I've been checking out the Daily Beast, Tina Brown's venture on the web, and am surprised by how off it is. Last night, for instance, right after the debate, I went to Huffpo and Dailykos and Drudge, my favorite political sites, and they all had coverage of the debate. DB had nothing. It was strange. Do they know, this isn't a newspaper, it's the internet. Today I see they have a roundup. Regrettably, Ira Stoll is included (who called for treason investigations of me and everyone else who demonstrated against the Iraq war in '03; I wonder how much neocon money is behind the beast).
That's not all. The layout is awful. It's much too busy, it's not clean. It's jammy, you don't know what the most important thing is supposed to be. With Huffpo and Drudge, you know! The Beast is unsettling to look at. It's too red. There's no white space. Red is a hot color. It gives me ADD (I already have ADD, this gets me jumpy). The ratio of celebrity gossip to hard news seems off. It doesn't feel very serious. I want more seriousness in my daily paper. And the best thing about the internet is it's very serious, and very fun at the same time. Some of the writing struck me as prosey and mannered. It doesn't feel immediate. It feels like a daily paper, rather than the IV of the internet.
This isn't dispositive. I'll keep my eye on it. Mike Kinsley is a great writer and Tina Brown is wicked smart and protean. (Caveats: This blog sucked when it started. And my layout still bites.)
