And Then There Were Two...

Alerted by the ever-vigilant J-P...

From The Poodle over at Little Green Footballs on December 1:

Announcement time: I am no longer affiliated with Pajamas Media in a management position. There's nothing gossip-worthy here, though; I enjoyed helping to found and start PJ Media, and this is a completely amicable departure. We mutually decided that my energy and resources are best focused right here on Little Green Footballs. LGF will continue to be part of the Pajamas Media network, and we'll continue to run PJ Media's well-monitored advertisements.

Well, now it's just Da Raj and Glenn Harlan...

Raj and The Poodle in happier times...

As you can imagine, I have my doubts as to what has actually happened here. I'll wager this mutually agreed upon split to be, in truth, the result of several factors:

First, from what little contact I had with Charles Johnson back when Roger and I founded Tulip Advertising, which morphed into Pajamas Media, I didn't see a whole lot that Chuckles could have brought to the table in terms of management talent. I have to believe that at some point, this became apparent to the venture capitalists involved.

Second, I have a feeling that it has finally started to dawn on those same venture capitalists that Little Green Footballs, and therefore Chaz, wasn't exactly enhancing their reputations amongst the sane folk of the world. If you know what I mean. Charles and LGF have always been out there, it's just that now they're both so far out there that it can't really be ignored anymore.

Third, I'm wondering if the venture capital itself might be starting to run low. For all the bluster and bullshit about their financing, you can bet that a large chunk of the orginal $7 million in capital was non-cash... i.e., the $7 mill included non-cash items such as using office space in Aubrey's building, using Aubrey's attorneys for incorporation, drafting agreements and whatnot, and whatever else Chernick and Koshland could have thrown in to puff up the press release.

In any event, chances are we'll never know the complete truth of the matter, which is understandable given that Charles and Roger are both accomplished liars. Nevertheless, I'm happy to consider it a setback for both Pajamas Media and Charles Johnson even without all the facts... Let's face it; things like this don't happen when everything is going swimmingly.

Comments

[PeterUK]

Quite simple really,Johnson wanted to spend more time with his bicycle,the bike had been complaining of being ignored,Johnson was spending too much time with his other love computers,something had to give,espescially money.

[Richard Silverstein]

Oh this is delightful news. The only news that would be more delightful is a PJM death notice. I'd love to get the skinny on this. One thing I wonder about is why they've kept LGF as a member of PJM. I guess he delivers them readers, but are they the kinds of readers PJM advertisers want? Don't know the answer to that.

Dennis--have you written anything in depth about Chernick & Koshland's political/business backgrounds? I know that Chernick has been trying to cash in on the whole national security/anti-terror business angle & used to own Candle Corp. They're both major conributors to Jewish charity I believe & most likely affiliated with AIPAC. Koshland is fr. one of S. Francisco's wealthies Jewish families.

[pch1013]

Maybe Koshland got fed up with all the San Francisco-bashing.

[markg8]

I can understand why Dennis hates PJM but why do so many other commenters here have it in for them? I remember hearing complaints that Raj was only interested in the right kind of audience, from the right schools etc. Seems to me exclusives are what you want in the news business not your readership if you're going to turn the media world upside down. I think I've been to the site once, didn't see anything interesting so I never went back.

I did find a site through Memorandum, can't recall the name, that became part of the PJM empire during the few weeks I was commenting there. It seemed to be written by a gullible dimwitted child who wrote in an unedited stream of consciousness. His understanding of politics and history seemed to come solely from watching but not comprehending cable television crap. After awhile you get tired of arguing with someone who claims the US Army fought a guerrilla war in West Germany against Nazi holdouts until 1952.

I figured if Simon was signing up guys like this he'd probably either conquered the entire wingnutosphere or more likely had already churned and burned about everyone else.