I know there’s something going on. And no, I am not just talking about the 80’s song by Frida. There’s something going on out there that I don’t know about but I feel I should. The question – and challenge – is, how do I find out about it?

I am talking about what we refer to as “the news.” In my younger days, it was easy to find out what was going on. Growing up in western Massachusetts, the biggest choice we had was watching channels 22 or 40, and most people watched 22. (Occasionally we watched channel 3 and saw Oprah’s friend Gayle, but that was in Hartford, CT so we didn’t care as much about the Nutmeg state, but I digress) WHYN-AM was news radio before they called it that. Then there was the Springfield Daily-News that everybody read. And for the smaller, local stories, there was The Reminder. Keep in mind this was the 70’s and 80’s, and for those who were around then will know that was all we needed.

When I moved an hour away from my base to Pittsfield, MA when I graduated from college, the first thing I did was subscribe to the local newspaper, the Berkshire Eagle. Why? I wanted to know what was going on. A year later when I finally landed in the Boston area, I would get the Newton Tab, Waltham Daily News-Tribune and the Sunday Boston Globe, with TV news and WBZ-AM news radio filling in the gaps. In both cities, the combined news coverage worked, and as this time period was the 90’s.

Fast forward a decade or so, and I am in Chicago. I have only purchased the Chicago Tribune once – my wife’s name was in it. I get the daily emails from the Tribune and the Chicago Sun-Times, but they only offer the larger stories. And TV news only shows a small subset of those larger stories - the murders, not the smaller stories like the minutiae of the city council. Chicago is also much larger than Boston – its population is about half of that of Massachusetts! In order to fill in the gaps, I read blogs from news providers such as Crain’s, professionally-run blogs like the Chicagoist and Gaper’s Block and a variety of individual bloggers. Those combined give me a much better picture of the smaller news stories.

So what’s my point? There has been a lot of talk about the demise of the printed newspaper and TV news. Where I don’t know when this will happen, my guess it will be a slow and painful one. I do believe the timeframe will be based on its relevancy – will it be the place people go to get the news, or be entertained? When the news is followed by one of those Hollywood reporter shows, it’s hard to tell when one ended and the other began. Is it that I have something out for journalists or reporters? Heck no. I just want to know what’s going on, and they just don’t seem to be telling me anymore.

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There’s nothing like a Web site being down when there’s a big event or a breaking news story. For a high-profile Web site to be down can be detrimental to its owner, especially if the particular event – or any type of event - can be predicted. Black Friday online shopping and Super Bowl ads mentioning Web sites come to mind.

Last week, it was mistakenly posted on the Web site of the NFL’s Green Bay Packers its star quarterback Brett Favre was retiring. It turned out the “story” was merely a preparation for whenever the announcement of his retirement was made. It caused a small panic for Cheeseheads everywhere.

Today it was announced Favre is retiring. So I went to the Packers’ Web site at packers.com to see how they handled the announcement. The team and its Internet consultant apparently anticipate a deluge of traffic, so they redirected traffic to the home page to a special “breaking news” page as shown below.

(click on the link to view a larger version)

On the page is the following text:

Welcome to the Packers.com Breaking News page.

Due to the magnitude of today's Packers news, Packers.com is offering this Breaking News page in lieu of our normal Packers.com site. With minimal graphics and no ancillary content, page loads should be quick, even in this period of high demand. All news stories from today will be listed right here on the Breaking News page. If you are seeking archived Packers.com material, you may still access the regular Packers.com site here.

This is a wise move, and interesting they actually stated it as they did. And to Mr. Favre, thanks for the memories, except for Super Bowl XXXI.

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The next likemind coffee will be next Friday, March 28 in dozens of cities around the world. In Chicago, it will be at Intelligentsia Coffee, 55 E. Randolph, at the corner of Wabash in the Loop.

I call likemind a gathering of creative-minded people, from various disciplines including Internet, advertising, art, et. al. Coffee is gratis thanks to Dunkirk Systems, LLC! The previous worldwide sponsor is no longer, and we are welcome to anyone who would like to sponsor it here in the Windy City.

This is a week later than usual due to Good Friday falling on the previous week. And after suggestions to open it up to those who may not be able to attend but would like to participate, we will experiment with some form of social networking, whether it is Twitter, BlogTV or some combination of them and others - more details to follow. No RSVP is required but is welcome, and you can by replying to this post or at the likemind Chicago Facebook group. Business • (3) Comments • Permalink

In addition to this week having the leap year day of February 29, it was also a week that featured public relation moves by 2 of the world’s largest restaurateurs – McDonald’s and Starbucks. Each had a cost, got some attention, but who got the most mileage?

On Tuesday, February 26, Starbucks closed all of their US stores for 3 hours to retrain their baristas (the ones who make the coffee drinks) on the art of espresso. For those who don’t know, espresso coffee is not only a standalone drink, but the key component of many of their coffee drinks, such as the latte. This affected all 7,100 of their US stores.

On Thursday and Friday, February 28 & 29, McDonald’s gave away a free McSkillet Burrito breakfast sandwich with the purchase of a drink in all of their US stores. The McSkillet is a relatively new addition to their menu, a large burrito filled with just about every ingredient of a hearty breakfast, including eggs, cheese and sausage.

Both of these events have a cost – lost revenue for Starbucks, but the shutdown was in the early evening when traffic is not as busy as compared to the morning commute, and potential lost revenue for McDonald’s, but you also needed to buy a drink, which have high revenue margins.

Where both companies did these promotions to get free publicity, the reasons behind Starbucks shutdown for training are not purely for marketing. Its founder Howard Schultz has retaken the helm of the company and is trying to get the coffee shop to regain its mojo, or at least that is what I have called it before. Anyone can say they are retraining its staff, but the point gets across much better when you can see it for yourself. The site of an empty Starbucks at the corner of North and Wells in Chicago, a normally bustling, 24/7 location, was something to see.

So who made out better on this? My vote is for Starbucks. First off, most people I asked learned about the free breakfast item from me, where I heard many people talking about Starbucks. And so was the evening news, local and national. Whether you believe the training makes a difference or not, you know Starbucks did so, that they care enough to shut down to do so, and that speaks volumes over something for free.

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On March 29, 2008, people around the world are invited to turn off their lights for one hour for what is called Earth Hour. What started in Sydney, Australia last year is now spreading around the world. I heard about this for Chicago is one of the cities participating in this program at 8 pm local time. And this is not just a grassroots effort, as there are corporate sponsors for the event, including the local electric company.

Why not? For someone whose condo lights could be seen from a distance a skyline shot, I am in. I just hope too much money and effort (and electricity) is not being spent to promote it – wouldn’t that defeat the purpose?

I know from personal experience keeping the lights off can make a difference in your electric bill. Last year when having some work done on our condo, we had the main light fixture taken down in the bathroom and the replacement didn’t go up for another month. Looking at our bills, we noticed a significant decrease. The new fixture also had compact fluorescent bulbs, and we have continued the savings.

Will you be turning off your lights for an hour?

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