Dow Jones Marketwatch's Jon Friedman interviewed me for a piece on "What's Wrong With Media?" and it ended up being more of a profile. But my answer to the question was that media companies don't treat R&D like tech companies do and as a result aren't innovative enough. An expensive launch in an existing category is considered "experimental". My recent Portfolio-bashing prompted Friedman to ask if I was talking about any launches in particular. I wasn't talking about Portfolio specifically, but it fits the model.

He also asked me about my book, which comes out in Winter '08. He wanted to know if I'd care if people didn't like it. I said it would depend on who didn't like it.

Blogger Spiers knows where old media go wrong [Marketwatch]

A while back, my friend Tom Dolby asked me to contribute to The Girls Who Like Boys Who Like Boys anthology he was editing with his friend Melissa De La Cruz about friendships between straight women and gay men. So I wrote a piece titled "Life Before Gays" about growing up in a conservative environment that was not exactly welcoming to gay people and the sort of dialog (if you can call it that) that existed around the subject when I was in middle and high school.

The book has a fantastic cast of contributors (Simon Doonan, Mike Albo, David Ebershoff, Gigi Grazer, Ayelet Waldman, Chiny Chupak, Alexandra Jacobs, Andrew Solomon and the wonderful co-editors, to name a few), a foreword by Armistead Maupin, and a portion of the proceeds from the book go to The Trevor Project, a suicide and crisis prevention line for gay and questioning youth. You can buy the book here.

Tomorrow and Thursday night I'll be reading with other contributors from the Girls Who Like Boys Who Like Boys anthology. It's a great collection and a portion of the proceeds benefit The Trevor Project. Event information is below:

Wednesday, May 30, 2007
New York
Barnes & Noble, Chelsea
675 Sixth Avenue, 212.727.1675
7pm Reading
Tom Dolby, Melissa de la Cruz, Andrew Solomon, Mike Albo, Zach Udko, Elizabeth Spiers, Karen Robinovitz
Co-sponsored by the LGBT Community Services Center.
Thursday, May 31, 2007

New York
“Out Ivy Authors Reading Series” at Soho House
29-35 9th Ave., 212.627.9800
6 - 9pm Reception and Reading
RSVP Required
Tom Dolby, Melissa de la Cruz, Alexandra Jacobs, Mike Albo, Zach Udko, Elizabeth Spiers, Stacey Ballis