Here’s a peek at the subject of my July 2007 Editor’s Note….

Beginning Friday, June 1, Shelly Brisbin takes over as editor-in-chief. Shelly’s well known in the podcast world as producer of Shelly’s Podcast and Hollywood on the Radio, and she’s been a guiding force here at Blogger & Podcaster since joining our staff in January. This Texan has a good grasp of new media, at least enough to ask tough questions of our developers as we continue to expand offerings and tweak we’ve already brought online.

Joining her will be Elisa Welch, a San Francisco-based editor and musician who worked with Shelly at a previous technology publication. We’re hoping, among many other things, that Elisa will help keep this blog’s content fresh and updated often.

Why the change in the magazine’s leadership? For that, you’ll have to wait for the July issue to arrive.

–Anne

Our Shelly Brisbin is scheduled to appear live on The David Lawrence Show on XM Radio tonight at 9 on the West Coast and midnight on the East. She’ll be talking with the popular talk show host about the magazine in what should be a lively conversation.

If you can’t listen as the show airs (maybe you need to sleep; maybe you need a Grey’s Anatomy or CSI fix), the show’s three-hour programs are turned into archived podcasts.

–Anne

We should have seen this coming. We eagerly scanned the spreadsheet of results from the past month’s site mini-poll on favorite blogs and podcasts. There were plenty of entries, every one of ‘em with exactly one vote.

Can’t blame anyone for wanting to do a little self-promotion (and don’t forget, we do have a free online B&P Guide for just that purpose). But results like these are invalid since there are no clear winners.

So, we’re starting over and this time making each month topic-specific. And we’re working behind the scenes to offer more feedback on results. For May, it’s all about the music. If you happen to have a blog or podcast devoted to all things music, by all means vote for yourself. But if you don’t, then carefully consider whose site or show you really enjoy and fill in the URL field on the homepage mini-poll. The music category will be up for a few weeks, with the top vote-getters appearing in the July issue.

–Anne

I was going over my handwritten notes from a recent book festival panel and came across this phrase: “kleptocracy of the Internet.”

The speaker was referring to the tendency for online content providers, such as bloggers, to steal content from elsewhere without any economic motive. I believe this was a Keen observation.

So, I’m next to feed the blog, and have been for a few days now. I started to riff on a South African’s rant about bloggers’ expectations of privacy. Then I wanted to weigh in on a New York Times story about the impact of literary blogs on the book review world. But by the time either was almost ready to post, they were old. For big businesses like IBM, a few hours amount to a nanosecond; in the real-time realm of the Internet, things seem stale in minutes.

One thing successful bloggers and podcasters all agree on is that the best Web-based publishers come up with original ideas or offer unique takes on well established ones. Everyone else tends to fall into the enormous “me too” category, producing content that’s already out there in one form or another. To avoid that trap, I’ll attempt to use my weekly appearance to offer a peek inside this magazine.

I’ve conducted quite a few interviews this week, and at the end of each, I’ve been asked either directly or indirectly how we’re handling the “feedback.” We’ve gotten a lot of encouraging comments and, of course, numerous nasty ones. One need only Google us to see examples of both. We’ve privately debated staffers’ different interpretations of the snarkier commentary. We’ve also begun acting on the more constructive criticism to improve on processes and policies.

Some of those improvements have been immediate; others won’t be realized by the reading and listening public for a couple of months. For example, we’ve had to adjust our publication dates to the first of the month due to printer and podcast producers’ schedules. That means the next issue will be out around June 1. Eager to see how the next issue’s received? If the content continues to meet the needs of a targeted, tempermental audience? If the naysayers eventually carry the day? Yeah, me too.

–Anne

Maybe this is like those 4 Things About Me memes that tend to sprout, bloom and then die quickly, but I haven’t seen too many initiatives like the campaign calling for a blogging Day of Silence on Monday in honor of those lost in the Virginia Tech shootings and victims of violence worldwide.

Outreach is one thing, and there seem to be a lot of personal blogs spreading the word of this pending demonstration of solidarity in this Web community. But there also have been some questioning the gains from leaving Monday’s post for another day. So I’m curious, especially for those of you with financial or business obligations tied to your blogs – are you going to keep quiet and just enjoy what appears to be a community-sanctioned break from blogging? Or will you ignore it, and if so why?

–Anne

This blog’s been quiet for a couple of days now. That’s been intentional.

I felt the world tilt a little on its axis Monday morning as I watched horrific televised scenes unfold at my beloved alma mater, Virginia Tech. The magazine’s creative director went to nearby Radford University. Like millions of people across the nation and beyond, the shock and numbness soon yielded to a searing sadness. It’s been some time since I’ve been unable to control my crying. Now there are hints anger is the emotion about to rule the day.

That building rage, though, is being mitigated by all the friends, family and strangers who’ve checked in and a sister in Blacksburg who’s provided the kind of compassion-filled coverage and commentary that no big-city news reporter ever could. My sister is a Blacksburg Middle School teacher, where four students lost a parent. FOUR! That should help those baffled by the continued coverage understand the magnitude this massacre has had on an idyllic Southern college town and its uniquely architected campus that has served as a sanctuary for hundreds of thousands of students since 1872. From what I’ve seen and heard in the last few days, many without bonds to Blacksburg do understand and do feel the same stabs to the heart that sometimes dull but just can’t seem to go away.

Which is why we are a nation in mourning. And which is why we haven’t put up any posts lately. The digital magazine is now available. The podcast version, God willing, will soon be consumable in a day or two, just about the time the print version starts circulating through the postal system. In the meantime, the sun’s still coming out each morning. Eventually, posts to our blog will surface with similar regularity. Just not this week.

–Anne

The Boston Globe today has an article about making money from blogging. Among the statistics it noted:

As the number of blogs has exploded to more than 57 million today, the blog ad marketplace has also surged — from $100,000 in 2002, to an estimated $36.2 million in 2006, according to PQ Media. Blog advertising is expected to grow to $300.4 million in 2010.

It devotes a good deal of space to bloggers who have been able to make a dollar (and then some!) as a pastime or full time. The news item also mentions that the vast majority of bloggers (85 percent by one survey) aren’t out to earn money from advertising. That could be good news to those that do want some financial compensation for their time and talents, though 15 percent of 57 million still amounts to a lot of competition for dollars — or merely cents for some.

–Anne

Lots of you are starting to sign up en masse for a digital or podcast subscription, or you’re looking to maybe advertise in our Marketplace section. That’s great.

In doing so, some of you are experiencing technical difficulties. That’s not so great.

If you encounter trouble, please contact us at admin@bloggerandpodcaster.com. We’ll address your issues as soon as we can. It’s always a little easier for our small staff to work out all the kinks when we’ve got others helping us find them. Thanks to everyone who has brought a site glitch to our attention already.

–Anne

In our post-production euphoria, we missed Technorati’s announcement that it had bought media aggregator Personal Bee to enhance the blog index biggie’s social publishing capabilities and provide a new way for advertisers to make some money through social networking. Personal Bee’s proprietary scanning capabilities should make it easier to search for keywords within the blogosphere to find sites and figure out or follow trends.

Technorati founder David Sifry, who appears in our inaugural magazine issue next week, explains the rationale behind the buy on the Technorati blog. In it he mentions:

For content creators and brands, recreational and professional alike, this will offer a whole other range of benefits. The Bee platform makes it quick and easy (turnkey, if you will) to create and deploy conversational and informative micro-sites full of dynamic and engaging blog posts, videos, photos, podcasts, and more. It allows these folks to foster communities quickly, and it’ll give them the tools to monitor and manage the ebb and flow of information at their discretion.

Personal Bee’s creator, who’ll now be Technorati’s VP of Business Development, was a tad more succinct on his personal blog. Ted Shelton basically said making Personal Bee’s technology a part of Technorati had been discussed not long after his company was conceived. The two were waiting for the right time. Looks like it’s arrived.

– Anne