Touts

The WSJ What They Know” series is a must-read primer for anyone in the digital business — and Pulitzer bait for explanatory reporting — exploring the swift-moving world of digital tracking, and its implications.

In a report this week, Moon talks with Standard and Poor’s David Wyss, who tells us that really the 70% is more like 40% because of statistical gymnastics, and that of that 40%, only 70% of it really counts because 30% of what we spend is on exports, which of course don’t produce much in the way of American jobs. So we’re down to a real impact to 19.6%.

It’s a tough dance, and one that conservatives love to watch. I’m struck by how different the dance is in the UK, another English-speaking country with a fairly decent history of democracy and free press. There, the Guardian — which is now getting a global profile for its work, courtesy of its embracing of the Web — is proudly liberal. In fact, it still calls itself the “world’s leading liberal voice”.

The notion: to put a more intimate face on the problem. Take a look the project of 10 stories, 6 videos and more than 75 photographs, “Invisible Families: The Homeless You Don’t See” and you do get a different kind of appreciation of the issue. The blogs’ postings vary in journalistic quality, and add a grassrootsy dimension to metro paper coverage. A great model for others to test.

The conventional wisdom (to borrow an old phrase iconized by Newsweek): weekly reading bio-rhythms are dead; it’s a 24-/7 news world and let’s get on with it. One problem: the human brain.

So we go from macro (“10 Reasons to Watch the TBD Launch,” to micro, as we all get look at the site, and can translate the good theory behind the site to its actual look, feel and execution.

ProPublica offers a handy index of the aptly named “Investigations Elsewhere.” Pulling from sources as diverse as the Wall Street Journal, Parade and Mothers Jones, and including major dailies around the country, it’s a great showcase, and check-in on the state of longer-form investigative pieces. We see a half dozen new pieces added daily.

In fact, lower-cost entrants — AOL, Yahoo/Associated Content, Demand +++ — aren’t just pests; they’re changing the economics of producing content. That’s not a small issue. It may well lead the next wave of disruption.

The Onion: Satisfying the 3 Remaining Globe Readers

The mobile revolution is transformative, not a niche of what is mainstream today.