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Apparently the Dig doesn't pay its writers enough to let them reproduce

Give Media Farm props for going to the Save the Globe rally at Faneuil Hall last week and interviewing Rami Salami on what he thought about all those people at the microphone behind him as he tried to make an honest living selling balloon hats.

But, sheesh, only a crew of childless 20somethings could complain about the presence of "children who probably should have been in school at noon on a Friday (so they can learn how to read)," because the rest of us know that last week was school-vacation week in Massachusetts, so there wasn't any school for those kids to go to.

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Speakers blared the "Hymn of the Battle Republic"

Huh?

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Although at least they got the Monty Python reference (I explained the whole squashing-foot thing to the kidlet, who was there because, yes, it was school-vacation week and she likes both good rallies and Quincy Market).

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Gads - that sounds like my 5th grader going on and on about how annoying second and third graders are. Srsly.

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or mine, or Adam's.

There's such a thing as taking snark too far, and the Dig crosses that line with regularity.

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Sure - that's why I usually share it with my 13 year old.

I actually like the dig and usually pick up a copy - much more attitude, much less suction-assisted genuflection toward the powers that be than the typical catbox liner.

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is notoriously cheap. The paper was *rocking* just a few years ago, and had some of the best young journalists anywhere. For a brief window of time, it was the best alt-weekly in the country, hands down: hilarious and informative week after week. Best read in the city, too: ballsier and crazier than the Globe, more edifying than the Herald, less irritating and agenda-pushing than the Phoenix. Instead of keeping them - for what would have been fairly short money, especially in Keohane's case - it decided to run things on a shoestring. The current EIC is hiring her boyfriend and personal friends to produce content, and they are worse than useless. Any crackhead they picked up on Harrison could produce better copy. Even Media Farm, which should be a slam-dunk for great content every week (it's a magnificent premise) is a shadow of what it used to be.

You get what you pay for.

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Best alt-weekly in the country? Sure, if you can call a collection of obnoxious hipster blogs a newspaper. Maybe if they had shitcanned the attitude and actually upped the quality of their coverage four years ago, they wouldn't be putting full color ads in their own paper begging for Facebook friends.

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You're right, about 2 years ago something changed badly. About the time they went to Glossy pages (though I guess they've gone back. I haven't been reading it as much lately). Now it's hipster whining. And it doesn't even come with a pbr.

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Rami & co., a few points:

1: The global economy has tanked, not just bringing down scores of print publications with it, but threatening to drive to extinction the very idea of print media as we know it. So my question is this: How much do you think the Dig should be paying?

2: You pretty much sink your own point by claiming the Dig in ’06 was superior to the Globe, Herald and Phx on one hand, and then on the other condemning the Dig for not paying enough, when the Dig paid far, far less than any of those papers, then as now.

3: I know strident, pseudonymous amateur media criticism is more fun when you’re not hindered by knowledge of how the industry actually works, but, well, you don’t seem to understand how the industry actually works. Alt-weeklies are at the bottom of the food chain. Their point is to intake raw, cheap talent, and form it into something better, so it can go on to bigger and better things, while at the same time harvesting their youthful attitude to attract young readers. Because the margins for a second tier alt in a city aren’t particularly broad, the operation is necessarily always on a shoestring. The Dig had more money to spend for two years after we were bought out by MetroCorp in 2005, which is to say, staffers got benefits and the freelance rate tripled to a whopping $.10 a word, but even that is about a third of what the Herald pays. Since the economy tanked and the publisher bought it back from MetroCorp, they’ve had to cut expenses, like every other business on earth. I know this is unacceptable on the Unicorn ranch you seem to live on, but here in reality, one must do what one must do.

4: I like the comment from Anon 11:02, about the Dig, a newspaper, being “a collection of obnoxious hipster blogs.” Is that you, Senator Stevens? If so, send me an internet. It’s been a while. Say hi to the wife for me.

5: On a personal note, when I left, it had nothing to do with money; I left because I wanted to go do something else. The publisher even said he’d offer me more money if he thought it would make any difference. From the beginning, our plan was five years and out, the thinking being that if a publication is aimed at young people, it’s probably best the staff not grow old together.

6. If you bring a child to a political rally, your child is fair game. Facts or no facts. If they don’t want to get trashed by the media, they should subscribe to a newspaper. Until then, all bets are off.

Rami, if you think the Dig (or “Digg,” as it is occasionally called) sucks, you think it sucks, that’s fine and fair, but don’t try to spin this as though the bum pay is directly responsible for its present state.

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Also, Brighton Billy, Jeff Lawrence's "unresolved Joe Keohane issues" are due largely to the fact that I kicked his ass on two separate occasions (once in Chinatown, and once on the sidewalk in front of JJ Foleys) and was dealt only one loss (in the Dig's offices). If you had forty pounds and three inches on me, and were subjected to that sort of public humiliation, you too might develop something of a complex.

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I've read the Dig. Arranging things so their writers can't reproduce is not so much a salary inequity as a community service by the publishers...

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I've met some of the current Dig staff, and paying them too little to reproduce isn't necessary-- their personalities and looks act as built-in birth control.

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It's news exactly how that the Dig doesn't run the school lunch menu? And this is economically motivated how?

Sorry, I'd rather not take my nightlife advice from 40something suburban breeders.

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I'm not following your logic here. Also, plenty of 20-somethings have kids and live in the city, therefore being part of the Dig's target audience.

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The Digg is frothing at the mouth about something that's just wrong. Sorta like the Digg always accuses the big-people papers of doing.

Now get offa my lawn!

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or Reddit's, for that matter.

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Did you just StumbleUpon that? Yeah, I'm too much of a dork to get the stupid name of the paper right, arrgh.

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What about 40something suburban gay people? Would you take their nightlife advice?

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While above the breeders, still below the urbanites.

Good question, tho, what is the hierarchy of nightlife tastemakers?

The one thing I'm sure of is bitter ex-dig employees are at the f'ing top of the list...

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The worse the Dig gets, the more I miss it circa 2006.

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Seriously? That a free paper that clearly targets single people doesn't know when school breaks are.
I'll take any other city any day.

Lame.

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Also, the point wasn't that the Digg made a mistake, it happens. The point was that the Digg column that exists solely to point out all the mistakes other journalists and news outlets make itself made a mistake. That's what passes for Humor around here, yep.

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Are you intentionally misspelling the Dig's name? I don't get the joke...

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I'm coming off a job where we spent a fair amount of time dealing with the two-G's Digg and it's been imprinted in my brane is all.

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Yeah, thank goodness people at the DIG aren't breeding. It sure would suck for people who make mistakes to reproduce.

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is apparently what passes as a blog around here.

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Where is it you're from that the blogs are so much better?

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Adam and friends,

First; we're not the Digg, with two Gs. That would be something entirely different and I'm shocked you didn't know that! OMG - how retarded of you as a journalist, er, aggregator...er, uh...

Second; is this thread really about our edit staff not catching the fact that it's school vacation week or am I missing something?! Really!!? Saying we suck without explaining why would be more relevant.

Third and finally; can someone please just buy the domain name www.isuckkeohanescock.com???! It's not 2006 anymore, folks! He's really moved on...and he's ok with it, trust me, I talk to him, he's fine...so, how about you doing the same?

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Well, I'm not affiliated with UH in any way (I'm just too lazy to get a login), but I AM in your target audience, and I can safely inform you that you suck because your coverage is indistinct and uncompelling. You don't distinguish yourself enough from the Phoenix, The Improper Bostonian, and whatever the hell else is killing trees; if I need nightlife listings, I can get them from multiple other sources, and frankly, print isn't my first stop for that anyway. I pass by two of your bins, every workday, and I just don't think to pick your paper up because there's nothing engaging in it or remotely relevant to me. I have literally never been to your website; I'm not even sure what the URL is. Hell, I barely see abandoned copies sitting on the T. The few times I do pick up your paper, for lack of anything better to read, I read "Oh Cruel World!" and "Media Farm" and I'm pretty much done, because most of the rest is fluff I don't give a shit about.

In short, you suck because you don't have a distinct focus and have no real connection to any audience outside of disaffected twentysomething hipsters. And THEY all have iPhones. Better start putting out PDFs.

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Sounds like someone has some unresolved Joe Keohane issues, and it's not the UH community generally-- I count one brief reference to him above, but apparently it touched a nerve, or something, with the Head Dig.

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I'm confused--I tried going to isuckkeohanescock.com, but it kept redirecting to this.

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I must concur with Harris. We had a good thing going on and the owner/Drunk Uncle had to go and f*ck the whole thing up. People were underpaid but LOVED being there and would work to get that paper out every week. A damn good paper that people actually paid attention to.

And nice retort big Dig Staffer. It is just sad to even see those orange boxes...plain sad. I annot wait for you all to go away.

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Wish the class of 2006 all the best in their future endeavors.

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...of trolling on the internet?

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I've started a cause on Facebook for people to show their support. Please spread the word and join!

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And Free Mumia!

And Save the Whales!

Way to stay on topic, chief...

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Sure sounds like it.

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