A few weeks back I got a call out of the blue from Verne Kopytoff, a staff writer for the SF Chronicle. Verne was writing a piece on customer defections (from Netflix to Blockbuster), had seen my name on HackingNetflix (and a blog post or two) and wanted to know if I wanted to share some thoughts.
Honestly, these aren’t easy decisions (at least not for me); all writers have bias, and many writers find facts to fit the “angle” they want to take their piece, rather than letting it develop organically. (Perhaps this is good practice; I dunno, I never went to “J-school”.)
In any event, I told Verne that while Blockbuster’s offering continued to improve, I still preferred Netflix, and still felt they were working harder to earn my business. In jest, I told him that the only use I had for Blockbuster was their “upcoming releases” list, something Netflix still refuses to offer for logistical reasons.
Anyway, Verne did a nice job on the piece as a whole, without a) overly distorting my words to fit his slant, or b) making me sound like a complete idiot (I do well enough there on my own, thank you). If ya haven’t seen it (and care), check it out here. (Susan Mernit quoted too.)