Jeremy Caplan

Interviews ... and Being Interviewed

2008-05-19T14:32:00.005-04:00

Kyle Austin interviewed me recently for the RaceTalk blog, which has nothing to do with race. It's a publication from the Racepoint Group focused on the media. We talked a little bit about my fellowship year at the Columbia Business School, about social entrepreneurship and about being a journalist.

One thing that occurred to me during the interview process was how different it is to be the one answering questions once you've grown used to being the one asking them. As a reference point, I thought back to the time I interviewed Rabbi Harold Kushner, who is so masterful at answering questions eloquently and clearly. I also thought back to Ben and Jerry of ice-cream fame, who are remarkably candid in answering questions. Here's a mini-interview I did with them about their political ideals, corporate social responsibility, and flavors that flopped (like Baklava and Peanut Butter and Jelly).

Mergers... Looking Back, Looking Ahead

2008-03-30T16:54:00.008-04:00

Almost exactly a year ago, in the March 19, 2007 issue of Time, I wrote a brief piece (below) musing about the possibility of a 2008 Microsoft-Yahoo deal. The story referenced the Sirius-XM merger, which is surprisingly still in process a year later. It'll be interesting to see whether the Microsoft-Yahoo deal takes as long, if the companies agree to move forward in the coming months.

Principal for a Day

2007-12-05T13:27:00.001-05:00

I'm a fan of New York City's Principal for a Day program, which I've taken part in for several years. This year, I was matched up with MS244, a school in the Bronx that opened in 2005. The event happened to be covered by Kate McNeil, a reporter for the Riverdale Press, a local paper. Here's an excerpt from her article:

... "At the New School for Leadership and Journalism, MS 244, Time magazine reporter Jeremy Caplan took the helm as principal on Oct. 18. His term limit? Twenty-four hours. After lunch, the seasoned journalist gave tips to a class of eighth-grade girls studying the difference between soft and hard news. Mr. Caplan told the group of youngsters he didn't know his career path until the end of college so they have "plenty of time."

"The number of journalism jobs is very small," Mr. Caplan said. "But the skills you learn in journalism are important in any profession." MS 244 Principal Dolores Peterson said her students loved having Mr. Caplan visit because "middle school students like to establish relationships."

"They had no idea what a real reporter was like," she said. "It became real for them today." Mr. Caplan suggested the students visit the Time & Life building in Manhattan to see a real newsroom. "I see this as a long-term partnership," he said..."

Back to Princeton for a Talk

2007-10-01T22:35:00.000-04:00

I'm giving a talk tonight at the Princeton library about the Internet. For the occasion, I put together a list of some sites I've been using lately. It's great going back to Princeton.

National Writers Workshop

2007-09-29T03:28:00.000-04:00

I'm in Fort Lauderdale, Florida today to lead a session at the National Writers Workshop. The subject is noteworthy online journalism, and I've put together a list - not at all comprehensive - of some exceptional Web pieces.

Knight-Bagehot Fellowship

2007-09-16T18:14:00.000-04:00

I've recently started a Knight-Bagehot Fellowship, which gives mid-career journalists the opportunity to spend a year at Columbia University. The Fellowship is endowed by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, which does a terrific job of supporting contemporary journalism. The program is named after Walter Bagehot, a 19th-century renaissance man who was an early editor of The Economist. I'm spending much of my time at the Columbia Business School, where I'm studying subjects like Corporate Finance, Accounting and Strategy. It's terrific to be back in an academic setting. While at Columbia this year, I'm on leave from Time, and I'm looking forward to rejoining my colleagues at the conclusion of the fellowship.

National Service

2007-09-11T19:58:00.000-04:00

One of the subjects I most enjoyed reporting on this summer was The Case for National Service, which was published a couple of weeks ago. As part of the reporting for that cover package, my colleague Kristina Dell and I reported on organizations like Ashoka, which take an innovative, ambitious approach to making a difference through social entrepreneurship. It will be interesting to see if a dialogue about national service gains momentum over the course of the presidential campaign season ahead.

The Worst Jobs in America

2007-08-09T21:50:00.000-04:00

A colleague of mine and I wrote a piece posted on Time.com yesterday called The Worst Jobs in America. The article focuses on three particular jobs, but beyond that I'll let the story speak for itself. It was interesting, I thought, that someone posted the following comment on the Digg.com pointer to the story:

The last time I checked, if you don't like your job, you CAN quit and get another one. OR buy a mess of lottery tickets, move to a commune, join the military, join the Peace Corps, get a second job, or start a website where people submit news stories.
This is America.

I always find it interesting to see the kinds of comments people come up with.

On Google and eBay

2007-06-16T14:54:00.000-04:00

I wrote a piece this week about a spat between Google and eBay for Time.com:

"EBay is going gaga over Google. Less than a year after the two Web giants signed a billion-dollar advertising pact proclaiming a passionate partnership, a lovers' quarrel has broken out..."

It follows a number of others I've written about Google, including a story I wrote last October (06) about Google's strategic focus on developing partnerships and a briefer piece last September about some of Google's deals. It's a fascinating company.

Green Cities

2007-06-10T16:00:00.000-04:00

In July of 2005, I wrote a short piece about local green initiatives noting that various places, including Chicago, San Francisco and Charlotte, were implementing environmentally-friendly programs:

"With the administration still dragging its feet on joining the worldwide battle against global warming, a growing number of U.S. cities have decided that environmental activism begins at home..."

Two years later, the movement is continuing apace. Here's a bit from a recent piece by John David Sutter of the Oklahoman...

"Tulsa has become the 500th city in the country to make a formal pledge to cut greenhouse gas emissions that cause global warming....it is the 500th city to sign the agreement. At least one city from every state has signed the agreement, which requires participating cities to slash their city's carbon dioxide pollution by 7 percent between 1990 and 2012."

A Student Business Graduates...

2007-06-01T01:42:00.000-04:00

In March of 2005, I wrote a piece that mentioned a struggling student room-cleaning business at Harvard run by Michael Kopko that had sparked campus controversy. Two years later, I read recently that Kopko has just won the New England section of the Global Student Entrepreneurs Awards.

Here's the announcement:
BOSTON, May 14 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The Global Student Entrepreneur Awards (GSEA) -- the "Heisman Trophy" for the top undergraduate student business owners -- held its New England regional competition for 2007....

The winner of the New England competition was Michael Kopko, founder of DormAid and student at Harvard University. DormAid (http://www.dormaid.com) is a service that helps students enjoy their studies by handling the downsides of student life -- laundry, dorm cleaning, bedding, and more.

Kopko told his compelling entrepreneurial story of launching DormAid, which has received a great deal of media attention through its unique business model and challenges launching on the Harvard campus, and expanding it to dozens of campuses nationwide. "It's an amazing business," Kopko shared, "one day we'll be doing a student's laundry and the next weekend he's calling us at 3 in the morning on Sunday to clean up the messy results of a party. It's very fun."

Minimum Wage Follow-up

2007-05-28T01:08:00.001-04:00

Prior to the 2006 elections, I wrote a piece about minimum wage ballot initiatives in Arizona, Colorado, Missouri, Montana, Nevada and Ohio. (By the way, 87% of readers who responded to a Time poll supported those initiatives, and all of the initiatives ended up passing.) More than six months later, the federal government finally followed the lead of the 33 states that had already bumped up the minimum wage beyond $5.15 by voting to raise the minimum wage nationally for the first time since September 1, 1997. For the millions it affects, the impact of the minimum wage is significant, and the move marks a big step in the storied history of wage floors in the U.S.

Supermarket Science

2007-05-26T18:29:00.000-04:00

For the current (June 4, 2007) issue of Time, I wrote a brief item called Supermarket Science, about how grocery stores position their products. Because they face razor-thin profit margins, supermarket chains rely on data-mining experts to figure out the best shelf spot for Heinz Ketchup and most of the other 40,000+ products in a typical grocery store. The item was published alongside a story by my colleague Michael Lemonick called The Ewww Factor. Researchers, it turns out, have recently been considering the question of whether consumers are grossed out when kitty litter or diapers in their shopping carts touch packaged cookies and other food. Covering similar subjects in the past, I've spoken with Paco Underhill, whose books Why We Buy: The Science of Shopping and Call of the Mall: The Geography of Shopping are interesting explorations of similar territory.

Welcome

2007-05-26T16:20:00.001-04:00

This is a new site where I'll follow up on articles I've written.