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What Rough "Beast?"

October 10, 2008 Tina Brown is back with The Daily Beast, a website that she says is "a speedy, smart edit of the web from the merciless point of view of what interests the editors." 

Essentially, it's what my younger Mini Maven has been learning in fifth-grade language arts as "idea mapping" combined with hotlinks and images. I took a look because this week's "Big Fat Story" is about the Nobel Prize laureate for Literature, Jean-Marie Gustave Le Clezio (forgive the lack of accent aigue; this blogging tool isn't the nimblest). 

What I found was a sort of AOL Welcome Screen for the media set: links out to stories around the web that might interest a specific demographic -- even complete with links to ads and commerce opportunities, which The Daily Beast calls "Xtra Insight." 

It's no bad thing to have an online Festivus for the rest of us, the real "left behind" -- when the rapture comes, we'll be staring disconsolately at our less-intellectual brethren's discarded knickers and wondering if we did the right thing by questioning, questioning, questioning, but at least we'll have something to read. The Daily Beast is more fun than The Drudge Report and more stylish than Salon. 

However, is this all there is? Links, a dynamic lead, and a little original content? Maybe I'm just cranky because I couldn't find a "Books" or "Reads" section on the Buzz Board. 

But perhaps this is the baby step that print media needs to take in making a transition to the wild wild web. Nothing too conceptual or interactive (although readers can send in ideas, stories, and links, that doesn't mean they can actually throw anything onto the grid themselves), just a name taken from Waugh and some smart writing.

Shouldn't that be enough for me? Is it enough for you? Take a peek at this rough "Beast" as it slouches towards Gotham,and let me know.

Posted by Bethanne Patrick on October 10, 2008 | Comments (4)