COVERITLIVE.COM

10:04

[Comment From CarolineK]
Hi Megan! What did you love most about Jezebel? What your favorite story you covered? And finally, how did you get to be so awesome??

10:05

Megan - I have to admit, as much as I barely slept and subsisted entirely on caffeine, crudites and wine, covering the Democratic Convention last summer was really fucking cool.

10:05

The Brain of Megan - Don't forget that sunburn!

10:08

Megan - True, the eventual skin cancer might make it less cool in retrospect. But, as a blogger, I rarely get to leave the house, so to be walking around in the midst of the news, seeing Obama give his acceptance speech surrounded by "real" journalists and thousands of fans, that was really cool.

The Republican one was less so, despite the security being less of a clusterfuck because it definitely didn't have the size or the energy of the first one, and everything was so spread out it was impossible to get around easily or in a timely fashion. It was, however, very interesting to see the difference in the reactions of the people around me to Palin's and then McCain's speeches versus the comments on my live blogs and during Crappy Hours.

10:10

[Comment From RD]
In your new position will you be able to be as free and snarky (please say yes!) that you have been on jezebel? Or will you feel a bit more muzzled?

10:11

Megan - Well, I know for sure I won't be able to curse as much (which is to say: "at all.")

10:11

The Brain of Megan - Fuck.

10:13

Megan - But if they wanted someone to just write perfectly straight news copy, well, there's a recession on and a lot of media types out there unemployed as part of the 9.4% of Americans who are unemployed. So, a little bit yes, and a little bit know.

10:14

The Brain of Megan - Just insert the swear words where you hear them in your head. That's what I always fucking do anyway.

10:18

Megan - Ok, seriously, the jackhammering needs to stop outside. Thank God I'm not hungover.

10:19

The Brain of Megan - Just be thankful it's not your car they decided to jackhammer away the pavement all around, let alone when they fill in the hole. That asshole is gonna be pissed when he gets home tonight.

10:20

Megan - I love how today, of all days, the front page isn't updating in a timely fashion.

10:21

The Brain of Megan - Yeah, fuck your life.

10:21

[Comment From marghet]
Following Rupert Murdoch's annoucement of charging for online news, as a news blogger for various sites - how do you feel about it? Will it be good for the industry?

10:28

Megan - Well, Murdoch's announcement that he would start charging for all online content in his media group (including for Fox News content) comes about a month after Scott Heekin-Canedy announced something similar for the New York Times. Most people assumed then that other media companies would pick up on the Times model, particularly in a recession and as one of the largest worldwide media conglomerates -- and one of the only ones with a moderately successful pay-for-play model, with the Wall Street Journal -- it seems only likely that he'd follow suit.

10:30

Megan - For my part, I'm a fucking cheapskate. When Yahoo discontinued my free professional level Flickr account, and Kodak did the same with my Kodak Gallery account, I put my pictures back on my computer. I didn't pay for Times Select. I probably wouldn't pay for Facebook, Twitter, Blogspot or Tumblr.

10:30

The Brain of Megan -

Except for with alcohol. Sometimes we splurge on alcohol, though we feel it justified as good alcohol gives us less bad hangovers, I swear.

10:35

Megan - On the other hand, if everyone begins charging a nominal, yearly fee for content, as a blogger, there's no way I (or my employers) can afford not to pay it. The question is how addicted is the universe of people reading the Times or Fox News to the content. The problem was and is that newspaper readership was already in decline years ago after an era in which everyone read it -- blame it on cost, or interest or the declining quality of small, local papers. Has the Internet succesfully rebuilt the sort of audience that cannot and will not stand to not read the Washington Post and the New York Times in the morning (and afternoon and evening)? I think it's possible. I hope so. I think the more informed Americans are, the better off we are.

10:36

The Brain of Megan - Even if those people are informed by Fox. Just as long as their knowledge is deeper than Limbaugh.

10:37

Megan - In answer to the question, which is getting increasing long I know, I think it has the potential to be good for the industry if its successful: good reporting, as Ian Shapira noted and many, many others have reported before him, requires money.

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