Blog, interrupted(Sort-of)

(Real posting date on this one is 12/5/05. Read below for nominal updates)

We had a good first week with the new site launch — without any promotion, we averaged around 1,600 visits a day on a holiday week and got some nice press mentions along the way.

I also came to a realization as I wrote the post below:

Six weeks ago, I would have given naming rights to a child for a
mention in [PaidContent’s] hallowed pixels. Now, I’d much rather see a positive
bulletin post from a cover-band bassist on MySpace.

Another was that the euphoria I’ve experienced this week comes from the fact that I much more enjoy being in business than writing about it. My only regret about this early mini-launch is that we didn’t do it six months ago.

And the lesson is that although the 733 posts I’ve written on this site over the past year have served a valuable purpose– testing theories against the wisdom of my readers; building buzz; drawing our team — there’s nothing I can do right now that is more personally fulfilling (or value-building) than working on our business.

So, to that end, I’m putting this blog into a state of suspended animation. I may come back and post from time to time when I’ve got something really "inside baseball," so keep me subscribed on your feeds. But don’t expect more than a post a month.

I’m also taking the link to this blog off the Pegasus News homepage. It has always confused the hell out of locals who come here and think we’re trying to build a business around my mediati snark. The archives will stand as a diary of the work-in-progress business plan over the past year.

For those masochistic souls who fear that they’ll miss my sparkling prose– take comfort. I’m starting a new blog on the TexasGigs site today.

It’s called The One That’s Not About Music. The title is partly a hat tip to the album titles of Levi Smith, a local musician whom I’ve discovered while working on the site. It also is what it says it is– A blog on TexasGigs that doesn’t primarily focus on music. I plan to use it as an outlet to shoot my mouth off; a place to play with some local news concepts; and a place to report to the community on our progress.

Meantime, to get your daily dose of media-industry news and views, check out the sites on the blogroll at left. And if you want to limit to only a few sources, I recommend:

Like I said, don’t think of this blog as dead — It’s just sidelined while we focus on what’s really important.

Thanks for reading…

Mike Orren is the Chief Product Officer of The Dallas Morning News; President of Belo Business Intelligence; husband to Crystal Orren; and a Mungarian at Munger Place Church in Dallas, TX. All opinions herein are mine alone.