A few months ago, Chicago Tech News interviewed Jessa Crispin, creator of the popular literary website Bookslut. At the end of the month, Jessa will be leaving Chicago and moving to Berlin. Now you might say, “big deal.” If you did, you’d be right. To illustrate Bookslut’s national stature, stories about Jessa’s move cropped up at Publisher’s Weekly, The National Book Critics Circle, and even the mighty New Yorker. Jessa was even summoned to Chicago Tonight to explain the situation. (Editor’s note: I shall be eternally disappointed she didn’t make good on her notion to do the interview while sitting on Phil Ponce’s lap.)

The upshot is, while Jessa is moving, Bookslut is remaining in Chicago. Jessa’s former assistant, Caroline Eick, has been promoted to editor and will be handling the day-to-day functions of the business, while Jessa will resume blogging once she’s settled in Berlin. Since you’re reading a tech news site, you might be thinking “what’s the bid deal about a telecommute?” Since the literary world is giving birth to cattle, and it isn’t everyday The New Yorker writes about Chicago new media, we put some questions about the transition to Caroline Eick. (more…)

Locally, what with the financial troubles at the Sun-Times and the Tribune, there’s been a lot of talk about how newspapers got in this mess and what the formula for them to make money online is.

Clue #1: If anybody tells you they know the perfect online business model for newspapers, they’re lying (or at best exaggerating quite a bit).  Nobody knows that ethereal perfect online business model or all the papers would be doing it.  It’s also probable that one size does not fit all in this case. (more…)

For as much hype as the Printed Blog has generated for itself, online-to-print is not a new idea.  Not even close to a new idea.

Go back a few years and you’ll see all manner of websites getting in on the print market by way of books. Perhaps the first notable entrant in the this category was 2000’s release of the first print edition of The Darwin Awards. Some more recent entrants in this space would be Stuff White People Like (New York Times Bestseller List 2008, 2009), I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell (NYT 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009) and Diary of a Wimpy Kid (NYT 2007, 2008, 2009). (more…)

When you watch the print publishing industry scrambling around in search of a clue, it can be funny… especially if you’re familiar with pre-Internet media. Publishers may grasp the gravity as Amazon and Sony fight the e-Reader equivalent of Browser Wars, VHS/BetaMax or Blue-ray/HD DVD. While the music industry and the film/television industry were caught flat-footed, they were much quicker to adapt to the digital world. Why? Because they’re more accustomed to shifting resources to new forms of media. (more…)