The fledgling blog and advertising network to be launched Wednesday by Los Angeles bloggers Roger L. Simon (the novelist and screenwriter) and Charles Johnson (operator of the controversial Little Green Footballs website) says today in a press release that it closed on $3.5 million in private financing:

The investor group is led by Aubrey Chernick, angel investor and technology entrepreneur, and also includes Jim Koshland, a leading member of the Silicon Valley venture capital and technology community, and a DLA Piper Rudnick Gray Cary venture capital investment partnership.

Online chatter about the upcoming Pajamas Media launch has been increasing,
especially since the Pajamanians tapped ex-New York Times reporter Judith Miller to be their keynote speaker Wednesday at the Rainbow Room in New York. Excitement and skepticism both abound, and an avowed Roger Simon hater has been mocking everything about Pajamas Media, including its claim to have offices in Rockefeller Center Plaza. He has a personal grievance against Simon and Johnson. Also, someone has put together the RSS feeds of the Pajamas bloggers here. By the way, the Pajamas Media name will be changed on Wednesday, Simon says.

* They have a name: Open Source Media, says Associated Press in a Tuesday story that quotes Simon. Tuesday 5:05 pm