Milé Boban of graphic apparel maker My Trick Pony in San Francisco listens to a customer while designing Gannett Blog's premium prêt-à-porter spring '09 line. This year's gifts for patrons joining The Thurston J. Howell Society feature a T-shirt and cap!Best of all, Boban and his partner can scale for production. I could hire Cafe Press, but I'd rather support neighborhood businesses like My Trick Pony, and the guys at Club Card who designed my postcards -- especially in hard times. Local, local, local!
The T-shirt was inspired by a reader's comment about my Facebook page: "The culture of this company suggests that those who are friends with the company's enemy no. 1, are not around for long."
Lookin' beta: In prototypes, black is back
Our short-sleeve shirts and caps are black, 100% cotton; gunmetal-silver lettering. Shirts by American Apparel; caps, Otto. Caps are one-size-fits-all adjustable, Velcro closure. Pricing, bottom of post.
[Shirt front: letters half-inch high, eight inches across; crew collar]
[Shirt back: letters half-inch high, 10'' across, at shoulders]
[Two styles: military (shown) and baseball; half-inch letters]
So, if you think you'd be interested, please post a note in the comments section, below. To e-mail confidentially, write gannettblog[at]gmail[dot-com]; see Tipsters Anonymous Policy in the green sidebar, upper right.Sponsorship opportunities!
Tentatively, $65 for budget-conscious philanthropists joining Craig's Cashiers Club (har!), and $99 for patrons of The Thurston J. Howell Society. Offered as thank-you gifts for sponsoring my independent journalism. Final prices may be lower with volume discounts; that's why I need a show of hands on any initial expressions of interest.
Tentatively, $65 for budget-conscious philanthropists joining Craig's Cashiers Club (har!), and $99 for patrons of The Thurston J. Howell Society. Offered as thank-you gifts for sponsoring my independent journalism. Final prices may be lower with volume discounts; that's why I need a show of hands on any initial expressions of interest.
Jim,
ReplyDeleteMaybe he can make a shirt that says...
"I attended the Shareholders meeting, and
I didn't say shit"
Let's put this in perspective:
ReplyDeleteLast year the total spent on blog advertising in the United States was a mere $411 million, according to researcher eMarketer. That represents only a sliver of the $23.7 billion spent on U.S. Internet ads last year, which is itself only a fraction of the $276.8 billion spent on all forms of advertising in the U.S. By 2012 blog ad spending will reach $746 million, while overall online ad spending will hit $32 billion, eMarketer says. More money was spent on e-mail advertising last year than was spent on blog advertising—yet you don't see anyone touting e-mail as the next big billion-dollar media business. Technorati, a blog researcher, estimates that bloggers who run ads earn an average of $5,060 per year.
Well, Jim, hoping for $6,000 per quarter indexes you well above the national blogger incomce average - by a whopping 475%. And, at least according to this information, the average blogger will only increase their income to $9,100 by 2012.
I'm not sure where the blogger income ceiling floats but I'll bet $24,000 is at or over the top.
This is almost funny, but misses the mark by a mile. Stuff like this gets a few laughs, of course, but does nothing to help the company move ahead. Maybe the stimulus package will help, right? How about the tee shirt I saw at my unit, "If we actually didn't complain constantly maybe something productive would occur."
ReplyDeleteMile Boban-- woof-woof
ReplyDelete"Stuff like this gets a few laughs, of course, but does nothing to help the company move ahead." said 8:48
ReplyDeleteif this were a Gannett endorsed blog I would understand complaining about folks complaining...BUT this is a place for venting, info gathering, sharing and "networking." Hell, some of us don't even work for G anymore, and really don't give a crap if it fails--just trying to keep up on company friends.
How much for the T-shirts? I might buy a few and send them to "select" management in my newsroom, err, information center.
ReplyDeleteFrom an earlier version of this string, these comments had to be relocated. They appear below, unedited:
ReplyDeleteAnonymous said...
dang, I just mailed my $20 too early :(
2/15/2009 11:27 PM
Anonymous said...
I feel like I should wear this around Gannett Hall at Mizzou. Too bad most students don't know what is actually going on at Gannett.
2/16/2009 12:16 AM
From a comment string on a post that's been merged into this one, six comments:
ReplyDeleteJim Hopkins said...
It goes without saying that Gannett Blog Law Department General Counsel Selma Bouvier and I will look the other way, should Freedom Forum want to place mass orders for million$ worth from, oh, 85, or so U.S. locales!
2/16/2009 2:50 AM
Anonymous said...
Not sure this if you've got the right revenue model for your t-shirts, Jim. You might consider replicating twitoshirt.com concept: favorite blog posts on gannettblog at $20 a pop. "xxx to the rescue"... You could make thousands quickly.
2/16/2009 5:44 AM
Anonymous said...
Dude - this isn't PBS! $75 for a t-shirt is a little steep. I could make my own set of the complete package for that price. Now you're trying ot price like Gannett prices and you see where that got us.
2/16/2009 7:55 AM
Jim Hopkins said...
That's a good point, 7:55 a.m. On the other hand, I don't see this as a volume business. That is, I'm not trying to get into the T-shirt/cap sales business; these are meant to be tokens of appreciation for bigger gifts that only a limited number of Gannett Blog readers would make in the first place.
2/16/2009 8:12 AM
Anonymous said...
Just from reviewing TV and print ads, it seems to me all caps block letters are in. Lower case is so passe'.
2/16/2009 8:29 AM
Anonymous said...
Count me in for zero T-shirts. Nice try.
2/16/2009 9:20 AM
Eh. I don't really like that you're actually referring to yourself as "enemy no. 1." Not very objective. I know that you like to incorporate your opinions here, but positioning yourself in such an antagonistic way won't really do anybody much good.
ReplyDeleteI don't think you're viewed as "enemy #1" Jim, but maybe you have some inside, unposted information that makes you feel secure in the label.
ReplyDeleteHowever, I do think you are an irritant and supreme annoyance, a person and blog that corporate (and many editors and publishers) wish would catch a virus and disappear.
Burr under their saddle, yes.
Enemy #1, don't think so.
How about offering wristbands (black perhaps... along the line of the Livestrong, Wriststrong, etc) for those of us out of work, about to be out of work or just plain pennypinchers? And there might be more appeal for those that would be giving up their anonymous status by wearing these items.
ReplyDeleteHow 'bout a short that says:
ReplyDeleteI'm available to run Gannett into the ground for $36M severance"?
A few of those at the shareholder's meeting would be kewl.
How about you can't spell furlough without f-u
ReplyDeleteHow about "MIZ- Gannett-Fuck'd-KU?"
ReplyDelete