Keen insight: In one sentence, Slate’s David Poltz captures the essence of Nashville’s upscale suburb to the south, Williamson County: “Williamson is so conservative that even the hippies are Republicans.”

Zombizine? Before departing, I had to blog the lead sentence from this AP story about a magazine in Minnesota:

The Ruminator Review literary magazine will live on, even though the bookstore that backed it is going out of business and its editor and other staffers have resigned.

Red, white and blog: I’ll be blogging lightly through Tuesday. While I’m away, you may want to enjoy some light reading from this collection of academic papers (via Mark Liberman) regarding weblogs. I recommend printing them out and taking them to the beach .

Quote:

This online, edited collection explores discursive, visual, social, and other communicative features of weblogs. Essays analyze and critique situated cases and examples drawn from weblogs and weblog communities. Such a project requires a multidisciplinary approach, and contributions represent perspectives from Rhetoric, Communication, Sociology, Cultural Studies, Linguistics, and Education, among others.

Wal-Mart magazine channel news: I wonder if Time Inc. thought when they spent all that energy in developing All You, a woman’s magazine to be sold exclusively through Wal-Mart stores, that the concept would be knocked off before it’s even launched. Keith Kelly reports today that American Media is working with Wal-Mart on a rather similarly concepted idea.

Quote:

Freelancers for American Media have quietly been working on a prototype for a new women’s health and fitness title that is being designed to be sold exclusively at Wal-Mart stores. One source said the title has the working title, Looking Good….”They took it very seriously,” said the source, who said Wal-Mart hopes it will help move health and diet products. It is expected to be displayed separately from All You and the other mainstream magazines. There is still some debate whether it should be skewed toward women or seek a dual audience. It is expected that if the new title gets the OK, it will be offered for sale at a low price point — below the $2 threshold — much like the Time Inc. title.

Paper power: via MediaPost’s Michael Shields’ article today about Sappi Paper’s current “Life With Print” advertising campaign, I’ve discovered the company’s online “Idea Exchange” for on-paper publishers and other creative types. I’ve added it to the magazine resources blogroll and encourage you to download the brochure “Life With Print” brochure (or, better yet, order the print version).

Quote:

The provocative ad, clearly pro-print and anti-TV, doesn’t come from the MPA, or the ANA, but from Sappi, one of the world’s largest producers of fine paper. The ads, running in Fortune, Forbes, Adweek, Advertising Age, and others, “celebrate the print medium,” says Danielle Perretty, assistant marketing manager at Sappi. The “Life with Print” campaign would appear to be just what many proponents of print on Madison Avenue have been looking for–ads that directly challenge the effectiveness of TV. Sappi is even giving away a promotional guide entitled “Life With Print” to anyone who calls or goes online to request a copy.