Jeff Harrell, who blogs at The Shape of Days (and also designed this blog) has some advice for the OSM Pajamas Media folk:
What a fiasco. A week after announcing their new brand identity, upstart media something-or-other PJ Media is back to being … well, PJ Media. Based on the statement issued yesterday by PJ Media founders Charles Johnson and Roger L. Simon, it’s unclear whether the company intends to legally change its name from OSM Media LLC to some variation on the PJ Media monicker, or whether it’s just going to add a doing-business-as to its masthead. Or, for that matter, change its mind again next week and go back to being Original Sauce Media or whatever it was supposed to be.
Guys, branding is important. In trying to get mad word-of-mouth going during their first week of operations, OSM née PJ Media spent a lot of money and got a lot of buzz. Problem is, all of that buzz is now wasted. Every single human being who’s heard of PJ Media a.k.a. OSM now associates the company with an embarrassing kerfuffle over its name instead of with … um … well, I’m still not entirely clear what the company was trying to be. But whatever it was, it’s not that.
Much as it pains me to say it, the best course of action for Chuck and Rog would be to cut their losses, shut the doors, drop out of the public eye, then come out swinging next month with a new venture with a different and better name and a clearer — that is to say, at least slightly clear — plan.
UPDATE: I dunno, Jeff– the gods of new new New media seem to be in a forgiving mood.
