My media diet

C.B. at Flooring the Consumer tagged me last week with a fun topic:  What is your media diet?  It encouraged me to take a closer look at what media I regularly consume and how.

First, a look at news media I see.  My daily reading -- offline, of course -- includes The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, the New York Post and, a few times a week, The Daily News and The New York Sun, with its great Arts section. I also skim through The Journal News, the Gannett paper that covers Westchester and the northern suburbs.

Online, I try to check out some of the out-of-town dailies once or twice a week, such as The L.A. Times, San Francisco Chronicle, Chicago Tribune, Washington Post or whatever else I happen to click onto.  Those are usually quick skims, not really thorough reads.

My news also comes from the network morning  shows (NBC's "Today" and "CBS Morning") and the local FOX affiliate's "Good Day New York."  I'm rarely just sitting and watching; I hear and glance at these shows as I'm getting dressed .  At night, I sometimes watch the local news at 10 or 11, and  I may skim New York  1, the all-news channel for New York City.  "Charlie Rose" and "BBC World News" are also late-night options.  If I'm in the car, which is usually just on weekends, I'll listen to WCBS Newsradio.

My weekend viewing includes "CBS Sunday Morning" and, depending on the subject and guest, "Meet the Press" and/or "Face the Nation."

For entertainment on TV, now that The Sopranos are gone, I enjoy Law & Order, 30 Rock and Samantha Who.  I've also gotten into The Riches on FX, which is a strangely interesting show starring Eddie Izard and Minnie Driver.  When Curb Your Enthusiasm comes back, I'll be watching that too.  Most of the entertainment shows I watch on TV are now time-shifted and commercial-free thanks to my DVR.  Live, I'll often watch Letterman and/or Jimmy Kimmel and, if I'm still up, I'll catch at least the monologue by Craig Ferguson.

In the office, if I'm in the mood for music, it's either WBGO-FM, the local public jazz station, or online XM Satellite Radio's jazz or Latin jazz channels, and there's a great online station you program yourself called Pandora.com.

Magazines -- Most of the magazines I read are trade journals or general business, with the exception of National Geographic, which I've been getting since I was 10.  To my wife's dismay, I probably have most of the old issues up in the attic.  Don't ask why.

...Sometimes,it feels like Media Overload

Trade books I read include Ad Age, Adweek, Brandweek, Mediaweek and several online ad and marketing newsletters that come in daily and weekly.

Online, I also try to read several blogs, especially those on my blogroll.

Other media:  We probably see, on average, 2 - 3 movies a month, although that number varies widely depending what's out and what else we have doing on weekends.  I'll also watch films on HBO or the other movie channels on cable like Sundance or IFC.

Books: The most recent novel I read was A Thousand Sons, by the author of The Kite Runner.  It's a fantastic book, but the story makes me appreciate being born a male in a free western society.  I have, waiting on my night table, a book I stumbled across called The Children of Abraham, a 1989 novel about the remains of a European Jewish family after World War II.  Or I may first read John Adams, by David McCullough, who I chatted with a few weeks ago at The Christopher Awards where he was honored.  I've been hearing great things about the HBO version of the book.

For nonfiction, I have a bunch of marketing books to read courtesy of the Blogger Social goodie bags.  I'm just starting Media Rules by Dan Solomon and Brian Reich (no relation).

Damn, that's a lot of media I consume, and I didn't want to bore you with other stuff I see or read.  It makes me wonder how I find time for things like work and family and sleeping.

Since this is a meme, I'll tag newspaperman and One Reader at a Time blogger Bob Glaza in Washington and Cheap Thrills' Ryan Barrett in Boston to see what their media diets are.  It should be interesting to see how they differ (or don't) since they're on opposite coasts and of different generations.

And thanks again for the tag, C.B.  This was fun.

Comments

[C.B. Whittemore]

David, what a great response! I'm humbled by all that you consume and digest, but it's fascinating to witness the range. As much as I sometimes worry that I will drown on all that I want to consume, I know it's what keeps me energized. Thanks so much for participating and great tags... Bob's and Ryan's responses will be fun to read.

[BobG]

You tagged me a media consumer, David - of course I don't mind. Thanks for the chance to reflect on what I read :). Just back from a vacation to the Oregon Coast. I'll work on a post soon as this pile of stuff shrinks a bit!

And thanks to CB for the meme.

[Lewis Green]

David,

Great list. Thanks for sharing. (Oh, and thank you for not tagging me. I appreciate it. With my schedule these days I find I can only respond to memes that require very little of my time. I'm just out of the office too much.)

By the way, my apologies for not visiting as often as a good friend should. Your posts are too good to miss, even if we weren't friends.

[David Reich]

Glad to have you stop by whenever you can, Lewis. And your comments are always welcome.