The Printed Blog

(Post: English)
"By now, we all know that the Internet is tomorrow and the printed media are yesterday."

So when, to borrow from Lost, is Joshua Karp? The 36-year-old former consultant from Chicago is publisher of the Printed Blog.

The content buzzes like the World Wide Web: Every bit comes from the blogosphere or photos snagged from Flickr (with creators' permission).

But the format is undeniably 20th century: ink on paper, or to be more specific, four-color ink on eight sheets of 11 by 17 glossy stock bound by staples.

The free weekly debuted in late January in Chicago and San Francisco, where volunteers and some of Karp's 14-person staff handed out 3,000 copies to commuters at train stations.

It expanded to New York and Los Angeles in February and Karp hopes to add Washington in March.

The paper is a huge money drain. Karp says he's bringing in $500 to $600 a week from advertising. But it's cost him more than $15,000 to print the first three editions.

Add in payroll and office rent and the $30,000 that Karp says he's pulled out of savings to start his venture will be spent before the publication can roll into D.C.

No worries, says Karp. He says he's negotiating loans for as much as $50,000. Besides, his credit cards aren't maxed out yet.

Source: BusinessWeek