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 Remember when Forbes magazine ran a cover story by Daniel Lyons blaming blogs for, well, lots of bad stuff including “wrecking our lives.” It droned on for a few thousand words like this: “Suddenly they are the ultimate vehicle for brand-bashing, personal attacks, political extremism and smear campaigns. It’s not easy to fight back: Often a bashing victim can’t even figure out who his attacker is. No target is too mighty, or too obscure, for this new and virulent strain of oratory.”
In the current issue of Forbes, Lyons has a “Follow-up” column ( here’s a link, but you need to register to access it) in which he uses the Kathy Sierra incident and the “Blogger Code of Conduct” response by Tim O’Reilly and Jimmy Wales for a “told-you-so” rehash of his earlier premise: “Our antiblog cover story provoked howls from bloggers who called us stupid, clueless and a lot of other things. But now some of the blogosphere’s biggest names are complaining about “incivility” on blogs and even proposing a blogging “code of conduct.”
At the time, I noted that a positive side-consequence of that blunt-instrument attack on blogging was the sudden appearance of a blog by Forbes publisher Rich Karlgaard, a blog I continue to enjoy, even when I disagree with him. Beginning with the third post on his blog, Karlgaard started doing damage control with his many friends among the techosphere, while defending his writer: “Blogs are democracy. Blogs are free-market capitalism. Blogs are righteous. (And yes, I think Dan Lyons’ brave story on those hate-spewers fouling the blogosphere was damn righteous, too.) On this blog, every now and then, I will blog on the subject of blogs. I will do this humbly, knowing that the world is rapidly filling with expert blogofiles, hip-deep into the subject.”
The accurate follow-up to that Forbes cover story is still the same: Blogs and bloggers can be righteous or self-righteous or evil incarnate. We don’t need Dan Lyons taking credit for pointing that out. I won’t waste time proving it, but I could easily point to writings and discussions that lament the incivility of virtual communities that date back to their earliest days. I could also cite similar laments regarding “offline” incivility that date back thousands of years of pre-Internet history and that include such instances of incivility as world wars in which tens of millions of individuals were killed.
Sidenote: (Or perhaps this is not a sidenote, but a continuation of this post’s rant) Also in this issue of Forbes, we find the continuation of the steam-roller of hype accompanying the publication of the blogger-bashing book, Cult of the Amateur by Andrew Keen. In an essay titled “Down with Internet Democracy” Keen enlightens us with such insight as the following: “Internet search has become too central to all our lives to be put in the hands of noble amateurs. A ‘people-powered’ search engine staffed by a militia of anonymous volunteers will only compound the opacity of the supposedly ‘democratic’ Internet. Jimmy Wales’ faith in open-source communitarianism and the natural goodness of volunteers is childish and self-serving.
There is truth somewhere in that Forbes’ stew of Lyons, Keen and Karlgaard: All this participatory communication one finds on the Internet is a mashup of communitarianism, self-service, free-market, democratic, childish, incivil, amateurish, extremist righteousness.
Yesterday, I said I don’t like blogging about the “transactions” of magazines. That declaration, of course, leads to one of the rules of blogging I’ve discovered during the past six or so years: Whenever you say you don’t blog about a certain topic, you’ll spend the next month blogging about that topic.
Longtime readers of this weblog know that for over two years, I’ve been over-the-top with my praise of the concept of JPG Magazine. On so many levels, the magazine and the people behind it have provided those of us who are firmly rooted in both the magazine/print and online/community worlds with a glimpse into how the two do not compete, but, rather, compliment one-another. I rarely speak publicly on the topic of the future of magazines without using JPG as an example of one-or-another lesson.
As I often speak and write about small business and entrepreneurship, I am sad to learn that they now are providing an example of some of the harsh realities of that topic, as well. They have discovered that when a shared passion becomes a business, the dynamics of the relationships among those involved can alter greatly — and lead to trainwrecks.
In some heartfelt posts today, Derek Powazek and his wife and co-founder, Heather Powazek Champ, talk about their departure from the company they helped to create. I’ve heard many stories like these. I’ve even participated in a couple.
Jason Calacanis (as quoted by Dave Winer) once said, “If a deal is worth doing, it’s worth documenting with a good agreement. If it’s not worth that, then don’t bother.” Last August, I found myself with Jason and Dave in an impromptu conversation with a young web entrepreneur who was going through a high profile start-up business divorce. Despite not always taking the advice myself, we were pretty unanimous in our advice for the young entrepreneur to move on: that the controversy and strife of a business relationship breaking up was merely a temporary setback — that the opportunity ahead was too grand to be absorbed with the failure of a single transaction or attempt — it is inevitable that conflicts will occur when strong-willed, ego-driven human beings are involved. (Again, I only wish I would follow such sage advice that I freely extend to others.)
Other than as a fan, I have no personal knowledge of the business of JPG magazine or 8020 Publishing, the company it spawned. I do not know personally its founders or investors. I do know this: they are pioneers. Their work will lead to many great things. Whether or not it is with that specific company and that specific magazine, I have no idea. But I can say this with some degree of certainty: They all have a great deal of opportunity ahead of them. The quicker they move through the current crap, the better off they’ll all be.
As for those of you starting businesses with partners, remember the Jason (and many others) rule: If it’s a deal worth doing, it’s worth documenting with a good agreement.
Update: On Techmeme, there are many posts that focus on who is right and wrong. I’m not suggesting in this post that the parties are not correct in airing their differences or pursuing whatever course they desire to settle their differences. My focus, rather, is on a universal lesson — not my personal opinion of, as we’d say down south, “who shot John.”
Later: CEO Paul Cloutier posts a polite but oblique announcement on the 8020 weblog. Excerpt: “Despite our best efforts, we couldn’t come to an agreement and parted ways though Derek remains a shareholder in 8020 Publishing. We recognize Derek’s contributions to JPG Magazine, past and present, and wish him well in his future endeavors.”
 Apple announced the update of its 13-inch MacBook today. It comes in any color you want, as long as what you want is black or white. Here are the lists of features of what comes with the $1,299 white version or the $1,499 black version. Remember when you were a child and in the doctor’s waiting room and you flipped open the Highlights magazine and tried to find the difference between the side-by-side pictures of two giraffes or the hidden picture games. You can play the same games on the following two lists.
The 2.16 GHz, 13-inch white MacBook, for a suggested retail price of $1,299 (US), includes:
* 13.3-inch glossy widescreen 1280 x 800 display;
* 2.16 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor;
* 667 MHz front-side bus;
* 1GB of 667 MHz DDR2 SDRAM, expandable to 2GB;
* 120GB Serial ATA hard drive running at 5400 rpm, with Sudden Motion Sensor;
* a slot-load 8x SuperDrive with double-layer support (DVD+R DL/DVD±RW/CD-RW) optical drive;
* Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 950;
* Mini-DVI out (adapters for DVI, VGA and Composite/S-Video sold separately);
* built-in iSight video camera;
* Gigabit Ethernet port;
* built-in AirPort Extreme 802.11n wireless networking and Bluetooth 2.0+EDR;
* two USB 2.0 ports and one FireWire 400 port;
* one audio line in and one audio line out port, each supporting both optical digital and analog;
* Scrolling TrackPad;
* the infrared Apple Remote; and
* 60 Watt MagSafe Power Adapter.
The 2.16 GHz, 13-inch black MacBook, for a suggested retail price of $1,499 (US), includes:
* 13.3-inch glossy widescreen 1280 x 800 display;
* 2.16 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor;
* 667 MHz front-side bus;
* 1GB of 667 MHz DDR2 SDRAM, expandable to 2GB;
* 160GB Serial ATA hard drive running at 5400 rpm, with Sudden Motion Sensor;
* a slot-load 8x SuperDrive with double-layer support (DVD+R DL/DVD±RW/CD-RW) optical drive;
* Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 950;
* Mini-DVI out (adapters for DVI, VGA and Composite/S-Video sold separately);
* built-in iSight video camera;
* Gigabit Ethernet port;
* built-in AirPort Extreme wireless networking and Bluetooth 2.0+EDR;
* two USB 2.0 ports and one FireWire 400 port;
* one audio line in and one audio line out port, each supporting both optical digital and analog;
* Scrolling TrackPad;
* the infrared Apple Remote; and
* 60 Watt MagSafe Power Adapter.
Easter egg and hint: There are two bullet-pointed items on these specs that are worded differently. One, however, is not an actual difference.
Bottomline: No matter how one tries to butcher the cliché, black is always the new black.
From today’s Wall Street Journal comes this item, “To Create Buzz, TV Networks Try A Little ‘Blogola’.”
Quote:
“Trying to tap into the burgeoning power of blogs as promotional tools and fed up with the jaded attitudes of professional critics and TV feature writers, studios and networks are flooding bloggers with free stuff in hopes the flattered recipients will reward them with positive coverage. Flowing into the trough is everything from fancy gym bags and toasters to video iPods and free trips. Some networks — in the spotlight this week as they unveil their fall schedules to advertisers — have even borrowed a term from the technology industry to describe the strategy: blogola.”
Blogola?
For the record, on July 25, 20082005, I said the following: “Podcasting won’t officially be mainstream until it has its first payola scandal.”
However, I don’t consider schwag and junkets that are disclosed by the participants to be “blogola” anymore than I consider disclosed press-passes or review-copies to be payola — especially if that largesse is not accompanied by a specific set of requirements and explicit instructions for positive coverage.
Payola — the word from which the term is derived — implies a discreet, direct payment for a specific outcome. For example, there are companies that will pay bloggers to make posts about specific products and services. I consider that practice to be more worthy of the term “blogola” and consider it worthy of scandal. However, the WSJ story today — that promotional and public relations pros are treating bloggers the way they’ve treated TV critics and reporters for eons — is nothing scandalous — except, perhaps, why it took them so long to figure it out.
Disclosure: I’ve received no schwag from any entertainment companies, however once a Hammock company sent me a hammock (that I never reviewed) and I am currently participating in a blogger-focused PR effort that I will fully disclose the first time I mention the product. I always identify any gifts over $25 — I just never get any.
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Quote: “Magazines are getting into event marketing in a big way, using high-engagement activities to draw groups of readers together and form a sense of identity centered on the publications. “
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Quote: “What it takes to stand out when anyone can be an entertainer.”
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Quote: Encyclopedia of Life is an ecosystem of websites that makes all key information about life on Earth accessible to anyone, anywhere in the world.
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Quote: “The secret is that advertisers don’t really need head counts — they need to get into people’s heads.”
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Quote: “Algorithms and algorithmic spamfighting are an essential way to improve Google’s quality, but Google does reserve the right to take manual action on spam.”
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American Legacy magazine, the quarterly publication devoted to African-American history and culture, is ending its partnership with Forbes Inc. and going off on its own.
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Warning: this is addictive. Mashes up real-time Googlemap with Flickr photos that are being geo-tagged. If that explanation makes no sense, you’ll still find it interesting.
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While there have been some high-profile magazine failures in the last decade (including Talk, George, and, most recently, the movie magazine Premiere), the total circulation of American magazines rose to 370 million in 2006, the highest since 2000.
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Attack of the clichés: “The magazine industry faces more and more competition…Companies that don’t change will “erode off into the sunset.”
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Quote: “Small publications say they didn’t have enough time to figure out what the plan would do to their bottom lines before it was pushed through.” (Translation: Ignorance was bliss.)
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