The Christmas Loot from 2009

What a wonderful season of gift-giving it is! Here’s a run-down of what I received this year:

From my parents:

Three journalism books:

• City Room by Arthur Gelb of the NYT

• Bias by Bernard Goldberg

• Arrogance by Bernard Goldberg

That makes four books I’ve received since August that decry (and detail the decline of) the media industry. I wonder if people are trying to tell me something?

• A spiffy new wallet and smallet.

• A hypo-allergenic comforter.

• Blessed financial assistance.

• The Pearl Harbor soundtrack (perhaps the most beautiful music in the world)

• A fan.

• Two sets of fine sleepwear.

From my brother:

• The Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince DVD

From my sister:

• Cable Caddy

From my grandparents:

• Blessed financial assistance.

From Shele and Bobby:

• Blessed financial assistance.

From David Layfield and Debbi Ann:

• A Persian bookmark

Filed under: Uncategorized

The difference a link can make

In just a few hours my blog went from an average of 20 views a day to more than 5,000. And it was all because of one link.

Two days ago I wrote this post because I was curious about who was on the most TIME magazine covers in history.

I figured another news site, Gawker.com, might find the information I found intriguing, especially because the post was somewhat relevant (the end of the year, Obama’s record-breaking pace, etcetera).

I submitted my link to Gawker’s tips inbox, and a few hours later it was published on Gawker.com.

Later that day I was surprised to get an e-mail from a producer with the NBC Nightly News who asked me to call right away to verify that it was I who had researched the numbers and created the chart. He said he wanted to include a short blurb about it that evening.

And, sure enough, just a few hours later, my blog Teqnolog was mentioned by Brian Williams in this primetime clip. It was after watching that clip that I first realized I had multiple personalities.

By the end of the day traffic to my blog had skyrocketed far beyond the norm. In fact, Teqnolog was listed as #1 on WordPress.com’s list of the fastest growing blogs. The post was listed in WordPress.com’s top 50 posts of the day.

It wasn’t until the next day that I realized the story had been spread online.

I found the same story on Yahoo! News, Asian News International, The New Nixon, and even USA Today and the New York Post. Those, and quite a few other blogs and online news sites.

Now that’s what I call a viral post.

Here’s a look at the difference in Teqnolog’s traffic:

Filed under: News & Journalism, Observation

More of a reporter than Superman?

I don’t think I’ve ever received a higher honor as a journalist than being named before Clark Kent.

Filed under: News & Journalism