What does a Google E-A-T?

How editors can feed the beast

Who is your most important reader? Business editors imagine it's a company's chief executive, or the people desperately trying to understand what the CEO is doing. Investors, business partners and especially potential business partners hang on the CEO's every word. Crain's Chicago Business used to advertise itself as "Where the Who's Who read what's what," till Who's Who, the place you looked up famous people, started being replaced by Google. Who's Who? Say what?

Editors should think about another very influential reader: Google. Its audience is nearly everyone in business. Like the CEO, Google has tremendous resources. And like the CEO, it does not have much time for us. As a result there's a thriving marekting specialty, search engine optimization, or SEO. Its practitioners—let's call them SEOs too—all want Google to share a bit of that audience.

Their problem is not a mystery. SEOs all want a listing at the top of search engine results, and there's not much room at the top. Whatever the SEO tells you, the search engine is not hocus-pocus either. It's a powerful computer, but it's most comfortable reading code. English is its second language. As a reader, Google has artificial intelligence at its disposal, but it's still not very intuitive. Even so, its decisions can make or break a business.

Vacation in the time of COVID

It’s a tough time to travel.

Once upon a time, humans actually traveled to meet people and see things for themselves. Now tourists want to get back in circulation, but the covid virus had the idea first. We’re ready to bust of the house, but wherever we go the residents aren’t quite ready to bust out of the house to greet them. That leaves Michigan, with its scenic roadside attractions and high vaccination rates.

Michigan farm country has not only acres of corn and soybeans but also grape vines, and wineries have moved their tastings onto the terrace. These are not brewery tours, where you stop and smell the yeast. A winery tasting involves taking the tine to get familiar with one or two flights of wine, and then more time to forget about them and sober up. The first rule of tastings: Always leave something on the table.

I’m direction challenged even when fully caffeinated. Fortunately, we now have Siri to give directions. But she can be a bit chatty. She’ll start out saying, “Stay on I-94 for the next 80 miles,” but can’t leave it at that. “In two miles, stay on I-94.” ”In a quarter mile, use the left three lanes to stay on I-94.” Yes, Siri, I get it. Don’t stop for gas or Siri starts tapping the Apple Watch on your wrist. “Make a U-turn! Return to the route!” She’s entirely too anxious. Can’t she just enjoy the scenery?

Siri is always certain. Several times she instructed something like, “Take Rockland Road south,” followed immediately by “Take Rockland Road north.” She'd be more helpful to state, "The destination is around here somewhere." Can’t she read the signs? Still, it’s better to second-guess Siri than to get mad at the driver. "Shut up!" I'd say, which I realize is not helpful. I should be saying, "Siri, shut up!"

Just another crime non-statistic

Most crime goes unreported. The reasons remain unexamined.

No one wants to be another statistic, but that's how the police police. Chicago keeps a tally of where crimes are called in, and stations more cops there. Only 2 out of every 5 violent crimes are told to police. But any attempt to prevent crime has to start somewhere. Cops follow where the data leads.

We know most crime is hidden from police because the Census Bureau also keeps statistics. The National Crime Victimization Survey asks a sample of Americans about all the nasty things that might have happened to them in the last six months.

I know. Nasty things have happened to me, and I've been asked. A census field representative showed up at my door pre-Covid. Trump was griping about the census so much that I figured whatever business the census taker had must be good. So we had a thorough discussion about crime. Very thorough.

Has something I carry—luggage, a wallet, purse, briefcase, book—been stolen?

Clothing, jewelry, or cellphone?

Bicycle or sports equipment?

Things in the home like a TV, stereo, or tools?

Things outside my home such as a garden hose or lawn furniture?

Things belonging to children in the household?

Things from a vehicle, such as a package, groceries, camera or CD? Wait, what's a CD?

OK, did anyone attempt to steal anything?

If this doesn't sound like the usual census experience, it isn't. The chatty gent was working on the National Crime Victimization Survey which collects data on trends in violent crime, costs of crime, crime in schools and how law enforcement responds.

Most census visits don't go into this much detail. Still, this long-form interview soft-pedaled one particular fact. A census rep would come back every six months to ask the same questions once again. This is how we learn about crimes beyond the statistics. Someone just keeps asking and asking.

A subscription there always is

We pay a bundle for entertainment, but not for news. And we get what we pay for.

How many entertainment subscriptions do you have? My cable TV package is just big enough to get the White Sox, plus more than enough reminders of the channels I can't watch. But wait, there's more:

• Netflix, even though I can't really chill
• Amazon Prime, because shipping is free
• MLB TV, filling the urgent need for baseball in March
• Peacock, for old Battlestar Gallactica
• HBO Plus, to watch competitive ceramics
• Apple Plus, because I bought an iPhone
• Disney Plus, because baby Yoda
• Hulu, because at least it isn't Hulu Plus
• I think I needed Roku to watch Apple Plus
• Maybe there's some other subscription kept on the down low

Now, how many news subscriptions do you have?

I have the Chicago Tribune, Chicago Sun-Times, Block Club Chicago, New York Times and Washington Post. I have work accounts for quite a few more sites, which sometimes means when I log in the website gives my boss a cheery welcome.

I may be an outlier because I'm willing to pay other people for what they do. Most people heard the phrase "information wants to be free" and didn't think it was about censorship. They thought, yeah, I like free stuff!

So getting something for free is now the business model for the internet, as well as trade show exhibits, the Democratic Party and the Republican Party. The strategy doesn't hold up well.

As a boomer of course I'll admit I had a hand in every bad situation. My college newspaper experience was to go to the lunch counter at Rennebohm Drug, get a cup of coffee and ask if someone else's newspaper is stashed behind the counter. When I built websites in the 1990s, this was the experience I was trying to recreate.

Tribune slow jams the news

Tribune Tower is converting to condos, and the Tribune is converting to hedge fund control.

The Big Buyout: Everything Must Go!

Reading the Chicago Tribune is hard these days because all the columnists are writing the same thing. No, not that Trump really won the election. They're posting farewell columns. Dahleen Glanton, John Kass, Steve Johnson, Phil Rosenthal, Mary Schmich, Heidi Stevens, Eric Zorn—nearly everyone with photo next to their name is taking themselves out of the picture. No relief on Twitter; the people who I worked with behind the scenes are adding the word "formerly" to their bios. Even people barely out of journalism school have stopped chasing crime scenes. It's not a brain drain; it's a royal flush.

Let's just call it the big buyout. The hedge fund Alden Global Capital is taking Tribune Newspapers private. Perversely, it can pay off shareholders by borrowing against the Tribune's own physical assets. Now Alden is disposing of the papers' human capital, giving 80 employees severance deals to eliminate their jobs; 26 of them in the Chicago guild. It's not the first round of buyouts, either. I left in a round of them 7 years ago. It wasn't the first round. Newspapers of course aren't the only place to lose your job. Any business with a steady cash flow is an opportunity for the owner to cash in. They get taken over, they shed overhead and in another decade it's all over.

It's hard to get old working in newspapers. A few of the departing columnists will stay in the Tribune in syndication, which costs the Tribune much less than keeping them on the payroll. Newspapers always been low-cost operations. They're willing to make new stars and lose the old. But until this point they've been able to draw replacements from the pipeline of new journalism talent at small daily papers and suburban weeklies. Before I worked at the Chicago daily papers I was in the pipeline, reporting for the Elmwood Park Elm Leaves. I talked to politicians, teachers, merchants, realtors, wannabe actors, nursing home residents. I judged the Kiwanis Club Miss Peanut contest. I looked up a lot of dictionary words, and wrote about all of it. This is how I learned how to spell, how to write in a hurry, doublecheck what I know, and know what I still haven't learned. My readers learned if what I wrote was worth reading.

The Elm Leaves publisher now is the Chicago Tribune. I looked it up and read the editor's farewell column. It's hard to imagine what the pipeline for daily journalists looks like now, with so many fewer journalists. Maybe they'll hire from TikTok. We'll all learn a few new dance moves, but not much else, unless Jimmy Fallon will still slow jam the news.