TiVo, Now With Judgement (But in a good way)

If you live in Chicago, you're about to get a very cool additional TiVo service. Maureen Ryan, who is the TV Critic for the Chicago Tribune, has signed up with the company to have her picks automatically record on subscribers TiVo's. More info, and implications, on the other side of the link.

This is what's great - Ms. Ryan is good at what she does, consistently recommending shows that are smart, well done, and should appeal to the TiVo demographic (which the company admits is above middle class, and predominantly white). And I have a feeling that this is going to set the stage for this type of service to emerge in other cities.

This is what's bad - she already has a column in the Trib and a blog (The Watcher, in our 'blogs we like' link on the homepage). How lazy do you have to be to need your TiVo to record her recs? And I'm not hopefull that this will lead people to read her work, which people should - she's a smart writer. But it seems to me that this takes a professional writer and turns her into an automated vending machine.