“The only thing worse than being talked about is not being talked about.”

What better source is there for a pithy, witty quotation than Oscar Wilde? And really, who better to utter the above than someone who was the fodder of so much idle chatter and Victorian parlour intrigues?

Which brings us to celebrity gossip. Is there any one human activity so mired in speculation, secrets and scandal? Getting your fix is even easier now that the newsstand staples (People, US Magazine, Hello) and upstarts (InTouch, Life & Style) are being usurped by their web counterparts. The most valuable feature of gossip is the speed of the acquisition and dissemination of new information and what happens on the internet has the luxury of playing up that angle unlike a print weekly. Sure, the glossy multi-page spreads of the most beautiful people or the hottest women on the planet loses a certain physical immediacy onscreen but to many, the advantages seem to outweigh the downsides.

Victorian design merged with modern propulsion—steam punk: The Modern English Dictionary

The TED (Technology, Entertainment, Design) Talks are an annual conference started in 1984 where innovators and experts in the fields of science, technology, business, the environment, politics, design, and creative arts, could gather and speak to peers and the public.

Erin McKean, a lexicographer and editor-in-chief of the Oxford American Dictionary, talks about the dictionary in this TEDTalk from 2007. Mckean loves computers but thinks they only speed up the process of compiling a dictionary, they don’t change the end result. In her view, our idea of a dictionary hasn’t changed in the English language since Queen Victoria’s reign. Some key, provocative quotes from McKean:

• The current dictionary model is essentially “Victorian design merged with modern propulsion—steam punk.”
• Online dictionaries are paper thrown up on the screen, flat with not much clickiness.
• Dictionaries only improve on searchability but diminish serendipity.
• Paper is the enemy of words; the book is not the best shape for the dictionary.

“The ham butt problem” anecdote alone is worth watching the video. (I won’t spoil what that means but it’s worth seeing—it’s hilarious.) McKean is an erudite and engaging speaker with a quirky sense of humour. Morevoer, her words carry weight.

You can also click on the audio file below.

Man About (Many A) Town

Tyler Brûlé is something of a legend in the Canadian magazine industry: in 1996,at the age of 28, after being injured on the job as a journalist in Afghanistan, he founded the decor and lifestyle magazine Wallpaper*. The magazine soon became the buzzword on everyone’s lips as it soon developed an almost mythic, reverential status. The too-cool-for-school aesthetic and style in paper form espoused by Brûlé posed so fetching a business proposition that by the following year multimedia conglomerate Time Warner purchased it. After leaving his position as editor in 2002, the wunderkind moved to England, wrote for various publications, started his own design firm and hosted a television program. But the urge to get back into the magazine fold proved too strong to be ignored and Brûlé returned to the scene with Monocle, a global briefing covering international affairs, business, culture and design. In this video, Brûlé talks about his latest creative and business venture with CBC Radio 1 host, Jian Ghomeshi. Specifically he talks about Monocle’s “Top 20 Liveable Cities” feature and how the results were determined and what it all means.

With magazines folding and cutting back in recent years, especially with the economy in such dismal shape, Monocle has been something of an aberration, especially with its gilded edges and jet-setting philosophy. Not bad for a magazine that retails at $10 Canadian on newsstands. There might just be something to be hopeful about in the publishing world after all.

Web 2.0: Who’s Getting it Right.

With news late last year of declining sales figures for magazines on American newsstands, the importance of creating alternative advertising streams is at an all-time high. Using Web 2.0 to redirect readers from the print version of their favourite titles to their online partner is imperative. Here are three magazines who are taking on the challenge and for the most part, are doing it well.

Chart

Chart is the longest-running Canadian music magazine. Its primary focus is Canadian artists, concerts, industry events and the national culture’s relationship with music. Its website version, CHARTattack.com was launched in 1996, which, according to the website, made it the “first on-line for the Canadian music/entertainment industry.” Music, as with other creative endeavours, is an art form that encourages creative input, output and discussion. Consequently, web2.0 tools and features are a natural association for this subject matter and website.

At the bottom of their home page, featured relatively prominently, CHARTattack.com has two section headings that address web2.0: Community and Connections. Under Community, a link to five of the major online social networking and/or multimedia sites operated by the magazine can be found: Facebook, Flickr, MySpace, Twitter, YouTube. Under the Connections section, there is an RSS link that leads you to a page that has not only the link to the main RSS feed but also each of the main editorial/contents section, including podcasts. It helpfully provides a link to the RSS Wikipedia entry for further information and explains how to set up specific tags to get feeds for them. Many of the articles can be bookmarked. There are also blogs, forums and polls for greater interactivity with site visitors. The many different tools used allow for numerous avenues for user-generated content (which alleviates some of the editorial load) and multiple advertising opportunities, which can be tied in thematically with the different subject matter. The site employs this successfully.

Lean and Mean: Books on Screen

When the Amazon Kindle and the Sony Reader were put on the market, it wouldn’t be overstating matters to say that a collective tremor of fear went through the book publishing world.  It’s not just the competition it’s worried about (money is still made off the sale of an e-book as with the hard copy version); it’s the war that’s emerged in this digital age of physical property versus intellectual property and their respective commercial value and cultural value. The music industry has been gnashing its teeth and pulling its hair in the search for ways to counteract the inevitable shift from the old business model to the new. The worry is similar for the publishing industry but an old (but prescient!) Wired article from 1996 seems to suggest that maybe we’re tolling the death knell a little too soon. While the drama unfolds, distract yourselves with pretty pictures of some of the latest models, currently and soon to be, on the market.

From left to right, top row:  1. Amazon Kindle   2. Sony’s PRS-505 Reader   3. iRex Iliad   4. Polymer Vision Readius
From left to right, bottom row:  5. Seiko Epson Prototype   6. The iPhone’s Stanza Reader   7. Sony’s PRS700 Reader