Gotta hand it to Kaplan. He knows how to create a vehicle of self-promotion with a site whose font style is a parody of Fast Company magazine. Slap the site on the eBay auction boards and watch the press write-ups roll out and the hits pile up. Oh what a delicious irony, such a reflection of these self-referential, ironic times. I'm no prude here, but I am questioning why no one is peeking behind the curtain of this site to observe the other motives at play.
Sexy stories sell.
No big scoop there. Swear words sell too, especially when they're used to describe how this company and that with a dot-com still stuck on the end of their names are screwed. And it's true, this stuff is a juicier read, perhaps, than a site that chronicles a start-up that is busting its ass to make a good business idea fly, while keeping the lights on, and hiring new folks to help sell some contracts for more biz. But let's at least recognize how well Kaplan has capitalized on the dark mood around the Alley, as companies cope with the restructuring of Internet players that had long been predicted. And let us also mourn the loss of Kaplan's only real competitor in chronicling the new media shakeout.