Arts & Letters Daily
Encyclopedia
Arts & Letters Daily is a web portal
owned by The Chronicle of Higher Education
. It features links to a diverse array of news stories, features and reviews from throughout the online Anglosphere
, each introduced with a short blurb or teaser. In this, it has some of the characteristics of a weblog.
, who was a native of Los Angeles, California, and a professor
of philosophy
at the University of Canterbury
, in Christchurch
, New Zealand
, Arts & Letters Daily is an aggregation site originally inspired by the Drudge Report
but intended for "the kinds of people who subscribe to the New York Review of Books, who read Salon
and Slate
and The New Republic
— people interested in ideas."
s and a 19th century copy of a colonial New Zealand
periodical, the Lyttelton Times
." Three columns of links dominate the site: Articles of Note, Book Reviews, and Essays/Opinions.
Each link is introduced with a short teaser. Examples of teasers include:
To the left of the main columns is a series of links
to other online content providers, as well as a section titled “Nota Bene
" (the Latin for “mark well"), which is the site's fourth and final collection of daily links to articles deemed to be of particular interest.
discussion group, "Phil-Lit", that had been initiated by Denis Dutton
and served as a continuous internet symposium on articles and reviews found on the web. When the list reached eight hundred subscribers, Dutton suggested putting the articles together on a single webpage.
Arts & Letters Daily went online in September 1998. Dutton was assisted in operating the site by three former Phil-Lit subscribers: Sharon Killgrove of the Mojave Desert; Harrison Solow of Malibu, California; and Kenneth Chen, then a student at University of California, Berkeley
. Still in 1998, A&L Daily spawned a "sister site," SciTechDaily, run by Dutton's friend Vicki Hyde
, a science editor and author whose web company hosted both sites.
By August 1999, A&L Daily was attracting 250,000 monthly readers and praise from USA Today
, Wired
, and The Observer
; the latter called it the world's top website, ahead of The New York Times
and Amazon.com
. The website's relatively high profile at the time led to a "low-level" bidding war among several potential buyers, with the online magazines Feed
and Slate
competing with The Chronicle of Higher Education
, and Lingua Franca, with the Chronicle eventually becoming the owner.
In 2000, Dutton asked Tran Huu Dung
, a professor of economics at Wright State University
in Dayton, Ohio, to serve as managing editor of the website. Though Dutton and Dung had never met, the two had corresponded via e-mail.
In April 2002, A&L Daily was awarded a "People's Voice Award" for Best News Website by The Webby Awards. By August, Lingua Franca had declared bankruptcy, and A&L Daily lost its only source of financial support. Dutton and Dung financed the site themselves until October 7, 2002, when A&L Daily went offline. On October 25, 2002, A&L Daily was again online, accompanied by an announcement that The Chronicle of Higher Education had purchased it and "the assets of its parent company, which published the magazine Lingua Franca."
By March 2005 the single-page website was claiming more than 2.5 million page views a month, and about to receive its 100-millionth hit. In August 2007, PC Magazine
included it among its list of "Top 100 Classic Web Sites", their "definitive list of the best that the Internet has to offer in 2007." Their review credited the website for "pull[ing] together some of the most interesting reads available on the Web today."
Editor Denis Dutton died on December 28, 2010. As of this date, Evan Goldstein of The Chronicle and Mr. Dutton’s longtime collaborator, Tran Huu Dung, a professor of economics at Wright State University, will continue to produce the site.
Web portal
A web portal or links page is a web site that functions as a point of access to information in the World Wide Web. A portal presents information from diverse sources in a unified way....
owned by The Chronicle of Higher Education
The Chronicle of Higher Education
The Chronicle of Higher Education is a newspaper and website that presents news, information, and jobs for college and university faculty, staff members and administrators....
. It features links to a diverse array of news stories, features and reviews from throughout the online Anglosphere
Anglosphere
Anglosphere is a neologism which refers to those nations with English as the most common language. The term can be used more specifically to refer to those nations which share certain characteristics within their cultures based on a linguistic heritage, through being former British colonies...
, each introduced with a short blurb or teaser. In this, it has some of the characteristics of a weblog.
Content
According to founder and former editor Denis DuttonDenis Dutton
Denis Dutton was an academic, web entrepreneur and libertarian media commentator/activist. He was a professor of philosophy at the University of Canterbury in Christchurch, New Zealand...
, who was a native of Los Angeles, California, and a professor
Professor
A professor is a scholarly teacher; the precise meaning of the term varies by country. Literally, professor derives from Latin as a "person who professes" being usually an expert in arts or sciences; a teacher of high rank...
of philosophy
Philosophy
Philosophy is the study of general and fundamental problems, such as those connected with existence, knowledge, values, reason, mind, and language. Philosophy is distinguished from other ways of addressing such problems by its critical, generally systematic approach and its reliance on rational...
at the University of Canterbury
University of Canterbury
The University of Canterbury , New Zealand's second-oldest university, operates its main campus in the suburb of Ilam in the city of Christchurch, New Zealand...
, in Christchurch
Christchurch
Christchurch is the largest city in the South Island of New Zealand, and the country's second-largest urban area after Auckland. It lies one third of the way down the South Island's east coast, just north of Banks Peninsula which itself, since 2006, lies within the formal limits of...
, New Zealand
New Zealand
New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...
, Arts & Letters Daily is an aggregation site originally inspired by the Drudge Report
Drudge Report
The Drudge Report is a news aggregation website. Run by Matt Drudge with the help of Joseph Curl and Charles Hurt, the site consists mainly of links to stories from the United States and international mainstream media about politics, entertainment, and current events as well as links to many...
but intended for "the kinds of people who subscribe to the New York Review of Books, who read Salon
Salon.com
Salon.com, part of Salon Media Group , often just called Salon, is an online liberal magazine, with content updated each weekday. Salon was founded by David Talbot and launched on November 20, 1995. It was the internet's first online-only commercial publication. The magazine focuses on U.S...
and Slate
Slate (magazine)
Slate is a US-based English language online current affairs and culture magazine created in 1996 by former New Republic editor Michael Kinsley, initially under the ownership of Microsoft as part of MSN. On 21 December 2004 it was purchased by the Washington Post Company...
and The New Republic
The New Republic
The magazine has also published two articles concerning income inequality, largely criticizing conservative economists for their attempts to deny the existence or negative effect increasing income inequality is having on the United States...
— people interested in ideas."
Design
A&L Daily's layout, designed in July 1998 by Dutton, "mimics the 18th century English broadsheetBroadsheet
Broadsheet is the largest of the various newspaper formats and is characterized by long vertical pages . The term derives from types of popular prints usually just of a single sheet, sold on the streets and containing various types of material, from ballads to political satire. The first broadsheet...
s and a 19th century copy of a colonial New Zealand
Lyttelton, New Zealand
Lyttelton is a port town on the north shore of Lyttelton Harbour close to Banks Peninsula, a suburb of Christchurch on the eastern coast of the South Island of New Zealand....
periodical, the Lyttelton Times
Lyttelton Times
The Lyttelton Times was the first newspaper in Canterbury, New Zealand, publishing the first edition in January 1851. It was established by the Canterbury Association as part of its planned settlement of Canterbury and developed into a liberal, at the time sometimes seen as radical, newspaper...
." Three columns of links dominate the site: Articles of Note, Book Reviews, and Essays/Opinions.
Each link is introduced with a short teaser. Examples of teasers include:
- “Before Ritalin, little Tom BradleyTom Bradley (author)Tom Bradley is an American novelist, essayist and writer of short stories. He is the author of The Sam Edwine Pentateuch, a five-book series, various volumes of which have been nominated for the Editor's Book Award, the New York University Bobst Prize, and the AWP Award Series in the Novel...
set out for his Mormon school each morning, head brimming with amino acids, keen to challenge his teacher’s creationism..." - “'A single death is a tragedy; a million deaths is a statistic.' Joseph StalinJoseph StalinJoseph Vissarionovich Stalin was the Premier of the Soviet Union from 6 May 1941 to 5 March 1953. He was among the Bolshevik revolutionaries who brought about the October Revolution and had held the position of first General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union's Central Committee...
was callous, but maybe somehow right..." - “Anti-poverty advocates point to drug abuse and depression as prime “barriers to work” for welfare moms. And drunken, abusive menDomestic violenceDomestic violence, also known as domestic abuse, spousal abuse, battering, family violence, and intimate partner violence , is broadly defined as a pattern of abusive behaviors by one or both partners in an intimate relationship such as marriage, dating, family, or cohabitation...
?" - “Science does not follow a clear road to truth; better is the idea of a meandering river in flood and drought..."
- “Oprah WinfreyOprah WinfreyOprah Winfrey is an American media proprietor, talk show host, actress, producer and philanthropist. Winfrey is best known for her self-titled, multi-award-winning talk show, which has become the highest-rated program of its kind in history and was nationally syndicated from 1986 to 2011...
? Compared to the whining, spoiled, conceited snots of the high-art literary world, she's an exquisite, classy lady..." - “You’ve taken LSDLSDLysergic acid diethylamide, abbreviated LSD or LSD-25, also known as lysergide and colloquially as acid, is a semisynthetic psychedelic drug of the ergoline family, well known for its psychological effects which can include altered thinking processes, closed and open eye visuals, synaesthesia, an...
and are headed for a bad trip. Whose music do you seek as a quick antidote? Mozart or Haydn?..."
To the left of the main columns is a series of links
Hyperlink
In computing, a hyperlink is a reference to data that the reader can directly follow, or that is followed automatically. A hyperlink points to a whole document or to a specific element within a document. Hypertext is text with hyperlinks...
to other online content providers, as well as a section titled “Nota Bene
Nota Bene
Nota bene is an Italian and Latin phrase meaning "note well". The phrase first appeared in writing circa 1721.Often abbreviated as "N. B.", nota bene comes from the Latin roots notāre and bene . It is in the singular imperative mood, instructing one individual to note well the matter at hand...
" (the Latin for “mark well"), which is the site's fourth and final collection of daily links to articles deemed to be of particular interest.
History
A&L Daily was preceded by an electronic mailing listElectronic mailing list
An electronic mailing list is a special usage of email that allows for widespread distribution of information to many Internet users. It is similar to a traditional mailing list — a list of names and addresses — as might be kept by an organization for sending publications to...
discussion group, "Phil-Lit", that had been initiated by Denis Dutton
Denis Dutton
Denis Dutton was an academic, web entrepreneur and libertarian media commentator/activist. He was a professor of philosophy at the University of Canterbury in Christchurch, New Zealand...
and served as a continuous internet symposium on articles and reviews found on the web. When the list reached eight hundred subscribers, Dutton suggested putting the articles together on a single webpage.
Arts & Letters Daily went online in September 1998. Dutton was assisted in operating the site by three former Phil-Lit subscribers: Sharon Killgrove of the Mojave Desert; Harrison Solow of Malibu, California; and Kenneth Chen, then a student at University of California, Berkeley
University of California, Berkeley
The University of California, Berkeley , is a teaching and research university established in 1868 and located in Berkeley, California, USA...
. Still in 1998, A&L Daily spawned a "sister site," SciTechDaily, run by Dutton's friend Vicki Hyde
Vicki Hyde
Vicki Hyde is a New Zealand science writer and editor, and chair-entity of the New Zealand Skeptics. She is co-owner with her husband Peter of a New Zealand-based software and web development company, Webcentre Ltd....
, a science editor and author whose web company hosted both sites.
By August 1999, A&L Daily was attracting 250,000 monthly readers and praise from USA Today
USA Today
USA Today is a national American daily newspaper published by the Gannett Company. It was founded by Al Neuharth. The newspaper vies with The Wall Street Journal for the position of having the widest circulation of any newspaper in the United States, something it previously held since 2003...
, Wired
Wired (magazine)
Wired is a full-color monthly American magazine and on-line periodical, published since January 1993, that reports on how new and developing technology affects culture, the economy, and politics...
, and The Observer
The Observer
The Observer is a British newspaper, published on Sundays. In the same place on the political spectrum as its daily sister paper The Guardian, which acquired it in 1993, it takes a liberal or social democratic line on most issues. It is the world's oldest Sunday newspaper.-Origins:The first issue,...
; the latter called it the world's top website, ahead of The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
and Amazon.com
Amazon.com
Amazon.com, Inc. is a multinational electronic commerce company headquartered in Seattle, Washington, United States. It is the world's largest online retailer. Amazon has separate websites for the following countries: United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Japan, and...
. The website's relatively high profile at the time led to a "low-level" bidding war among several potential buyers, with the online magazines Feed
Feed Magazine
Feed or feedmag.com was one of the earliest e-zines that relied entirely on its original online content. Feed was founded by Stefanie Syman and Steven Johnson in 1995, and soon found a devoted online following. The zine had daily content, and focused on media, pop culture, technology, science and...
and Slate
Slate (magazine)
Slate is a US-based English language online current affairs and culture magazine created in 1996 by former New Republic editor Michael Kinsley, initially under the ownership of Microsoft as part of MSN. On 21 December 2004 it was purchased by the Washington Post Company...
competing with The Chronicle of Higher Education
The Chronicle of Higher Education
The Chronicle of Higher Education is a newspaper and website that presents news, information, and jobs for college and university faculty, staff members and administrators....
, and Lingua Franca, with the Chronicle eventually becoming the owner.
In 2000, Dutton asked Tran Huu Dung
Tran Huu Dung
Tran Huu Dung is a professor of economics at Wright State University in Dayton, Ohio. He is a specialist in the economies of East Asia, particularly Vietnam....
, a professor of economics at Wright State University
Wright State University
Wright State University is a comprehensive public university with strong doctoral, research, and undergraduate programs, rated among the 260 Best National Universities listed in the annual "America's Best Colleges" rankings by U.S. News and World Report. Wright State is located in Fairborn, Ohio,...
in Dayton, Ohio, to serve as managing editor of the website. Though Dutton and Dung had never met, the two had corresponded via e-mail.
In April 2002, A&L Daily was awarded a "People's Voice Award" for Best News Website by The Webby Awards. By August, Lingua Franca had declared bankruptcy, and A&L Daily lost its only source of financial support. Dutton and Dung financed the site themselves until October 7, 2002, when A&L Daily went offline. On October 25, 2002, A&L Daily was again online, accompanied by an announcement that The Chronicle of Higher Education had purchased it and "the assets of its parent company, which published the magazine Lingua Franca."
By March 2005 the single-page website was claiming more than 2.5 million page views a month, and about to receive its 100-millionth hit. In August 2007, PC Magazine
PC Magazine
PC Magazine is a computer magazine published by Ziff Davis Publishing Holdings Inc. A print edition was published from 1982 to January 2009...
included it among its list of "Top 100 Classic Web Sites", their "definitive list of the best that the Internet has to offer in 2007." Their review credited the website for "pull[ing] together some of the most interesting reads available on the Web today."
Editor Denis Dutton died on December 28, 2010. As of this date, Evan Goldstein of The Chronicle and Mr. Dutton’s longtime collaborator, Tran Huu Dung, a professor of economics at Wright State University, will continue to produce the site.