RIP: The Word

I'm still numb two days after learning The Word magazine is closing shop. 

As I tweeted on Friday, "I am heartbroken."

I had just gotten a letter in the mail a few days ago from Word editor Mark Ellen thanking me "for renewing my subscription and, obviously, congratulations on your impeccable taste." Like a lot of things in The Word, the use of the word "obviously" was not only clever but understood. 

I've been through this kind of magazine death before with Trouser Press and later Musician, but it's been decades since both those magazines closed. This is a fresh wound. 

I read a lot of music publications, but I guarantee I won't feel the same if Rolling

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Two popular websites embrace print offshoots

I wrote awhile back about Grantland, the superb sports and pop culture website operated by Bill Simmons and funded by his bosses at ESPN. The site has grown into a lively alternative to more traditional sports brands (S.I., even ESPN) but is now finding success by going traditional -- to print.  

I also want to highlight a cool project from Voice of San Diego, a community-funded news site that is now publishing a monthly magazine in hopes of increasing its revenue. 

Both are more examples of web-first ventures wading into the world of print, both for new revenue but also to extend their brands. 

The sleeve on Grantland Quarterly 2 doubles as a cool two-sized poster. Sweet!"Grantland Quarterly" is a collection of Grantland's best and most interesting content from the previous three months. 

Simmons is ESPN's biggest star online, although I can only take him in small doses. His greatest gift to Grantland, however, is ceding the spotlight to a diverse group of lively writers. Chuck Klosterman, Malcolm Gladwell and Charles Pierce are just a few of the cast that make Grantland perhaps the most invigorating sports publication around. 

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Curiosity separates great journalism and lazy journalism

Journalism is a business where there's always something to do, stories to cover, deadlines to meet.

It's work that can be a grind, particularly when you wait for stories to land in your lap. But journalism can be magic when you dive into the unknown, led only by a single tip that may or may not pan out. 

Sadly, I regularly encounter journalists and other professionals who lack one key trait that separates the average from the great: curiosity. 

Tim Layden of Sports Illustrated is a great journalist. Case in point is "The Forgotten Hero," an extraordinary tale that started with a solid tip about a long-forgotten small-college athlete but grew into a much larger story about a dying man whose zest for life inspired everyone around him. 

"The Forgotten Hero" is Mike Reily, who played football at Williams College in the early 1960s. His life was cut short by Hodgkin's disease, and by all accounts the world lost a great one. 

But that's just a small piece of the story. 

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