The user comments on FOLIOMag.com have been ramping up lately. Some funny, some informative, some clearly originating from redirected Perez Hilton readers.
Here are some recent favorites ...
On Penton Media's salary freeze ("Penton Media Announces Hiring, Salary Freeze, Company-Wide Revenue Reforecasting"):
Articles like this are giving my boss, the publisher of a much smaller b2b house, all the motivation he needs to tighten the reins on our staff here. Great and timely news, but I'm afraid of the impact it will have on our small, highly profitable company.
Kerry Smith—our CEO—on "Is it Time for B-to-B Publishers to Panic?":
Everyone I've spoken with in b-to-b management has their antennae up and tuned for what the coming months may bring. Prudence in managing costs in the face of the uncertain moves by our customers is what we should all be thinking about right now. However, this is also the time to ramp up investment in new products and new initiatives. We should also resist the temptation to cut costs at the expense of the long term viability of our products.
More panic talk:
No one seems to address the most pertinent fact when it comes to what's impacting B2B publishing—the pressure on content. Stated bluntly, the original articles (almost always written by freelancers these days for many B2B magazines) around which some ads could be sandwiched worked out pretty well economically for print. Pay a freelancer $1500 bucks or something, sell $18,000 worth of ads around it. That just doesn't work on the Web.
YES, content is king ... So why do so many of us continue to give it away?
On Vogue's controversial Lebron-Gisele cover:
While I do see the "King Kong" resemblance, all I thought of upon seeing that cover was how ridiculously awkward Gisele Bundchen looks. She looks like she's falling ... yet happy about it?
On Vanity Fair's "Green Issue waste":
Condé Nast just doesn't get it. Can you imagine the rationale on a sales call—CN Salesperson: "We have a star-studded ‘Green' issue coming up, editorial adjacent special ad ops ..." Client: "Great, you're printing on recycled stock, yes?" CN Salesperson: "Ha-ma-na, Ha-ma-na (Jackie Gleason did it best!)." With brains like this in the business masquerading as media industry avatars, is it a wonder publishing is tanking?
Per-fumed again. Most perfume is made with synthetic and toxic chemicals. The pages of the 2008 VF issue were laced with this toxic respiratory goo. I'd looked forward to reading this issue, however as soon as I opened it I knew it had to go immediately to the radioactive bin.
On Henry Donahue's "Why No One's Gonna Buy Your Blog" post:
I have a blog about Florida swampland for sale.
On "Magazine Ad Revenue, Pages Decline":
Anyone heard of a little thing called the Internet? Jack-tards! You people are dinosaurs.
Ah, yes, the Internet.