Day: October 11, 2004

Picture this

Rex Hammock

Picture this: The NY Times has launched The NY Times Photo Archives, but don’t get too excited. It’s a store. Still, it’s a great idea.

Quote:

The New York Times Photo Archives contains historic images carefully preserved over the past 100 years — one of the largest and most comprehensive collections of photographs in the world. Search from more than 1,100 images online, or contact us to find images not yet posted. These classic photographs are sold as exhibition-quality archival prints, and are also available in custom print options that offer exciting design possibilities.

(via ResearchBuzz)

Next step in building an empire

Rex Hammock

Next step in building an empire: Rafat Ali’s (PaidContent.org) company, now with the cool name, Context Next, is hiring a “journalist-blogger” as he expands his pioneering business-to-busines blog-format media enterprise. The job is temporary but may transition into a full-time contracted position. I predict there will be many, many more blogger-journalists hired by Rafat as he shows us how to build a business-to-business media company from the blog-garage up. Cool.

Marconi personally taught me how to podcast:

Rex Hammock6 Comments

Marconi personally taught me how to podcast: Marc Eisenstadt provides some grown-up insight and historical context into podcasting.

Quote:

“Podcasting glues-and-scripts-together a lot of things that are already available, but the big ‘so what?’ comes from the fact that until now nobody had really achieved the complete cradle-to-grave life cycle from out-in-the-ether -> RSS feed -> portable gadget, and in a way that was open source and extendible: this is what has really fired the imagination.”

On a related note, Russell Beattie defends himself from some complaints about his “don’t talk about podcasting” post (that I didn’t complain about, but referred to).

[And on another note not related to Russell (inserted for clarification] I am amused by some of the “I was audioblogging before (insert podcaster name here) even knew what a blog was” that is taking place by those who wish to stake claim on podcasting pioneer status — or, to dismiss the echo-chamber hype swirling around the alpha-geek neighborhood of the blogosphere. Such inevitable debates over who is responsible for any innovation has led to my practice of always crediting Dave Winer, no matter what the innovation. (However, in this case, I’ll note that Marc Cuban has already made a few billion dollars from acting on a hunch related to people listening to broadcasts over the Internet.)

Much later update: Another clarification: I credit Dave because he derserves it.

(via PaidContent.org)

My answer

Rex Hammock1 Comment

My answer: David Carr asks in today’s NY Times, “What is up with all the personal pronouns (in the names of magazines)? What is next? We the People? Your Magazine? I Weekly?

It’s not often that I can personally answer David, but as I (when not blogging) am (among other things) the editor and publisher of the 550,000-circulation magazine pictured, MyBusiness, I know about the topic. First, it was named five years ago (so much for the “recent trend” theory) and I came up with it, so I know it wasn’t the result any expensive research except me listening to hundreds of our readers talk about their work.

Was the name influenced by the Internet, as suggested in the article today. No, it was suggested by how small business owners and the people who work with them use the term “my business” as a term of pride, a term of ownership and a term of unique personal knowledge. On a related note, it is my opinion that the use of the second-person pronouns “You” or “Your” in the name of a magazine makes no sense as it clearly communicates to the reader that the publisher is the “we” and the reader is the “you,” which is the exact opposite of what I think is key to the success of any magazine.

Speaking of my business, I just noticed that today is the 13th anniversary of the start of my business. Wow. It doesn’t seem that long. No, wait. On second thought, it does.

rexblog bumper music: My Ding-A-Ling (Chuck Berry)