If you’ve checked in over at Reddit lately, you know the place is overrun with Digg refugees.

So, apparently the “new Digg” didn’t go over well on an epic scale, and many Digg users have vocally begun to express their displeasure. Amusingly, even Time thought to cover the longstanding rivalry:

But the best revenge? Teaming up with the enemy. So many enraged Digg fans jumped ship and headed to competitor Reddit that the latter’s moderators posted a Reddit 101 guide for new users. And as icing on the betrayal cake, one intrepid Digg-hater set up an automatic feed on Digg of Reddit posts.

I have to admit to not being a good, objective reviewer because I strongly prefer the format and tone of Reddit to Digg. It’s difficult to quantify how the large-scale frustration will play out in the long term for Digg, or whether the many new users proclaiming to be Digg refugees will stick around and become contributing members.

Have you switched? Are you finding the “new Digg”still preferable to Reddit? Pic attached, it’s my Digg front page.

Digg mutiny continues, feud makes ‘Time’ as users abandon ship to Reddit is a post from: The Inquisitr

Everyone has seen it coming but those effected by it:  the mainstream media has been in a long, slow slide that will inevitably end in its death, and they have long since decried this as outrageous – but the cracks are beginning to show.  Newspapers are asking for federal permission to collude as an industry, magazines are failing left and right, and all forms of publishing media has seen extensive layoffs and the closure of “extras” like non-local bureaus.

But what about the venerable media institutions that fall somewhere in-between newspapers and magazines?  These are the TIME Magazine‘s, Newsweek‘s, and U.S. News‘ of the world.

TIME, along with it’s weekly brethren, typically has historically had more journalistic integrity per paragraph than any newspaper does per page – this is common knowledge, and it was assumed by many that they would weather the perfect storm of media collapse better than most.  This, apparently, was an incorrect assumption.

Looking over the last three issues, disturbing trends begin to emerge.

The November 9th, 2009 issue of TIME has 64 pages:  25 are ads, and 11 are the beginning filler nonsense no-one reads – that’s over half the magazine, and another 5 pages are dedicated for entertainment “news” that doesn’t belong in a publication like TIME.  But here’s where it gets good:  there’s two “book adaptation” articles that total 6 pages.  All told, that leaves just 17 pages for true journalism, half of which are actually commentary pieces.

The November 2nd, 2009 issue has 80 pages:    44 are ads, 11 are introductory filler, 10 are entertainment “news”, and there’s another 5 for commentary – leaving just 10 pages for journalism.  The trend continues in the October 26, 2009 issue:  64 pages in length, 17 are ads, 5 are full-page “infographics”, 12 are intro filler, 3 are full-page pictures, 5 used for entertainment, and another 5 for commentary – 17 for journalism.

Did TIME think its readers wouldn’t notice?  That people who care enough about politics and world issues to read lengthy stories are somehow too busy or ignorant to realize the content they pay for is dwindling substantially?  The content I personally pay for now only represents somewhere around 20% of the magazine each week, and this is somehow supposed to be acceptable?

There was a time, just a few years ago, where the magazine took well over an hour to read – and it was an enjoyable, informed, educational timesink.  Now it takes less than half an hour of mostly brainless reading, depending on the week’s content, because the majority of the magazine gets ignored.  It’s understandable that such publications are going through tough financial times, due to a decreased readership and a number of other issues, but the way to increase your membership, or even maintain the status quo, is most definitively NOT to follow TIME’s current behavior.

To all the media moguls out there, here’s an important point you might want to write down for future use:  when you need to increase your publication’s readership, replacing content with ads and journalism with reprints or filler is not going to net you the results you desire.  This, in all honesty, should be common sense.

It goes without saying that I am not only disappointed in TIME for such behavior, but also that it deserves to fail in a miserable and public fashion, because it has proven itself incapable of making rational editorial decisions when threatened with existential questions.  Since I don’t subscribe to Newsweek or U.S. Magazine, it’s hard to say definitively whether they are acting similarly, but this industry has proven to be very open to groupthink…

In short, let TIME and its ilk die the slow, painful death that they deserve.

Kyle Brady is a contributing columnist for the Inquisitr, an entrepreneur, and has a future in science fiction.  He can be found at his blog, via email, or on Twitter.

Mainstream Media’s Death – Pending is a post from: The Inquisitr

Time magazine has named US President Elect Barack Obama the Person of the Year in 2008.

Other finalists were U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, French President Nicolas Sarkozy, failed VP candidate Sarah Palin (seriously) and Chinese director Zhang Yimou.

According to Time: “In one of the craziest elections in American history, he overcame a lack of experience, a funny name, two candidates who are political institutions and the racial divide to become the 44th president of the United States.”

Last years winner was Vladimir Putin, and 2006′s winner simply “You.” Other notable previous winners include Queen Elizabeth II and Adolf Hitler.

Shame they didn’t pick Palin, that would have been a whole lot more fun

Obama named Time Magazine Person of the Year 2008 is a post from: The Inquisitr

The magazine’s multiple global editions will see significant cuts, according to Keith J. Kelly at the New York Post, and will now be largely assembled out of the main New York office. The biggest impact, Kelly reports, may be in London, which has seemingly served as a central point for much of the global edition editing in the past. That would likely mean much of the London-based staff, as well as staff in other international offices, will be eliminated.

The cuts will also reportedly include the end of the South Pacific edition, currently produced in Sydney, Australia. That publication will become a duplicate of the Asian edition starting in 2009, the Post reports. Nine journalists from the Sydney office already say they’ve been told they’re losing their jobs.

“Time‘s international edition that goes through Europe and Asia, that will be brought down here, but basically we won’t be producing it in Sydney anymore,” Time Australia Editor Steve Waterson explained to the Daily Telegraph.

European, Middle Eastern, and African editions are also said to be preparing to start pulling most of their content from the Asian magazine.

Further layoffs are expected, with rumors suggesting the Los Angeles, Berlin, and Jerusalem offices could be hit next.

(Via Paid Content)

Time Magazine Trims Back Its Global Editions is a post from: The Inquisitr