links for 2009-04-21

• The painful truth about trainers: Are expensive running shoes a waste of money? | Mail Online
  (tags: fitness culture running)
• Peter Shankman's HARO - Help a Reporter Out (TM)
  I'm not sure where I read this morning about how HARO is earning 1 million a year in revenue from the little ads that appear in the 3x daily newsletter's of reporter queries for experts but it is the kind of simple and nice business that I wish I had thought of and were running. You could do it from anywhere once it got going.
  (tags: journalism tools reporting)
• He’s the Man Who Sets the Table- a Profile of agent Jon Rosen who works with food personalities
  I have several close friends who write about food and who also occasionally appear on television, so this article caught my eye as I expect my friends either know or know of this guy. As I read it however I began thinking about the saying "with friends like these who needs enemies." I think the article is meant to be complimentary, but to me, it reads like anything but, and by the end I felt sorry for the subject. Maybe I'm misreading it, but the author does him no favors from calling him stocky and a "prowling bear", having his asst chime in like Jack Donaghy's on 30 Rock, centering the story around his upbringing in a family that had some financial struggles and how those lessons make him who he is, quoting a long Bruce Springsteen song, and having Rachel Ray speculate on his self-worth. Is it really a compliment when a SVP at your company says he "has a little bit of street edge in him...some of us are more refined." Maybe all press is good press but I don't think so.
• Dave Winer & Jay Rosen chat/podcast on news and newspapers etc.
  (tags: media)