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They're hoping
this 'Failure' succeeds
By Shawne K. Wickham, New Hampshire Sunday News, July 16, 2000
Former New Hampshire resident Kathleen Ervin's new online publishing
venture is already a "Failure."
That's the name of a general interest Web magazine that launches
tomorrow, and Ervin, a former resident of Rochester, is its vice
president of marketing.
Based in Scarsdale, N.Y., Failure is the brainchild of editor
and CEO Jason Zasky, a former managing editor of Musician
magazine. Zasky met Ervin in Nashville, where she was working for
the magazine, and she recalls him always hinting at this great new
idea he had.
"As a marketing person, I'm always looking for that next great brand,"
Ervin said in a telephone interview yesterday. "He would kind of
tease me all the time about this great idea but he wouldn't tell
me."
After Musician folded, Zasky did share his idea for Failure,
and they started working on the project in earnest a year and a
half ago.
In recent weeks they've been working nearly around the clock in
preparation for tomorrow's launch, working with design teams in
Arizona and technical people in Arkansas, plus a stable of well-known
freelance writers.
Ervin said the magazine aims to look at failure in a new light.
"We see it as kind of an essential life experience," she said. "We
really feel that in life, more people fail in life than succeed,
and you can really learn a lot from your failures."
So the first "issue" of the magazine—available one minute after
midnight tonight at failuremag.com—will feature an interview
with Apple Computer co-founder Steve Wozniak; a profile of Moe Norman,
billed as "the greatest golfer the world has never known"; and the
editors' choice for "the most monumental failure" of the past 2000
years (history buffs, here's a hint: It happened in 732 A.D.).
Zasky said there were several reasons to go with an online publication.
"The first is it's just a matter of economics; it's a lot cheaper
to launch a magazine online than it is in print," he said. "The
other reason is that the Web allows for a lot of interactivity that
you couldn't get with a print magazine."
Zasky said interactivity is the watchword of the new magazine. Each
article will be accompanied by links related to the subject matter;
multimedia links; a suggested reading list; search boxes and a direct
e-mail link with the writer.
Zasky thinks one of the biggest attractions will be the weekly "Bomb
Site," which will list that week's releases by the major movie studios,
and poll readers about why they don't plan to see those movies.
"It's going to be a predictor, before a movie even comes out, of
whether it's going to do well or do poorly," he said. "Most importantly,
it gives our readers an opportunity to tell Hollywood the reasons
why they are not going to see a particular movie.
"It's really unique, and we think it's going to be a big hit."
And if its name and accompanying buzz aren't enough to mark this
business venture as unique, the company is also launching its own
clothing line. They plan to sell T-shirts, hats, jackets, even bowling
shirts, with the tag line: "Failure: It's an Option."
Ervin said initial market research found people were as interested
in the clothing line as in the magazine.
Zasky said the target audience for Failure is "the kind of
person who would set the trend."
Ervin thinks readers will be mostly the 20-to-40-somethings, both
male and female. "The kind of person we believe will come to our
site is adventurous, intelligent, affluent or affluent-minded, kind
of a self-starter, a real achiever, inquisitive. . ."
"It's that life student who just wants to know more about how things
work and how people work," she said. "They just want to know the
other side of the story."
This article appeared on D1 of the New Hampshire Sunday News, July
16, 2000
Copyright © 2000 New Hampshire Sunday News
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