A Sure Success? Dot-Com Mag is About Failure
By Julia Keller, Chicago Tribune, July 21, 2000

The nation is basking in unprecedented prosperity. What better time, Jason Zasky asked himself, for an on-line magazine about failure?

"Things have been taken to the extreme in success in recent years. Failure doesn't really get the respect it deserves," Zasky said from his office in Scarsdale, N.Y., where he was putting the finishing touches on www.failuremag.com, which had its Internet launch earlier this week.

"Failure is usually treated in a predictable way, either negatively or ironically. It's not interesting."

But can it be lucrative?

Zasky and his co-founder, Kathleeen Ervin, hope so. Their magazine, financed by ad sales, includes interviews with people who have endured failure; lists of notable failures; a feature called "This Day in Failure" (Tuesday's was: Sen. Edward Kennedy's 1969 car accident in Chappaquiddick); and interactive elements such as polls on which of the week's new movies is most likely to bomb.

"The key lies in our approach," Zasky said. "We don't judge people. We don't critique. We don't make failure a personal issue."

Highlights of this week's edition include an article about the "most monumental failure of the millennium"—in the author's opinion, the Arab loss at the Battle of Tours in 732 A.D.—and a sweet essay on the demise of the drive-in movie.

True to Zasky's word, his magazine isn't nasty or irony-flecked. It's well-crafted and informative.

But even Web sites with great content—such as salon.com—are in financial trouble. How does Zasky plan to keep his project from becoming a punch line—the failure of Failure?

"Our approach has been to not spend an inordinate amount of money up front," he said. Other on-line ventures have engaged in high-profile IPOs (initial public offerings), selling stock and getting too big too fast.

He doesn't want Failure to go public, Zasky said, until he's sure it can go period.

This piece was excerpted from an article entitled: Failure isn't all it's Cracked up to be: Dot-comers Made it Fashionable, Letterman made it Funny and There's Even a New Web Magazine Dedicated to its Culture.

From the July 21, 2000 edition of the Chicago Tribune
Copyright © 2000 Chicago Tribune