I've gotten a number of requests lately (in a very strange coincidence) asking what i read regularly. It's a fairly eclectic list, i guess. Some of these have been in my list forever, some are recent adds.
I generally start the daily consumption with headlines from a couple of core sites. These are my daily early morning reads. Cyclingnews.com is my first stop, where i get the latest news on the professional cycling community and my favorite sport. I also read the headlines and a story or two from Techmeme.com, where you'll get the freshest headlines. I'll also check out the headlines on CNN.com, NYT.com, and Wall Street Journal.com.
I've been really closely watching the rapidly changing editorial/news world. So, about every other day, i'll check out a couple leading content sites for headlines, functionality changes, interface chances, etc. I'm a fan of TheDailybeast.com, Huffingtonpost.com, AOL.com, gawker.com, theawl.com and, for the latest headlines, i read www.mediagazer.com. I've also started reading xojane.com, because i'm a secret fan of Jane Pratt. Forbes, Fast Company and the Atlantic Wire are really, really great and i should read them more frequently than i do.
I'm a music fan, so i'm almost always listening to Pandora.com throughout the day. NPR.org and Minnesota Public Radio are both dynamite sources for music fans. And, i'll check out www.pitchfork.com or Rollingstone.com occasionally. I also like The SixtyOne because of the awesome/unique interface and the music discovery.
I try to stay up to date on the advertising industry, so i read a couple sites pretty regularly. Advertising Age is the go to. But, Adweek has gotten much better with its recent relaunch. Both are pretty much every other day reads for me. There are a handful of blogs i read pretty regularly where, on average, the writing is much more valuable to me than the industry gossip and puff pieces. Two that are pretty much essential reading are Paul Isaakson and Faris Jacob. And, there are a couple agencies that are doing a great job sharing their knowledge, for example Zeus Jones and the BBH labs team. There are lots more, but that's a pretty good list.
I spend the most time reading up on internet culture and emerging thinking about how the net is changing everything. There are dozens of regular sites i go to every month, so i wont list them all, but a couple of ones that everyone could learn from include: Clay Shirky (smartest writer on the web), Jeff Jarvis' Buzzmachine, and Doc Searls.
Other tech news- I read Techcrunch.com and Mashable.com pretty much everyday. Techcrunch.com and Techmeme.com a couple times a day. I like to check out the headlines a couple times a week at Hacker news and Ars Technica.com.
I also read a bunch of OG bloggers, folks who have been blogging since they were called Weblogs. I've learned so, so much from these folks, including most of of what i know about digital culture. I still think the best blogs (not tumbleblogs, though) are the best of what the web has to offer in a lot of ways. If you want to understand what blogging is all about, the give/take, thoughtful analysis, and the interesting stream of smart links, you should read Jason Kottke's Kottke.org, Andy Baio (Waxy.org), and Anil Dash (www.dashes.com). You could also learn a lot from Matt Haughey, Heather Armstrong, Paul Ford, and John Battelle. There are hundreds more, but that's a good list.
There are some general cycling culture sites i check out pretty regularly: Lance Armstrong's twitter feed, Chris Carmichael's twitter feed, Fat Cyclist, and Bikesnob NYC.
And, because i'm in the food business, i look at a lot of food blogs. Dozens. I won't list them all, but here are a couple great sites that are representative of the ones i love: SeriousEats.com, one of the very best multi-author blogs out there, Tastespotting.com, Foodgawker.com, our own Tablespoon.com (Go Erin!), MPLS' Heavytable.com,101cookbooks.com.
Finally, the timewasters i love: the Onion, Buzzfeed, Facebook, twitter, and, the ultimate in web uselessness, AbeVigoda.com,
