A Statement of Purpose For The Globe Tribune.Info

Since late January of 2008, I have published Rudi Stettner and Magdeburger Joe, my two flagship web sites. I will continue to do so. A major problem of increasing circulation has been the odd and easily misspelled names of my personal sites. Although I comment on the news and seldom get personal, the names of the two sites convey the mistaken impression that I am posting a personal blog when this is not the case.



Magdeburger Joe and Rudi Stettner Joe are good names for me to channel my inner creativity. Magdeburger Joe is named for the city in which my grandmother was born. Rudi Stettner is tied to my great uncle, a journalist murdered by the Nazis. The inspiration provided by writing under those names has been priceless. It leaves unaddressed the need to address society's notions of what a news and commentary site should look like.

For this reason, I have chosen to open a new site, which will pull together my original commentary from both Magdeburger Joe and from Rudi Stettner, along with articles from around the web that I want to call to the attention of readers. After almost three years of writing, I want to be a good online journalist and not a spammer or plagiariser. Following are some general guidelines of what will appear on this site.

I will not reprint entire articles. I will do a paragraph of introduction and a linkover to the article I wish to promote. If I like what a blogger or print journalist says, I will drive traffic to his or her web site.No one will be able to accuse me of stealing their hits or intellectual property. I will even treat the Rudi Stettner and Magdeburger Joe sites the same way. This is for a different reason. Search engines will treat me better if I do not duplicate content., and I intend to optimise my presence on search engines.

I subscribe to a "labour conservative" political philosophy. I believe that class warfare and an adversarial view of workers and business owners is harmful to individuals and society. I believe that for journalists, his or her religious and political convictions are like an operating system that functions in the background, yet shapes and influences everything they do. This is how I view my Judaism and my labour conservative political philosophy.

I will try to strike a balance between taking the pulse of the public and promoting political and cultural trends that I believe are of benefit to socety. In practical terms, thsi means mixing current mainstream news with stories about endangered languages, East German rock music and other things that I feel should interst more people.I do not want to be a slave to fashion, ratings or profits.

The internet gives anyone who cares to do so the opportunity to publish themselves and to present the news as they see fit. It is a radical shift in how we gather information. I am excited to be a part of it. Blogger has been a very good platform for me to post my writing. I am grateful to them, yet I hope to grow enough in the next year to have need of a website designer. I also want to thank Moshe Keller, a dear friend who recommended that I launch a site like this one that will mix my articles with those of other people. With some modifications, I have adopted his idea.

I feel particularly blessed to have a wife and children who have borne patiently my years of work in chasing my dreams of accomplishing something in the world of journalism.The many hours I have spent writing have certainly been trying at times.Last but not least,with G-d's help, I hope that Globe Tribune.info will on the balance make the world in which we all live a better place in which to live.