can restart the blog. I know I've said this a few times but maybe it will stick.
I got a text message from Gregg Friday night on my way home from Beer Friday at The Edison. It said something about Tony Pierce joining the Times. It definitely took a few minutes to sink in.
I've been reading Tony's blog for a long time and more recently have added LAist to the feed rotation. Having someone who has been involved on the Web for so long is a definite good thing.
You can get a good sense of Tony's belief in the value of the Times which is something we agree on.