If I were at OSM, nee Open Source Media, nee Pajamas Media, I’d be looking to change my name… and quickly…. and I’d be sending a fruit basket and an apology to the folks at Open Source Media, the radio show… and I’d be hoping I weren’t heading to the lawyer’s office to start settlement negotiations with part of that $3.5 million I just got….
Brendan at Open Source Media, the radio show, has a devastating account of the name. He’s polite and gracious but underlying it is a muffled scream: “Stop! Thief!”
Open Source Media, the whatever-it-is, has a disingenous and recently revised explanation that Brendan deftly slices apart here.
At the bottom of the Open Source Media, the radio show, page is this: “Open Source (sm) is a production of Open Source Media, Inc. Contents (c) 2005 Open Source Media, Inc.” At the top of the Open Source Media, the whatever-it-is, it says Open Source Media. Now just note that I have to keep saying Open Source Media, the radio show, or Open Source Media, the whatever-it-is. That’s what I’d call brand confusion.
What’s doubly bad about this is that the folks at Open Source Media, the radio show, who used the name first are highly respected in this medium of blogs and that the folks at Open Source Media, the whatever-it-is, apparently are not enough in touch with this world that they knew that. It’s a bad stumble. Admit it. Apologize. Pick yourself up. And move on.
Yet Open Source Media, the whatever-it-is, promises this — with more haughtiness than I’d ever heard from Dan Rather — on its prevaricating post about the name:
The goal of our enterprise is to bring gravitas and legitimacy to the blogosphere…
Oh, gag me with a mitre.
I don’t think that blogs need to have legitimacy laid upon them … and who died and made you the legitimizer?
And gravitas? Good God, big, old media has an oversupply of that. That’s what got them in such trouble. And that’s what we’re running away from.
Previously, I was merely amused and confused by whatever-we-should-call whatever-it-is. Now I’m cringing as I await the sound of trains crashing.
: LATER: Getaloada Roger welling up with Judy.
: And is it my imagination, or is Glenn Reynolds trying not to link to OSM too much?
: I think there’s room for the conservative Huffingtonpost, lots of room. I’m just surprised that the conservatives don’t show as much business sense. Isn’t that what makes conservatives conservative? Maybe not.
: LATER STILL: Private Radio gives OSM respectful but firm tough love: smart advice they should heed. “Maybe a suspend and re-launch on Jan. 1 with some compelling and exclusive content ready to go. OSM 2006, it’s a whole new year…. And I fear this will cast the conservative blogosphere in a bad light.” To say nothing of the business model.
: QUESTION: Is there anywhere we can start a death pool?
