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Susan Getgood's personal blog

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Some suggestions for getting the New York Times to listen

03.16.2010 by Susan Getgood //

Frustrated by Sunday’s mom blog article in the New York Times (notice, no link)? Want to take action but aren’t quite sure what to do?

Here’s the thing. What matters to the New York Times is its pocketbook. Boycotts and Facebook pages aren’t going to do it, because the Times knows that many, many of those signers don’t spend a dime on the paper.

If you are a subscriber, you’ve got some power. Not much, but a little. So here’s what I suggest, and will be doing myself later today. Write your post about the article. Then print it out and MAIL IT to the paper. In your cover note, make sure you identify yourself as a paying reader, and request that the paper do a better, more balanced job of covering women, mothers and gender issues.

Don’t email it. Mountains of email don’t make an impression. And the guys at the modern-day Tammany Hall don’t read emails anyway, unless an admin prints them out. So we’re just saving her the time.

If you don’t have your own blog, or don’t have time to write a post, attach your cover note to Liz’s or Joanne’s or Kelby’s.

The address is:
Letters to the Editor
The New York Times
620 Eighth Avenue
New York, NY 10018

Now, if you are not a subscriber, you still have some power. Because you shop, right?  Every once in a while anyway. So here’s my other idea.

Tell the New York Times advertisers that you patronize about the mom blogs you read. Tell them that those blogs would be a better way to reach your eyeballs than very expensive ads in the New York Times style section. On Sunday.

Now I realize that most of us aren’t buying Gucci or Tiffany these days, but if you are, wield the power of  your pocketbook. Because I would just love to see an ad for Saks on Attack of the Redneck Mommy. Wouldn’t you?

Here’s who advertised in SundayStyles on the 14th, in the order they appeared in the section: Gucci, David Yurman, Bottega Veneta, Neiman Marcus, Macy’s, Hastens, Tiffany, Dior, Saks Fifth Avenue, Bulgari, Berdorf Goodman (twice), Ralph Lauren, Harrys Shoes, Architectural Digest, Crewcuts (J. Crew), Eileen Fisher, Barney’s, Wempe, AKA Flexible Stay Residences, Roc and Calvin Klein.

Words motivate. Actions create change. Use whatever power you have in your pocketbook to make change.  Pun intended.

Whatever paper you read, or TV station you watch — ask it to do a better job at covering women, mothers and gender issues. And if it doesn’t, tell its advertisers where they can really find you.

Over here. Reading blogs.

Don’t count on them to figure it out. Tell them.

Categories // Gender, Journalism, Parent bloggers Tags // mom blog, mommy blog, New York Times

Ruminations on Mom 3.0

03.03.2010 by Susan Getgood //

Susan & the Chipmunks at Mom 2.0 Summit

As my Facebook page now proudly says, “I used to have a life. Now I have a book.”  Blogging is a luxury right now, but I found this photo this morning and gave myself permission to write a quick post about Mom 2.0 and Mom 3.0

Mom 2.0

First, the Mom 2.0 Summit was tremendous. It was terrific to reconnect with good friends and make some new ones as well. As for the rest, I’ll just leave it at, What she said:

  • 10 Tips to Rock a Conference as an Introvert
  • Mom 2.0 = Awesomeness
  • Inspired

Mom 3.0

In tech, versioning — 1.0, 2.0 etc. — is a convention normally reserved for denoting the latest rendition. The most recent and presumably advanced. In that context, Mom 2.0, generally and as coined by the founders of the Summit, means the new Mom. Not new as in recent. New as in not like June Cleaver, Edith Bunker, Maude or even Elyse Keaton and  Joyce Summers.

In the real world, however, it also means phases. It recently dawned on me that I am entering Mom 3.0 — the tween and teen years. I think it breaks down something like this:

Mom 1.0 — Pregnancy or adoption, new mom, the toddler years. Ends when your child is about 4 or 5 and goes to school
Mom 2.0 — Elementary school. Kids are increasingly independent but still willing to be seen in public with you.
Mom 3.0 — Tweens and teens. Culminates in a driver’s license.
Mom 4.x — Young adults. Through college and beyond. They leave. They come back. And so on.

Now, I know this isn’t absolute. Someone could have children in two or more phases, but we can use this break-down to understand the evolution of mom blogs.

In 1.0, parenting is all new (and scary). Blogging is about finding your online tribe. The people who are going through the same scary transition as you. Yes, the topic is your kids, but you are really writing about your response to your kids.

2.0? This is the shift we’ve been seeing lately in the first group of successful mom blogs. The content is shifting, becoming less about the process of parenting and more about the family. More about the mom and her other interests. Many women start new projects that are only loosely related to their parenthood.

And a new group of new mothers will start a new 1.0 tribe.

What will happen when the mass of mom blogs reaches 3.0? Who knows, but I think you can look to the blogs of women whose children are in this age group for some clues.

Many of us never really wrote about parenting at all. Like me. Some of my writing is about mom blogs. It isn’t a mom blog. Others, like my friend Joanne who writes PunditMom, write about the experiences of parenting through a very different lens than the process of being a parent. In her case, it’s politics.

It’s funny. You can’t keep ’em from growing by putting them in a smaller pot.

Categories // Parent bloggers

Quick update

10.21.2009 by Susan Getgood //

img_6708

For those of you interested in the Africa pictures, I’ve posted a few more days to Flickr but have been woefully pathetic about getting the posts about the trip up on the Roadtrip blog. Hopefully I’ll be able to catch up this weekend.

In other news, I just started writing about digital parenting for BlogHer’s Family Connections project. I’ll be posting there once per week for the next six months or so.

I’ll also be contributing regularly to the blog of B2B marcom and PR firm, Attain Marketing, and …. ta-duh … writing my first book. More on those endeavors next week.

So if updates over here get a bit sporadic, please bear with me, and check out one of the other places.

Categories // Blogging, BlogHer, Parent bloggers, Travel

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