Local angle: A steady subject in stories my rexblog google hacks deliver me involve someone in a small town getting featured in a national magazine. It happens so often, that I’ve tried to design the searches to kick those out. However, once in a while, a classic shows up that displays how far a newspaper will go to localize such a story. Here’s one of the best of that genre, a story about a Centre (Kentucky) College co-ed volleyball player who’s on the cover of Cosmo. How is that a local story in Boston? Her boyfriend goes to college at Dartmouth. (Wait, come to think of it, the rexblog has a local angle - my niece (if that is the title of the girl who marries your nephew) played volleyball at Dartmouth.)

Ready made dilemma: On Saturday mornings, I usually listen to Car Talk, so I guess I’m in the advice giving mood. Our first caller to the rexblog this morning is Shoshana who edits a magazine start-up called Ready Made that’s getting some traction in the marketplace and some buzz in the media. She and her partner are wondering what to do next.

“We’re looking for a chunk of change….We need to increase our frequency, our staff, our circulation. There’s only so much we can do.”

“We have one offer on the table already from a midsize publishing company,” (she) said, not disclosing the prospect. “(We’re) on the fence. We could hold out for the big guns, remain on the slow boat to China, or take the investment now and take a salary and grow slowly.

Here is the official rexblog advice: take the money. The big guns have a notoriously bad aim when in comes to knowing what to do with a magazine that is a successful labor of love. There’s no line on their corporate balance sheet called “love,” (and eventho it sounds warm a fuzzy, the term “goodwill” doesn’t count).

Hope this helps, Shoshana. Cool name, by the way.