We very much appreciate the reader response to our post last month, Seeking Reader Help in Finding New Site Contributor(s) to Fill Lambert’s Yellow Waders, since Lambert is retiring at the end of this month or shortly thereafter. We wanted to give a progress report as well as solicit additional help.
The good news is that Conor had already agreed to fill Lambert’s regular site slots, but we have been looking for other writers to reduce the load on him, introduce some new voices and perspectives, and allow for redundancy in since inevitably, Shit Happens.
However, that still would have resulted in the loss of Lambert’s much beloved Water Cooler and particularly his Covid and now pandemic coverage.
But we may have a solution! Our esteemed regular contributor KLG has offered to produce a once-a-week 2:00 PM feature, which we will call “Coffee Break,” since Water Cooler was a Lambert special. KLG’s Coffee Break will focus on medical science and medical policy news, and keep on top of events on the infectious disease front.
So that means we have the potential for other topical Coffee Break features over the week. For instance, we have been discussing with one candidate the possibility of a arms industry/defense spending/defense policy, since actual and potential wars are important in and of themselves and also driving other fractures (see in particular in Europe, where in one of many examples, France has been unable to pass a budget due to fundamental disagreements over guns v. butter). Lambert’s work and his Water Cooler had a strong US political focus, so we could offer extra depth there, beyond our daily survey in Links, via a Coffee Break feature. Alternatively, due to the way geopolitical events are more and more driving economic and finance developments, we’ve somewhat de-emphasized some finance and economics matters. So one or even more Coffee Breaks on this beat could help rebalance our coverage.
Finally, we have still not sorted out our new roster. We have had some promising candidates put up their hands for writing articles. We are also in discussions about Links. So if you are game or know someone who might be, there is still time to toss a hat into the ring!1 If you are game, please write Yves at yves-at-nakedcapitalism-dot-com and put “Site Writer” in the subject line. Thanks!
Again, thanks for your help and support. Lambert also very much appreciates the kind words about his work.
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1 Although we got a good level of responses to our initial appeal, it was a bit surprising, after our emphasis that the ideal candidate was likely to be a journalist or other professional writer accustomed to regular deadlines, to see recommendations of prominent YouTubers and podcasters. While it was flattering to see so many think that well-established figures might want to also operate under the Naked Capitalism banner, videos and podcasts are a completely different genre than writing, even before getting to the deadline and production demands.
