A Biased and Anecdotal Guide to Navigating Digital Media

It can be really daunting to determine where you find the articles, think pieces and profiles that make up your weekly media diet. I drink from a firehose every day to produce the Digital Content Curator for you every day. Below is a brief synopsis of the major players that I engage with and enjoy.

Huffington Post - A trailblazer in the online media space, HuffPo is a news aggregator that is slowly gaining traction as a journalistic entity. You can expect some more liberal-minded political pieces and your fair share of click-bait headlines.

New York Times - It has been around since 1851 and won more Pulitzer Prizes than any other organization. Slightly left-leaning, but always striving to keep up with modern times. If you were to only read one site, NYT would provide the broadest, quality coverage.

Forbes - My dad bought me a subscription to Forbes when I was a freshman in college to “counterbalance” the strong liberal bent of campus life. I’ve learned the stories of countless successful entrepreneurs in years of reading. Conservative Editor Steve Forbes writes a column for every issue.

Wall Street Journal - The de facto source of journalism for the financial industry is one of the oldest media organizations to have made it to the digital age and maintains its conservative slant. While a lot of content is behind the paywall, columnists Jason Zweig and Morgan Housel are at the top of the pile for personal finance advice.  

Washington Post - Ever since Jeff Bezos bought the Post in 2013 for $250 million, the site has been on the rise and is now nipping at the heels of the New York Times for journalism supremacy. They follow the NYT lead in being left-leaning in their news coverage. Earlier this year, the Times responded by releasing a controversial piece on Bezos’ work culture at Amazon.

The Onion - Parodies the major stories of the day and provides tongue-in-cheek social commentary. One of the most consistently funny sites on the web.

Grantland - Launched by Bill Simmons when he was still with ESPN, the site covers sports and popular culture (ESPN’s original mission). Thought Simmons is gone, the site still has top basketball writer Zach Lowe and

BuzzFeed - The other digital media company giant has evolved past putting together listicles to develop a real journalism wing and a robust video production team. Buzzfeed is the envy of the industry for its ability to create shareable, if slightly superficial, content that millennials devour. Also, its comfort with profanity further separates it from other news organizations.

Clickhole - An off-shoot of the Onion that brilliantly parodies the click-bait fiends like Buzzfeed.

A Plus - Episode seventeen of my podcast featured A Plus Editor Isaac Saul, who left HuffPo to help run Ashton Kutcher’s new media company. The company’s mission is to focus on “positive journalism”, in an attempt to make readers feel better about themselves or the world after reading.

Daily Beast - Short snippets of opinion and gossip keep the Beast from entering the conversation of top journalism websites, but their scoops are admittedly interesting. The political commentary can provide an occasional dose of contrarian from the mainstream.

Re/Code - Let’s say you’ve never taken a computer science course but want to understand what’s up with Apple’s new operating system or read a review of the features of the hot new app people are talking about. Re/Code is the place for you.

Wired - The quintessential early adopter resource carries the torch of announcing new technologies and making proclamations about the future (i.e. The Internet of Things).

Mashable - A digital media site dedicated to the “connected” generation by focusing on social media, tech and pop culture.

NPR - liberal leaning organization produces journalism that will tug on your heartstrings. Their monolithic radio station has enabled them to dominate the podcast market with hits like Serial and This American Life.

Bloomberg - Former NYC mayor Michael Bloomberg built the business news media company out of a financial services data company when he realized how thirsty people were for business news. A huge stable of columnists lead the conversation in financial markets and economics.

Vice - The home of exclusively hardcore journalism has its own show on HBO. Specializes in dragging shocking images and topics into the light like forced prostitution, footage of glaciers collapsing and kids smoking cigarettes. Has no problem with profanity, but you sometimes have to weed through weak articles on their site.

Business Insider - Stealing the click bait headline tactics of HuffPo and Buzzfeed allows BI to produce business and pop culture content covering a broad array of subjects. It’s genesis comes from the collaboration of former Wall Street execs and marketing gurus.

Fast Company - FC aims to find the middle ground between creating content that is engaging for millennials and generation Y folks, while delivering the high level of business journalism you’d expect at Bloomberg, WSJ and Forbes.

Vox - The 9 year old blog is built on explaining the complicated political and economic world developments to those of us out there who aren’t policy wonks or political science grad students.

Al Jazeera - Originating as an Arabic New Service, Al Jazeera brings a fresh perspective when you get too mired in seeing things from the “western” point of view. Has far and away the most reporters on the ground for Middle Eastern News and a ton of former BBC journalists.

British Broadcasting Company - Another monolith, the BBC covers European news and provides another form of outsider commentary on American and world events.

Medium - The site, founded by the Evan Williams from Twitter, employs a unique style called social journalism where pros and amateurs can publish content. Great place to hear from tech leaders like Brian Chesky, Marc Andreessen, and Gary Vaynerchuk.

The Guardian - UK news company that broke the Edward Snowden story has a long and decorated history of breaking big stories. The company historically operates at a loss, but is sustained by a charitable trust. The goal being unbiased, high-caliber journalism.

The Intercept - Founded by Glenn Greenwald, Edward Snowden’s confidant, to combat the lies and expose the falsehoods reported to us by our governments. With backing from Ebay billionaire Pierre Omidayr, the site relies on unofficial sources to break alternative stories.

Rolling Stone - Great music and film reviews to go hand-in-hand with hardcore, deep pieces of journalism. The UVA rape case aside, solid reporting on counter-cultural phenomenons.