Down and out in Beverly Hills: I love this headline in the Los Angeles Business Journal, “L.A. Times Business Editor Wartzman to Step Down, Head Magazine.” Is heading a magazine a step down? I guess it is if it’s the LA Times magazine.

Custom publishing update: The USPS is launching a custom magazine called Deliver,
a magazine targeted to C-level executives about direct marketing and
advertising trends. According to DM News, the 32-page magazine goes to
a targeted circulation of
350,000 CEOs, corporate marketers and their creative agencies. It mails
today. (It should arrive in a week or two.)

Chairman Magazine: Mr. Magazine is now Chairman Magazine. Congratulations Samir.

Mr. Roboto speaks: It took him
a couple of days (hey, the weekends are his busy time), but nightlife
blogger Mr. Roboto finally blogged the Nashville blogger meetup and it was worth the wait.

The end of the beginning: With a headline like, “Bloggers as News Media Trophy Hunters,”
you can guess where the story heads. I stopped reading at the quote,
“salivating morons.” However, Jeff Jarvis continued reading (he’s also
quoted - a snippet from a blog post that is used out of context) and responds here.

With
the forced resignation of one of their own, it appears the Times’
editorial gatekeepers are viewing conversational media as Us vs. Them
– and declaring war. I don’t know how all this will play out but can
make a fairly certain prediction: the Times will lose.

They should follow Jeff’s advice, instead:

Perhaps it is because I spent a couple of hours this past weekend at a
blogger meetup hosted by some folks at a local TV station who are eager to learn how to work with the “other side,” I feel optimistic that out in the real world,
some traditional news media people are getting it. And Jeff, in is day job, is inspiring lots
of locally-focused news organizations to “get it.” I agree with Jeff: the “national” news
organizations perhaps should do some meeting up of their own.