McSweeney's and The Barnes and Noble Review have (separately and quietly) announced that they will be forming a partnership with Salon.com, where Salon will be posting content from both magazines.



As far as I can tell the deal works like this:

The Barnes and Noble Review will feed into Salon.com and Salon.com will feed into The Barnes and Noble Review. They will be "equal partners": married with pooled assets. They do not intend to breed, but maybe someday they will get a blog.

McSweeney's will feed into Salon.com but will not be diluted with Salon.com content. McSweeney's has become Salon.com's cruel mistress.

The Barnes and Noble Review and McSweeney's will (of course) not be mating with each other. They will creep in and out of Salon.com's boudoir, tipping hats to one another as they pass, averting their eyes and telling themselves little lies.



McSweeney's and The Barnes and Noble Review know about each other because they are not NAIVE, but they will not speak and at parties they will be chilly and demure. Salon.com will remain the jaunty and political rabble-rousing go-getter it has always been, working the room with fierce opinions and a big bull chest.

When writers for B&N and McSweeney's get their content reposted in Salon.com, they will not be paid double for this.

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HOW EVERYBODY BENEFITS IN A NUTSHELL

Salon, Mcsweeney's, and B&N Writers: will get more exposure.

Salon.com: will get a much more robust arts and literature section without having to pay for it.

The Barnes and Noble Review: will get links to books, and free advertising to Salon.com customers, billing themselves as the the hip, lefty bookstore in opposition to Amazon's farmer-tan yokel Wal-Mart.

McSweeney's: will solidify themselves as the Default Magazine and Writing Style of Privileged People with Correct Opinions. Fucking hegemony aw yeah!

All in all, I think this is all probably a good idea and it's about time that highly-specialized political magazines like Salon that everybody reads all the time started outsourcing their literary sections, instead of only reviewing books by political candidates once a goddamn month.


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Other consolidations we would like to see

Slate, Apple, and Mediabistro: because this already exists and they should just go ahead and make it official already

Hustler, Harper's, and Gawker: Wacky high concept buddy comedy! You cannot make a demographic Venn Diagram here! Each day would be an event!

Powell's, The New Yorker, and The New Republic: We should pass legislation to make this happen for the Public Good. One click and you can buy all the high American literary art you'll ever need.

Slashdot, Tor.com, Boing Boing, and Wired: obviously.

The New York Times Book Review, Cake Wrecks, and Playboy: GIVE THE PEOPLE WHAT THEY WANT

Rotten Tomatoes and Zoetrope All-Story: a shotgun wedding!


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What about The Fiction Circus, you ask?

The Fiction Circus is a bird you'll never change.

And this bird you cannot chaaaaaayyyaaaayyyyaayyyyaaaaange.







Posted by miracle on Wed, 28 Apr 2010 14:43:42 -0500 -- permanent link