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Rex Hammock’s RexBlog.com
The blog of Rex Hammock, founder/ceo of Hammock Inc., the content marketing, strategy and media company founded in 1991 in Nashville, Tenn. Rex is also founder/helper-in-chief of the wiki, SmallBusiness.com.
RexBlog.com was created in August, 2000.
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Category Archives: statistics
Lies, damn lies and the other kind of statistics
I just saw two items as I was glancing down the headlines in my news reader. “Google’s Android becomes the world’s leading smart phone platform,” says the headline on the press release from a company conducting research that claims Google’s … Continue reading
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How a chart can suggest the opposite of what is says
I’ve read conflicting claims about which day of the year is the busiest travel day. (The day before Thanksgiving and the day after Christmas are favorites of bored TV news crews.) No matter what precise day you choose, if you … Continue reading
Posted in design, observation, statistics, usability
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Magical Mystery Math: The Beatles First Day on iTunes
While it ended up being a lot less eventful than a typical Apple announcement, the much delayed (by 8 or so years) appearance of 13 Beatles studio albums and the “Beatles Box Set” on the iTunes store finally occurred today … Continue reading
Posted in apple, statistics
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A journalist counting trend story from tomorrow’s Wall Street Journal
Over the weekend, PaidContent.org’s Staci Kramer passed along a joke via Twitter she heard at the Online News Association awards: How does a journalist count? “One, two, Trend!” I thought of that joke a few minutes ago when I saw … Continue reading
Posted in statistics
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90% of statistics can be made to say anything 50% of the time*
A couple of days ago, the the New York Times reported on findings from the new Veronis Suhler Stevenson Communications Industry Forecast that projects media expenditures from 2009-2013. From that NYT story, a game of “telephone” has rippled forth across … Continue reading
Posted in magazines, statistics
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Designing the impossible – a simple chart that interprets a mountain of data
Artists Shan Carter and Amanda Cox created the interactive chart in the video I’ve embedded below. (Added later: There is now a permanent spot for the graphic on NYTimes.com: here.) It is appearing this afternoon on the front page of … Continue reading
Posted in design, statistics
Tagged data, design, information, nytimes.com, statistics
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This chart doesn’t fit into the current narrative
Friday Afternoon Pondering: Minonline.com is the source of the chart above that ranks the top performing publications (as measured by the number of pages of advertising) during the past quarter in the business-to-business vertical of marketing. … I can guess the theories: (A) Media companies are advertising aggressively because they have so much unsold inventory, (B) media companies are launching new properties and thus are buying more ads to promote them, (C) media companies are aggressively pushing the message that advertising in a recession is the mark of a savvy marketer, (D) none of the above, (E) all of the above. Continue reading
Can magazine companies compete online?
I guess it’s theme week. And this week’s theme is all about magazines and the web. Yesterday, I pointed to an interview with the business editor of Wired magazine regarding magazines and the web. Today, the Wall Street Journal has … Continue reading
Posted in advertising, magazines, marketing, media, statistics
Tagged memetracking, technology
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My prediction: Holiday shopping stories will add 0% to our understanding of the economy
After a couple of decades of reading countless stories related to holiday sales, I can say one thing for certain: Retailers never, ever, predict they’re going to have a great holiday sales season. I’m not sure why — underpromising, I … Continue reading
Posted in observation, statistics
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Inflation is tame, or shooting up, take your pick
Longtime readers of this blog know I’m amused when my RSS newsreader stacks links to coverage of the same news that have headlines and ledes that seem contradictory: New York Times: “Inflation Was Tame in October” Lede: “Inflation remains contained … Continue reading
Posted in statistics
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Math-challenged reporters are more likely to re-print suspect research, study shows
A ‘rock stars die young’ meme is blanketing the web this morning. As the findings of the survey sound astoundingly obvious, I predict they will be proven wrong. Frankly, anyone who has ever watched an episode of VH-1′s Behind the … Continue reading
Posted in statistics
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Danah Boyd is pretty ticked at those who have butchered her research
The other day, I posted a flip remark about the absurd media coverage that has turned Danah Boyd’s essay, “Viewing American class divisions through Facebook and MySpace” into tripe. I was specifically referring to those who were trying to translate … Continue reading
Is the cover curse a mere regression to the mean?
If BusinessWeek, Forbes or Fortune call about doing a glowing cover story on you and your company, well, suggest they feature your competition. Via Stephen Baker (who recalls writing a 1998 cover story for BW on Nokia that later rode … Continue reading
Posted in magazines, statistics, titans
3 Comments
Where ‘coming of age’ people get their information
I had not planned to continue with my thread of Saturday in which I invited people to send me data showing that people who are “young” get NO information from TV or magazines. However, serveral people have sent me links … Continue reading
Posted in media, statistics
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Hope for math-challenged reporters
I won’t review the history of my reporter-math peeves, however, I think one of the big (downward) turning-points in my hope for the future involved a news item years ago about a debate over the need for a statistics course … Continue reading
Posted in statistics
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