Perhaps the biggest revelation from ONA 08 is that Tina Brown is forming a new Web startup dedicated to celebrating the life and times of the world’s great beasts.
I think the site is a great idea. First, everyone loves beasts, especially daily ones. How Brown went from being editor of Vanity Fair and The New Yorker to becoming the beast master is anyone’s guess.
But please don’t pull a Jeff Jarvis and ask about Brown’s business plan. Here is a little secret: there isn’t one.
On a side note, Brown is a terrible keynote speaker. She told us nothing new, except about her new Web site that doesn’t sound particularly original. And then she refused to answer any questions about her Web site because it hasn’t launched yet (but it will in a few weeks).
Maybe the world needs another news aggregation site (this time done by costly humans), but I’m not convinced. Brown wasn’t a convincing saleswoman. But she still is one hell of a Beast Master.
