Politico reports this morning that Glenn Beck has launched The Blaze, a brand-new “news and opinion” site.

At the moment, it’s a pale imitation of The Daily Beast or The Huffington Post. But stay tuned: This is just Day One, and I’m sure many, many additions will be made to the site in short order.

The Blaze is just the latest example not only of how relatively easy it is to create a digital “newspaper” these days, but also of a trend I’m seeing more often all the time. Call it The Rise of the Editor.

There is an enormous amount of information out there, and an enormous amount of new information being generated daily. Over the past 10 years, the trend has been toward self-publishing tools that help anyone and everyone add to that massive pool of information.

But now comes The Rise of the Editor: I believe the next several years will see a marked increase in tools and trends that lean away from content creation and toward content filtering. Drudge and Huffington have been doing it for years. Tools like FriendFeed and Protopage let you do it on your own.

The Blaze is just the latest (and highest-profile) manifestation of The Rise of the Editor. The fact that Beck has the traditional media muscle to drive traffic to his site gives him a coupla legs up in the race to create and maintain audience.

Watch this one closely.

Please to enjoy.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, vampires have earned 7 billion dollars for Hollywood. That doesn’t suck.

On this day in 1961, Motown released “Please Mr. Postman” by The Marvelettes. It would be the label’s first number-one hit and the first step in a journey that would make an indelible impression on American music. They don’t make ’em like this anymore.

“If you think it’s hard to meet new people, try picking up the wrong golf ball.”
—Jack Lemmon