Most in the media know the basic Jim Romenesko story -- news guy starts "MediaGossip.com" on his own, moves to Poynter, gets a paycheck, drops gossip from the name, eventually the brand becomes just Romenesko. Now Mermigas on Media fills in the blanks on Patrick Phillips, the corporate communications specialist behind I Want Media.

"lt has become a nifty part-time business for me," said the former Hearst executive, who maintains his well-regarded Web site and produces a corresponding daily e-mail newsletter from a Dell laptop in a studio apartment in lower Manhattan. ...

A growth spurt during the past 12 months has seen a rise in advertisers, sponsors and companies licensing select material from iwantmedia for use on their own Web sites. Licensees include the New York-based media investment-banking firm of Veronis, Suhler, Stevenson; the Publicity Club of New York; and The American Press Institute. About 15 percent of iwantmedia's mostly advertising-supported revenue basis comes from licenses, Mr. Phillips said.

He recently picked up such weighty advertisers as The Wall Street Journal Online and its new paid Media and Marketing Edition....

Mr. Phillips has done such a good job of filling a marketplace void, he has recently been approached by larger media concerns interested in buying his enterprise and web site, or incorporating it into their own.

Hmm!