• The Big Picture
    We may not think of them that way, but before the Internet - and certainly before the cloud - libraries were our original content servers. This image, a photocomposition of two very different kinds of "stacks" - the book shelves of the Library of Congress (above/left) and the computer servers of Google's data center in Douglas County, GA (below/right) - makes that point in a visual way.
  • Fast Forward
    Over the 10 years I've been involved in producing this magazine, I've often had a "gun to my head," but until this issue, it was only a figurative reference related to making our print publishing deadlines. With this issue - our annual "Future of Media" edition - it is a literal one. You could even see it on our cover, if we had one. Technically, we don't, because this is the first issue of MEDIA that won't be printed on paper, with ink - unless you choose to do that on your end. Instead, this issue was designed, produced and …
  • If You Don't Read This Story, A Machine Will Take My Job
    Those words were how one version of this story began when it was first published on Sept. 6, alongside an alternate version written by a machine named Persado. Both were sent in equal but random splits to the email subscribers of RTM Daily, a publication I edit that is mainly about people using machines to do a better job of what people used to do without them: planning, buying and evaluating media. One of the premises for why machines can help them do a better job is that machines - especially those tapping "Big Data" and utilizing next-generation data- processing …
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