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10.26.2004
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Volume Two
Issue Ten
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Welcome to our October Monthly Update. This month our "Featured Client" brings you Jesse Kornbluth, a multi-talented veteran of the Internet who uses e-mail daily with exceptional results. Read on to find out why he is achieving such success and what this literary and online expert has to say about the importance of the "right" definition of an online relationship...
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Client Feature: Jesse Kornbluth, Head Butler
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Jesse Kornbluth, Head Butler
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Jesse Kornbluth had a "seat at the table" as AOL grew from a small company to a mega-giant. He is also a highly accomplished writer and editor with a world-class resume that covers the literary map.
In the Q & A that follows, Jesse provides insight into the cultural and political life of the Internet, shares his vision of what works and why, and tells us what he is doing to stake out his online future.
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Q & A with Jesse Kornbluth
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YOU'VE HAD A CREATIVE AND INTERESTING CAREER. CAN YOU GIVE US A QUICK SYNOPSIS OF THE HIGHLIGHTS?
When I was 6, I got a toy printing press with rubber type that you set with tweezers. (A neighbor girl was impressed.) Published my own paper at 10. (Girls in school noticed.) Byline in a New York weekly newspaper at 16, in LOOK Magazine when I was 19. (My girlfriend didn't break up with me.) First book at 21. (Ceased thinking about law school). Thirty thrilling years as a journalist for the New York Times Magazine, New York, Vanity Fair and others; wrote 7 books; sold a dozen screenplays; taught screenwriting at NYU. 1996: Co-founder of Bookreporter.com, the largest non-commercial book site on the web. 1997-2002: Editorial Director of America Online. 2004: Launched Head Butler, a cultural concierge site, and Swami Uptown, a liberal/spiritual blog on Beliefnet.com.
TELL US ABOUT HOW YOU MOVED FROM PRINT TO ONLINE. CAN YOU REFLECT ON YOUR EARLY DAYS AT AOL DURINGS ITS FORMATIVE YEARS? WHAT WAS YOUR MOST IMPORTANT LEARNING EXPERIENCE ABOUT HOW AND WHY THE ONLINE MEDIUM WORKS FOR WRITERS.
In 1993, on an issue of principle, I resigned from Vanity Fair without remembering to get another job. Someone said, "You could be the Larry King of online." That sounded interesting; I logged on and got hooked.
1997-1998 at AOL: the first Golden Age of online. With little adult supervision, my colleagues and I experimented with all kinds of programming and established a real editorial environment. In the process, we stumbled into what I call "community-created content" --- and made online history. In l998, the MBAs and VPs swept in, most with no media experience. They imposed business priorities which --- predictably --- strangled editorial excellence and de-emphasized the members' voices.
My most important learning experience occurred at Bookreporter. It was Veteran's Day, 1996. In my daily editor's letter, I wrote about the tragedy of Vietnam; then I linked to a site about the Vietnam Veterans War Memorial, which not only showed pictures of The Wall but had reminiscences of dead soldiers. A few hours later, the e-mails started pouring in, many starting with "I've never told any one" and "I'm weeping as I type." That's when I knew: Online, nothing trumps honesty and intimacy.
TELL US ABOUT YOUR CURRENT SITES / COLUMNS AND THE WORK YOU DO NOW. WHY ARE YOU DOING IT AND WHAT ARE YOUR GOALS?
There are (at least) two sides to my personality: cultural and political/spiritual. At Head Butler, I get to share my love for great movies, books and music --- with an emphasis on "great" as opposed to "new." As Swami Uptown on Beliefnet.com, I've been given a once-in-a-lifetime platform to 1) attack the hard-of-thinking wingnuts who call themselves "religious" and 2) present what seems to me a more meaningful approach to spirituality and right conduct.
In both cases, it's wonderful to write without censorship or business pressures. That's a great and rare pleasure, and anyone who writes will know why I list that first. Then there are my ambitions. Head Butler wants to grow up to be a one-man global brand: a beloved friend who helps you --- online, in books, on radio and TV --- to find culture that delights and enriches. Swami's aims are more modest; he just wants to save the world.
UNLIKE MANY OF OUR PATRONMAIL CLIENTS, YOU'RE NOT USING E-MAIL TO BUILD VISITORS OR AN AUDIENCE. SO, HOW DOES E-MAIL FIT IN WITH WHAT YOU ARE DOING?
I use e-mail because e-mail is the killer app. People are much more likely to open a daily e-mail than they are to go to a site 5x a week. So e-mail, for me, is just another way to serve my audience.
YOU SEND OUT A LOT OF E-MAILS - DAILY IN FACT - YET, YOUR OPEN AND RESPONSE RATES ARE OFF THE CHART. TELL US ABOUT THESE RATES AND WHY YOU THINK THEY ARE SO HIGH.
There are things I do that are clever --- I create enticing subject lines that make you open the e-mail, then I write text that leads you on but doesn't really deliver the key information so you're pretty much forced to click on the link that takes you to Butler or Swami.
But really, it's not that I'm so smart. It's that others are lazy and/or dumb and/or disrespectful of their audience. If you see your site as a business, odds are you'll treat your readers as "customers," or, worse, "users." I consider my readers as friends, and my sites as communities. So my e-mails are personal and intimate --- I'm not afraid to make a fool of myself or, in the other direction, make you cry.
I read all the mail I get, quote comments from readers in my mass mailings (and on my sites), and answer many people individually. Time-consuming? Believe it. But two-way communication --- I believe it's called "interactivity" --- is the covenant we all have with our audience in this medium.
AS AN EXPERT IN USING THE INTERNET / E-MAIL FOR LITERARY PERSUITS, CAN YOU TELL US WHAT YOU SEE COMING DOWN THE ROAD IN 5 YEARS? HOW WILL THINGS BE DIFFERENT AND WILL THEY BE BETTER OR WORSE FOR WRITERS AND PUBLISHERS?
The rise of the blog and the slow death of lamestream media should make everyone on the Web very excited. Corporate interests have all but killed TV and radio. Newspapers are struggling; magazines are artifacts. Energy? Excitement? For those, you have to look to small media properties whose first loyalty is to their audience.
Virgil said: "Admire a large vineyard. Cultivate a small one." I agree. But I think it's possible for blogs and sites like mine to grow without disenfranchising the communities that form around them.
The big question is the government. Unfettered media --- the web, cable TV, satellite radio --- sometimes seems like all that stands between us and fascism. If the government decides to "regulate" the Internet, this Second Golden Age of the Internet can fade as quickly as the first.
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Visit HeadButler.com
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Please watch for our next Monthly Update, coming November 23, 2004.
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