Succeeding At Failure
AdWeek, October 2, 2000

Author Max Beerbohm once wrote, "There is much to be said for failure. It is more interesting than success."

Perhaps spurred by such musings, FailureMag.com, an 80-day-old New York-based site devoted to covering the subject, believes it has hit upon the "Razor" scooter of entertainment dot-coms.

"Most people in the media who cover failure do so in predictable ways," says editor and CEO Jason Zasky. "They are either very negative or mean-spirited (such as tabloids), treat the subject as a joke, or [give it] a self-help vibe."

Zasky, along with five other journalists and marketers, pledges to keep his site stocked with tales of unique and irreverent failure. From Chevrolet's short-lived Corvair and the demise of Christian music to Buffalo Bills place kicker Scott Norwood's missed 47-yard field goal attempt in Super Bowl XXV, FailureMag.com offers up a virtual smorgasbord of botched opportunities, bad luck and fate.

While confessing to the challenges of selling failure online, Zasky nevertheless believes that a business plan combining banner ads, sponsorships and content licensing won't fail.

"Most of the people we write about are really successful," he says. And in any case, FailureMag.com "is a sophisticated treatment of failure with facts you wouldn't expect. Failure in not a black-and-white issue."

This article appeared in AdWeek, October 2, 2000
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