I don’t get it: I’d like to publicly thank the people (you know who you are) who have sent me e-mails today that say, Dear Hammock Man: Thought you’d enjoy seeing Doonesbury today.

TV turns your brain into mush, or something: I meant to post this yesterday, but kept forgetting about it. What was I saying? Oh yes, watching too much TV when you’re young can contribute to atten.

A swamp by any other name would get more visitors: The power of branding can be appreciated by reading this article from today’s NYT. Last November, President Bush signed legislation changing the name of the Congaree Swamp National Monument to Congaree National Park. Since then, monthly visits to the South Carolina park have doubled.

Quote:

…many would-be vacationers, envisioning plumes of mosquitoes and flesh-eating gators, stayed away. Some of those visitors who did make it down the park’s single-lane gravel road would arrive to ask, “Where’s the monument?” (There is none, at least not a man-made one.)

(via Language Log)

Does “mother-approved” mean kiss of death? As I’ve said on this weblog a couple of times, Nashville is not Memphis. Both cities are in Tennessee, but they are different. This is a post about a magazine being launched in Memphis, not Nashville…but I will treat it with all the kindness and support I would one being launched in Nashville. (Oh, wait, except for when I said this in the Nashville Business Journal last week.)

According to a feature story by the Baltimore Sun’s Susan Reimer (although I couldn’t find it on the Sun’s site, you can find it here on the free-subscription-required website of the Orlando Sentinel) the magazine Justine is due to hit newsstands in a few days. (I assume it is already printed, thus it is officially no longer a vaporzine.)

The magazine is for teenage girls and its editor, Jana Pettey, says it is “mother-approved.”

Quote:

Wholesome isn’t hot. But that doesn’t mean there isn’t a place for a magazine like Justine, which will debut April 13. “We think there is another way to look at teen life,” said editor Jana Pettey from her office in Memphis, Tenn. — a very un-New York place to publish a magazine. “This magazine hits the middle of the road. We are aiming at the girls who really live out there.”

The first issue has a regular girl, not a celebrity, on the cover and loads of fashion, beauty and style stuff inside. The editorial content is written in what Pettey calls “sound bites.” Just nuggets of information. Nothing that looks like tonight’s homework assignment.

She calls her magazine “a safe place to relax.” A girl can flip to any page without fear of being hit in the nose with Cosmo Girl sex questions or Teen Voguewardrobe impossibilities.

I assume that by calling it “mother-approved,” Jana Pettey means they won’t be running ads for PETA.

Seamless: Rafat Ali (whose name I will never again misspell) and I have shared observations on the topic of KeepMedia since its launch (his and mine)…perhaps because it is an overlapping topic between his focus (”the economics of online content”) and mine (magazines and custom media, in print and online). (Another observer of KeepMedia whose opinion I respect greatly is Gary Price, the library and online research guru who is always quick to remind folks that the content one pays for via KeepMedia could be available free online if you have a library card). So, it came as no surprise to me that Rafat explains something that I have observed, but not considered what was taking place: a co-marketing partnership between KeepMedia and Topix.net. I’ll admit that I have noticed the promotion in the past few days and because of how camouflaged strategically displayed the KeepMedia archival search results are presented on the Topix.net page I typically visit, I’ve even clicked through to some stories not realizing it was, in effect, a contextual ad.

Here’s a quote from Rafat’s must-view-daily PaidContent.org:

In a way that shows how premium content providers will try using news search engines, KeepMedia has tied up with Topix.net on a cross-marketing promotion…
Visitors to Topix.net who search or browse through the site will be able to dive deeper into premium and archival content via content from KeepMedia….
The simple pitch for consumer: get the latest news and if you want archives or deeper analysis from other sources, get it through KeepMedia…What I am not so sure about is how the consumers will ultimately react to this kind of integration: would it make sense to keep the free and premium news sources separate, or integrate them and just mark them clearly? I have a feeling it will evolve into the latter option.

People who need anniversary stories: The WP’s Peter Carlson (The Magazine Reader) does his version of the People @ 30 story.

Quote:

(The anniversary issue includes) a choice compendium of quotes that celebrities uttered to People reporters over the years.

“I’ve been fortunate — I haven’t had too many auditions,” Pamela Anderson said in 2003. “I slept with the right people.”

“My idea of heaven,” Oprah Winfrey said in 1985, “is a great big baked potato and someone to share it with.”

“I know I’m not a dumb blonde,” Dolly Parton said in 1992. “I also know I’m not a blonde.”

(via I Want Media.)