Blogger followers, no doubt: It doesn’t take much to connect the dots between this story and the convention-bloggers story, no? (via Dave Barry)

Suffering succotash: Slate’s Susan Daniels rounds-up examples of sour-grapes coverage in the international press of Lance Armstrong’s sixth Tour de France victory. Most ironic is the Swiss paper that chided Lance with this remark: “Mankind is not fond of those who gorge themselves on success without suffering and without showing compassion for their fellows.” Maybe something got lost in translation. Perhaps they were praising Lance with that remark.

Paper money: Paperloop.com, a paid-subscription site, is reporting that in June, North American factories that mill the type of paper used for printing magazines were operating at 95% capacity, up from 88 % a year ago.

Quote:

Tightness in North American printing/writing paper markets was reflected in the latest Pulp and Paper Products Council statistics, which show operating rates for all grades averaged 95 percent in June, up from 88 percent a year ago….Shipments as a percentage of capacity in June averaged 103 percent for coated mechanical paper, 99 percent for coated free-sheet (woodfree) and 93 percent for uncoated free-sheet (woodfree) as mills struggled to keep up with demand. Printing/writing paper shipments in June surged 10.4 percent ahead of a year ago and were up 6.2 percent for the first six months, according to PPPC. Mill inventories tumbled 117,000 tonnes to end June 528,000 tonnes below a year ago.

Some of the increase in shipments was caused by customers building up inventory before an anticipated price increase buyers expected on July 1, according to the report.

Vaporday: Another announcement about an October magazine launch, this one an extension of the Ward’s Auto World brand called “Ward’s Auto Electronics,” according to this one-day-only link to B to B online.

Two men “charged” with publishing a magazine: As incomprehensible and disgusting as I regard a magazine about dog fighting, I am still somewhat surprised that AP would spin this story to make it appear the individuals are being charged “with publishing a magazine.” Rather, upon reading the article, it appears the publishers of the magazine are being charged with cruelty to animals and conspiracy to commit cruelty to animals. The last time I checked, “publishing a magazine” was not a crime…however, what appears in or is advocated in a magazine can be.

This just in: Here’s a headline from mediapost.com that ranks right up there with “John Kerry served in Viet Nam”:

“Convention Coverage Could Boost Blog Traffic, Ad Rates, and Awareness.”

What? There are going to be bloggers at the conventions this year? Why doesn’t anyone in the mainstream media cover this story.

Clarification: I don’t really think the “bloggers at the convention” story is being missed by the mainstream media. Some e-mail suggests the nuanced sarcasm was not apparent in the indication of my beleif that bloggers are getting carpet-bombed with coverage. In reality, it appears the mainstream media has nothing else to cover.

Convention magaziners: In the absence of real news, reporters typically resort to stories about other reporters, as in this NY Times article about magazines producing daily versions during the political conventions. Still, this angle is in no way a threat to the convention-bloggers hype juggernaut.

Extremezine: Ziff Davis made a vaporzine announcement this morning.

Quote from the press release:

Ziff Davis Media Inc. announced today the launch of the ExtremeTech magazine series; the first issue will debut on
newsstands in October. ExtremeTech magazine is a brand extension of extremetech.com, the one-stop-shop for hardcore technology do-it-
yourselfers. The editorial coverage will provide expert knowledge on how to design and upgrade PCs and related technology systems, networking, security
and videogames…. The first edition of ExtremeTech will launch with 150,000 copies and will
be featured solely on the newsstand. The issue, which will go on sale with a
cover price of $7.99, will include a CD-Rom with bonus editorial coverage.

Move over convention bloggers: The kid reporters from Weekly Reader may be trying to infringe on your hype juggernaut.

Weekly Reader kid reporters carry some big credentials to the Democratic Convention this week. Four student reporters and two teen editors will be filing daily stories at the convention July 26-28.

Perhaps the bloggers could pitch the Weekly Reader kids to do stories about how bloggers are commenting on the Weekly Reader reporters.

The great outdoors: MediaPost’s Michael Shields profiles the magazine Outdoor Life.

Quote:

When a magazine announces that it is increasing its frequency from 9 to 10 issues a year, it is usually a sign of a startup publication growing bigger, and it’s usually not that big of a deal. But when that magazine has been around since 1898, that sort of expansion is worth noting…..(The) whole outdoor thing has been lifted by an explosion of media properties, as ESPN showcases the Great Outdoor Games and the Outdoor Life Network tracks every move of Lance Armstrong (OLN is a partner of Outdoor Life, it both licenses the magazine’s the name and broadcasts a branded content block).

Why we’re voting for Rafat Ali: Rafat, the journalist-blogger (blogalist?) of PaidContent.Org (and other properties) fame, displays why he’s one of this weblogs ‘roll’-models with this honest review of a conference of which his company was one of the sponsors. This is just one of the many reasons I am voting for PaidContent.Org in the Business/Marketing Blog category of the ClickZ Marketing Excellence Awards. (Deadline: A week from today.)