Success Through Failure
By Anne Eaton, Hudson Valley Magazine, October 2000

Scarsdale, with its average faux-Norman mansion priced somewhere near the seven-figure mark, may be a venue firmly associated with success, but the newest addition to its business community is a brand new Web magazine called Failure.

"Failure is not what you think," says Jason Zasky, who runs his magazine from a three-story brick house across the street from the Scarsdale, Westchester County, train station. In no way is failure synonymous with, say, "loser." "Loser" magazine just wouldn't fly with the business executives and college students for whom Failure is aimed.

"A lot of people ask me if we write about people who are failures," says Zasky. "In actual truth, we write about people who are very successful, because those are the people who are out there in the world making things happen, taking chances. And, inevitably, they're going to have setbacks."

Failure, located at failuremag.com, is a magazine about taking risks, rolling with the punches, and sometimes snatching victory from the jaws of defeat. Among the diverse offerings on the Web site are articles about direct access trading, drive-in movies and Charles Martel's victory at Tours. There is also a Bomb Site that invites readers to select a movie that they definitely have no wish to see from an array of the week's releases.

Zasky, 30, who once played guitar in a band called Black Velvet Flag, met his partner, Kathleen Ervin, 35, while both worked at the Nashville-based Musician magazine. Neither has ever lived in Scarsdale before.

"I know it sounds a little ironic," Zasky says, "but we came to Scarsdale to save money. When we started looking for space, we looked in Manhattan first, but rents were obscenely expensive, so we found something here which is a lot cheaper, and right on the Metro North line, so we can access Manhattan any time we like."

Ultimately, Zasky and Ervin hope to produce Failure in print as well as online. The dream includes relocating to Manhattan, where they will presumably occupy office space vacated by improvident dot-coms that have fallen victim to less careful planning. In the meantime, before the really big bucks start rolling in—or not—from the IPO that is still some distance away, they are selling a line of Failure products, which includes a T-shirt, cap, courier bag, note cube, mints, and coffee mug, which Zasky says is a runaway bestseller. Expanding this line of merchandise is part of the business plan.

The Web site has been up and running since July 17, although it has been gestating in Zasky's head for four or five years. "One of the reasons I sat on this idea for such a long time is that I wanted to wait until I had enough business experience to run a company, and I needed to develop editorial contacts. I wanted to grow into the role before I set this in motion, so I could handle all the elements that are involved."

This article appeared in Hudson Valley Magazine, October, 2000
Copyright © 2000 Suburban Publishing Inc.