That explains a lot: Sorry for this “inside” humor, but I know a few rexblog readers who will enjoy learning that the Princeton Review college rankings include a category called top schools for “Future Rotarians and Daughters Of The American Revolution.” (From the ‘comes as no surprise department’: I graduated from #7).

Condé Nast to launch monthly business magazine: Geez. I was doing all that praising of David Carey the other day and now he ups and becomes head of a new business group at Condé Nast that will be launching a monthly business magazine and website at some point in the future with a name as yet to be determined (see vaporzine).

Quote from MediaWeek.com:

While Condé Nast recently has been on a launching spree–rolling out Lucky, Cargo, and Domino–a business magazine takes the fashion publisher in a whole new direction. And though it owns Wired, Condé Nast will now take on a tough advertising challenge. Its soon-to-be rivals Forbes, Fortune and BusinessWeek have all had tough times with regard to advertising and circulation.

I guess accepting Wal-Mart ads in Vogue is providing the company with the cushion necessary to assume such a “tough advertising challenge.”

Also, I would like to take this opportunity to express publicly my appreciation to Condé Nast for not announcing plans to launch a weekly celebrity magazine.

Update: Condé Nast press release.

Update II: Quote from AdAge.com:

(The launch) comes at a time when the business category is generally struggling more than consumer titles but Mr. Carey said making a long-term committment matters more than trying to enter a category at precisely the right moment. “‘Is the category up x points or down x points’ is not really the question,” he said. “What is the right day? It’s always unclear. With the right editor and the full resources committed you can build a big business.”

Update III: Quote from BusinessWeek:

The as-yet-untitled magazine won’t launch until 2007, says David Carey, the current publisher of Condé Nast’s The New Yorker who’ll become the president of the new division. It is possible, however, that Web sites may launch before the magazine. The new unit is ultimately expected to resemble its corporate sibling, the Golf Digest Companies, which in addition to its flagship title publishes smaller magazines like Golf Week and Golf for Women, and operates ancillary businesses like custom publishing and conferences.

Update IV: Quote from the NY Times:

(Carey) said he was not worried about starting a business magazine when other business publications were having a hard time. “I’m not sure there ever is an ideal time to launch a new magazine,” Mr. Carey said. “You can build a great magazine and a marketplace will build around it.”

rexblog trivia: David Carey appeared in an Apple “switch” print ad.

Yahoo audio search deemed “so cool”: My family’s 18-year-old musicologist, who is sitting at a table in my office working on a project that will include dozens of links to sound clips of obscure traditional American folk music (those wild kids, these days), has just decided Yahoo’s audio search beta is magical. I think that means it has mojo.

Lowering what bar? Vogue is “allowing” Wal-mart to purchase ads (obnoxious registration required) in the magazine. The NY Post says, in doing so, the magazine has “lowered its bar” in who Vogue lets advertise in the magazine. (I won’t comment on the irony of the Post commenting on low bars.)

Quote:

“Indeed, just a few years ago, “the fashion bible” had a reputation for either turning away ads deemed too down-market or relegating them to the back pages to avoid drawing too much attention.”

Who makes this stuff up?

Answers, not links: Search guru Gary Price says that Ask Jeeves has beefed up its Smart Anwers database.

Headline writers & statistics: I’m confused. The third sentence in this story with the headline, “Oil closes at record high,” says: “Oil prices are up almost 50 per cent from a year ago, but would need to top $90 a barrel to exceed the inflation-adjusted peak set in 1980.” So, a “record high” of $67.40 a barrel is a record except for when it was trading at today’s equivalent of $90 a barrel.

Related: U.S. prices at the pump vs. other countries.

Note to kids: This year, ask if dad can take you back-to-school shopping. Note to my kids: Forget it.

More on NashvillePost.com: As I blogged last night, the NashvillePost.com sent out an e-mail to subscribers that it is ceasing suspending publication next week. This morning, Liz Garrigan has more detail in the Scene’s Desperately Seeking the News column.

Quote:

David A. Fox, who in January 2000 co-founded the online news service NashvillePost.com and more recently rebranded a local monthly business magazine into the statewide Business Tennessee, is leaving the company at the end of this month to head an asset management office in Nashville.

The website is being “re-valuated” and may be shelved, according to the article. The magazine Business TN will continue publication.

Updated: To clarify that the announcement stated the website is suspending publication, not ceasing.

Update II: This morning, NashvillePost.com editor David Fox sent the following e-mail to “subscribers and readers”:

Dear NashvillePost.com subscribers and advertisers:

I want to thank you for the support you have given me and the website over the past six years. Creating NashvillePost.com with Bill Carey and Townes Duncan has been the most gratifying work of my career.

It was a terrific windfall to discover from the start how the online medium created a much closer bond with readers than we had found possible in print. Those relationships were largely responsible for our ability to find the important info that fed our online traffic.

I hope to maintain the many friendships I have been fortunate to make as editor of NashvillePost.com. As you probably know, I am returning to my background in the financial world and to my brother George’s hedge fund advisory firm, where I performed manager due diligence for three years before starting NashvillePost.com. Over the past 14 years, he has established a significant advisory firm in New York that capitalizes in part on his long-term relationships with some of the world’s most highly regarded fund managers. I am looking forward to opening a Nashville office for Titan Advisors and to personally introducing some of this asset management talent to investors here.

Again, I deeply appreciate your key role in making NashvillePost.com an editorial success. I’ve been honored to capture some of your valuable time each day and I am hopeful that we will remain in touch.

Sincerely,

David A. Fox

Good luck, David.

Dejagimmick: (From BusinessWeek) “EchoStar Communications Corp., which operates the Dish Network, said Tuesday it will provide 10 years’ worth of free satellite television service for every household in a U.S. town that legally (changes its name to Dish).”

Observation: I can think of just the town for them – Half.com, Ore.