I think I'm moving TMD over to WordPress. More news on this later.

Earlier this week, I caught this item on MetaFilter about how the Independent Press Association had kicked the bucket, and how magazines were on the down and down. (That's like up and up, just the other way). Of course, as big a tech-head as I am, I know that magazines aren't a totally dying breed, just one that's on a much sped up evolution, declawing, or whatever you want to call it.

At the time, I figured that Rex Hammock, of Hammock Publishing and rexblog.com, would have something to say, since that's his bailiwick (ed: I've used that word entirely too much in the last month). Tonight, I had a chance to catch up with Rex via IM and ask him what he thought about this, and he was more than happy to point me in the right direction to some things he's said in the past, offer some new thoughts, and point out something he blogged about just this week.

About two years ago - February, 2005 to be exact - Rex took part in an interview with Media Life's Lorraine Sanders where he talked about why magazines matter. I won't rehash what he said so much there as that outside of his obvious love for the industry and the medium, but I can't agree more with his thoughts about how things such as JPG magazine offer something that just can't be recreated online, at least not yet, even though it's all about digital photography.

Rex also pointed me to this item from just two days ago, where he linked to a review of a new book, The Last Magazine, which talks about this very topic. You'll get a kick out of his quote, too.

"Magazines that people display on coffee tables will exist as long as there are coffee tables."

Ain't that the truth.

While chatting tonight, Rex told me that "magazines will have a long goodbye." That's important, because he's intentionally non specific, nor should he be. I brought up a magazine that I'm a big fan of, one that I not only love to read on planes, but love to keep around, Dwell. On that topic, Hammock said that he "think(s) that the aesthetics of magazines will grow more important -- the "experience" of something like Dwell is what makes the medium unique." If you've ever picked up that publication - or a number of others at its level - you'll notice there is something to every little nook and cranny, including the paper's feel on your fingertips. At least at the moment, you can't replace that. "Experience" is just the right word for it. Sure, Dwell can do a lot online, and they have a big, fresh site - but it isn't the same thing as the paper pub. On the other types of magazines, including "information" focused ones, he says that they "will (are) be supplanted by the Web.) We've seen that particular thing happen over and over again, but that probably won't stop people from opening those publications anew.

So are (will) magazines die off? Sure. Is it any different from a lot of other spaces and types of publications? Not so much. It's all about if the publishers of said publications can adapt and provide the great content they currently do to their readership in a fashion that the readership wants, can use, or needs. If it needs to be bite sized, some people will figure that out and do so. Others won't, and will vanish, probably quickly. As for the rest of it, I would say that, and did tonight with Rex, that those who are the most technologically hardcore, of which I'd consider myself party, might be the ones who "save" some of the publications on paper that are hurting right now, because we might be the ones who don't take them as much for granted when we pick up a publication and sit down and pour through its pages.

NBC, in an effort to hold off hatred of its network for the fact that it will not show any more episodes of its hit show Heroes until April 23, wisely chose tonight to offer a glimpse into Spider-Man 3, which hits theatres this summer. Clicking here will take you to 7 minutes of "exclusive" video that only NBC.com will have for you to view, and of course, which I'm about to finally view now.

Of course, I can't complain too much, as NBC has done what no one had done before - that is, hold me off from flipping over to CBS to watch CSI: Miami at 10pm, or at least watch 24 off the TiVo - by putting The Black Donnellys on, a show that I'm definitely digging.

Oh, and while I'm at it with this pseudo-trashing of NBC, did anyone else except me notice that really great SEO technique on the home page, nbc.com, noting that the site is the "TV Network for Primetime, Daytime, and Late Night Television Shows." Umm, yeah, like there aren't some others that happen to cover that same slice and dice?

While having a conversation with my colleague Chris Thilk this afternoon about this disaster featuring Best Buy's "secret intranet" site that had different pricing when you were inside a Best Buy location that was not the same as the Internet site that you reached from outside the store, he mentioned the following:

Chris: now would be a great time for Circuit City to run an ad saying "no secret websites here, no sir"

And I couldn't agree more. That's why I'm making the offer that any retailer in competition with Best Buy (or even one in a non-Best Buy market, if there are any) would like to run an advertisement that states the fact that they don't have a secret site such as that for in-store customers (hopefully most don't), then I will gladly run it on this site, themediadrop.com, for the term of one month for a grand total of $1.

Last summer, Jennifer Love Hewitt was sporting Hanes' Perfect Panty in an advertising campaign that drew a few eyeballs, and it looks like she's back on track to do some similar work this year for Hanes, this time for its new line of bras.

The ad campaign, set to go live tonight during FOX's "American Idol," features a commercial, "Jennifer's Photoshoot," where Hewitt is shown enduring all kinds of issues that come about while on a photoshoot with a typical bra, and then (of course) the product is made the hero when she starts sporting the All-Over Comfort Bra (which, by the way, has ComfortSoft(r) Straps, in case you were wondering), making everything better. You can view the ad right now by going to photoshoot.hanes.com, or just wait until it hits your screen at home. While you're at the Photo Shoot site, you can also submit your uncomfortable bra stories, or play the bra toss game.

Seriously, folks, if Steve Hall posts a pretty spot on post about something, either he's lovestruck, or something else is wrong.

In Thursday's New York Times, Bill Carter and Jacques Steinberg report that NBC may be replacing the executive producer for the network's "Nightly News with Brian Williams" program, John Reiss, "as early as today," according to their sources.