Hearst Corporation's Steven R. Swartz Owes Zennie62 Dinner

Hearst Corporation's new Chief Operating Officer Steven R. Swartz was formerly head of Hearst Newspapers, of which The San Francisco Chronicle and SFGate.com fell under his direction.

Now, replacing Cathy Black, who gained a small measure of pop-culture fame with an appearance on The Celebrity Apprentice, Swartz will take on a larger role, including the company's digital marketing efforts. Meanwhile Mark E. Aldam becomes the new head of Hearst Newspapers.

But while over Heart Newspapers, and in the last year in his 2010 report that I downloaded after some poking around, Swartz pointed to one aspect of Hearst Newspapers online that performed extremely well: the City Brights bloggers.

(And on March 18th, 2010, I generated over 280,000 unique visitors for SFGate.com in just 7 hours according to an email from Kevin Skaggs, when he was SFGate.com Executive Director.)
That equals money - revenue from ads that go to SFGate.com employees, so it's fair to say that during my little experiment with real-time blogging, I helped save a few jobs, and got Steven Swartz promoted.

(And on March 18th, 2010, I generated over 280,000 unique visitors for SFGate.com in just 7 hours according to an email from Kevin Skaggs, when he was SFGate.com Executive Director. Correction: that's 545,000 unique vistors for that one day according to Skaggs.)

Does Steve know about my output? Yes.

The overall problem, I think, is Hearst Corporation needs to adopt the ethic of listening to everyone, everywhere. I certainly do, even if I disagree with the message I might get. Hearst also needs to focus on buying blogs as much as it does print.

All I want from Steven is dinner at 21 Club in New York City. My favorite place.

Meanwhile, congratulations!

Tila Tequila In News Because Of MC Hammer

After almost a year of absence, Reality TV Show star Tila Tequila is back in the Google Trends, but not because of anything she did; she can thank MC Hammer.

According to TMZ.com, MC Hammer has announced he's going to perform at the Gathering Of The Juggalos in August.

Now the reason for Tila Tequila's appearance in the MC Hammer news is because she was attacked at the last one of these rowdy and dangerous events. In fact, here's my video on that happening:



Tila threatened to file a lawsuit over the attack incident but there's nothing online to indicate that she actually did, beyond the initial news of her stated intentions.

Perhaps the occurence wasn't a publicity stunt for Tila, but the problem was her method of seeking attention via calamity (like with San Diego Chargers Linebacker Shaun Merriman) had worn so thin, even a real tragedy was left to question.

Now, it's MC Hammer's turn. Why he's doing it? I don't know.

But he should ask Tila about her experience.

Oakland, Meet Lloyd, Crossing Guard At Grand And Mac Arthur Blvd

If you are on Grand Avenue and Mac Arthur in Oakland, California, during the rush hour and school mornings and afternoons, you've seen Lloyd. For 13 years, the man, 76 years old and turning 77 July 10th, served as the official crossing guard for that corner for 13 years.

Over that time, Lloyd has always worn a big smile and had a greeting for everyone, without fail. He says that by smiling he makes others happy in a kind of "pay-it forward" way.

As to what's changed about Oakland from his vantage point, Lloyd gave me a surprising answer: that everyone's in a hurry, "Nobody got time for nothing. People just rush by."

So, let's pay it forward, and back to Lloyd - give him not just a smile, but a greeting. Stop and talk to him for a spell. It's a great way to pay back someone' who's given so much to so many with his time on that busy corner of Oakland.

Ann Coulter Skips Pierce Morgan's Question On A Gay Child

Piers Morgan, CNN's choice to replace the now-retired Larry King, has been working to find his sea legs with American audiences, holding interviews that perhaps were interesting, but didn't really "hit" the mark.

But last night's interview with Conservative Mouth Ann Coulter did it. Pierce Morgan owned Coulter from start to finish on his CNN show, with the kicker being that she could not answer his question "How would you feel if you had a Gay child."

Instead of saying what any reasonable person would expect to hear, which is "I would not care because I love my child," she skipped the question. Opting for what she thought was an "out" by saying she's never been married, even though she's been engaged not once, but three times.

Well, from her awful, robotic, performance on Pierce Morgan's show, we can only conclude Gay youth give her problems.

Sad.

But thankfully, we don't have to worry about Coulter not loving her kids because she doesn't have any kids.

Stay tuned.