Rich and Mitch at Get Frank have launched their site (which is featured in the next print Lucire). And with a little help from yours truly, now doubling as the motoring writer there. Sure, the first piece is a re-run from Lucire (we’ve agreed to license content to Get Frank) but, as far as I know, new to the ’net other than being published in a pop-up box on my personal site. (I hope readers enjoy it: it is an Ian Fleming James Bond parody—how original for an Aston Martin road test—and specifically, the Goldfinger novel.) The Aston Martin V8 Vantage, which I shot above, will be familiar to visitors of my work blog.
It’s about time New Zealand had a good men’s site. The last decent one was eMale, from David MacGregor, who went on to co-found Idealog. In its day, it out-GQed GQ: it was that good. In fact, it was probably the best men’s website in the world (no exaggeration: I believe I published the same in Lucire) and deserved to be better known globally. But Get Frank has done one thing better: it secured decent advertising support for its site.
Of course, people like David and me had to fight a total misunderstanding of the web in an age when our subjects were still wondering why they should appear in an online title. Some of our subjects did not even have email accounts, even if they have MySpace pages today. It’s some of these movements that compelled me to go into print, because we knew we had to take on an extra medium. It was the same theory behind TV, even if our television films are tiny YouTubeable things (we were too early in 2000 with Lucire Live).
I had a good meeting with Rich a few weeks ago in Auckland, and was impressed by how he took a chance, quitting his job in one of the big accounting firms. They all sound the same to me, but I think it was Price Holyland Waterhouse Ross Montgomery Cooper Bros. McDonald Currie and Lybrand, or whatever it is called these days. It’s the one with the stupid-ass logo.
It did strike me that I was now a veteran of the 1990s and the original era of internet start-ups. But really, the only lesson that Rich needed to remember is to choose your people wisely. We might get extra media, but there are only people behind them.
The solidity of his and Mitchell’s site now means that Lucire Man might have to stay print-only. Pay it a visit and tell them what a great writer I am.
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