Waiting for the Winds of Winter

And I guess I’ll have to keep waiting:

Another year of waiting for The Winds of Winter to blow is in store for fans of George RR Martin, as his publisher confirmed there are no plans for the much-anticipated latest volume from his A Song of Ice and Fire series to appear in 2015.

http://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/jan/30/george-rr-martin-the-winds-of-winter-publication

Stay healthy, George.  You’ve got a lot of writing left to do.

There’s only room for 3 news stories

It appears that the news cycle can absorb only 3 news stories and, currently, it’s fully stocked.

1.  Of great national importance, it may start snowing in New York soon. Weather in New York is always of great national importance.

2.  Something happened with a football last weekend. I don’t understand exactly what, but I’m told it’s of existential importance. This is also a national story.

3.  In Chicago, Ernie Banks is still dead.

Should anything else happen, we’ll find out after the local elections in February.

 

The Risks of Building Your Own CMS

There’s a lot of good information in this post:

http://www.pbs.org/mediashift/2015/01/why-its-risky-business-for-publishers-to-build-their-own-cms/

“Technology is strategy, and culture eats strategy for breakfast.”

“This is to say nothing of the most fatal flaw in the “roll your own CMS” plan. News organizations, especially ones with just one medium-sized digital property (this applies to many independent daily newspapers, for example), have a terrible time retaining technical talent.”

There is more risk in going out on your own than working with an established CMS like WordPress.