By Steve Rhodes
NOTE TO READERS: I’ll be tending to Beachwood Reporter-related business for the next couple of days. The Papers will return on Monday. And, of course, the acutely-observed news roundup of our very own Natasha Julius, The Weekend Report, will appear in this space in the interim.
But that doesn’t mean you have to go now.
Please take this time to re-acquaint yourself with the rest of the site. We’re working on some tweaks to eliminate – at least for now – some features that never got off the ground, and to re-evaluate and improve others. (Check out our new Michael McDonald Alert System; this is a preview of an upcoming change of concept in our much-neglected Forums. It’s also long overdue recognition that it’s Michael McDonald’s world, we just somewhat-subliminally live in it.)
Also, while we have a great team of brilliant misfits whose genius will never properly be appreciated in the soul-crushing real world – you know, the kind of people who used to populate newsrooms before they were gentrified – we still need more help. We’re looking for section editors to really take hold of some of these pages, and in particular drive our ongoing features, such as Taxi Cab Journal and the quite-unfortunately dormant What I Watched Last Night.
On the business side, you may have noticed that we have entered our ad sales phase. Selling ads for us is easy, exciting, and fun! We have a slightly unusual strategy just beginning to unwind and I know you want to be a part of it. Send me a note and we’ll talk.
We could also use additional help in marketing, finance, tech, and design – we have plans for additional sites that just might have more revenue-generating potential than our beloved Reporter. Help us let them see the light of day. Or the dark of night, depending.
It’s true that this is still an all-volunteer effort, but by helping us sustain the site while we move our business plan along, you can brag to your friends and apologize to your parents and precinct captains that you are in on the ground floor of The Beachwood Media Company. For now, the rewards are purely spiritual, but down the road great riches may materialize. (This, by the way, is a forward-looking statement subject to certain risks, trends, and uncertainties beyond the Company’s control.) As Gov. Rod Blagojevich once said, we’re gonna rock the system. The key difference being that we really mean rock it – and that we really mean it.
(And with the Tribune Company crumbling under the weight of its own ego, greed, and arrogance, the tables have turned. Maybe we’ll buy them. After all, my credit rating is better than theirs, I’m debt-free, and my readership is growing at a far-faster pace. Does anyone have the Chandlers‘ phone number? I think I can offer them a fairly good tax position.)
In the meantime, as you look around the site, don’t forget that we keep The Papers and The Weekend Desk Report archived for your back-dated reading pleasure. In case you haven’t gotten enough of great finds like this yet. Because obviously I haven’t.
Posted on June 8, 2006