Would-be blog moguls Roger L. Simon and Charles Johnson have jettisoned the OSM identity they took when they jettisoned Open Source Media, the name that replaced their original working title of Pajamas Media. After several days of mostly bad blog press, they have changed back to Pajamas Media. They blame it all on The Man:

So how did this happen in the first place? Back at the beginning, certain, shall we say, paternalistically minded parties (i.e., the guys in suits) decided that we should act like grownups, and being as yet somewhat immature—at least as businesspeople--we did as we were told.

Which is how, one day, we ended up sitting around a conference table listening to representatives from a "branding" company. What followed is still a bit of a nightmarish blur, but it involved a PowerPoint presentation on the history of names, and such probing questions as, "If you were an animal, what animal would you be?" (Which is how we almost ended up as Jellyfish Media.)

The fleeing Pajamanians (I guess they can be called that again) are getting all kinds of unsolicited advice from observers who think the whole thing has been a bust so far. Instapundit Glenn Reynolds, chairman of their editorial advisory board, is one. Blog evangelist Jeff Jarvis calls it a train wreck and says they should shut down, ditch the token liberals and reinvent as a right-side Huffington Post: "Stop with the salaries and fancy parties. Build a product and an audience first. The money is corrupting you, just like a bubblicious startup. It’s making you think you‘re big when you’re not even born. So step away from the checkbook." Simon posted over the weekend that he's been hurt by some of the harsh words sent his way. Hmm. He won't get any sympathy from the sizable share of the blogosphere that thinks he's in business with the creator of the biggest name-calling, hate-spewing website around (which also happens to be one of the highest-traffic Los Angeles-based blogs.

© 2003-2009   •  About LA Observed  •  Email the editor
LA Biz Observed
4:03 PM Fri | CBS and ABC have far bigger fish to fry - namely whether their stations can get back the auto and retail advertising that fell off a cliff in 2009.
Native Intelligence
Jenny Price | Recycling!
Veronique de Turenne | And there's still time to take part!
Phil Wallace | Searching for answers after a third loss this year.
Deanne Stillman | Jihad and cash offers meet American soldiers during the Gulf War, and beyond.
Iris Schneider | After a tough year financially, the Museum of Contemporary Art put on a gala party to celebrate with 1,000 of its closest friends.
Jenny Burman
Thinking more about buying less.
Here in Malibu
Seriously -- turn out the lights.
Sponsors
Jewish Journal logo
The California Wellness Foundation
Playa Vista ad
Blogads

Blogads Los Angeles network

Get RSS Feeds
of LA Observed
LA Observed publishes several Real Simple Syndication feeds for easy scanning of headlines. If you wish to subscribe to a feed, most popular RSS readers will do it for you. You can also enter the web address from the XML button below or click on a specific feed. For more help with RSS, try here or here.




Add to Google