Our dear friend and guest blogger alum Richard Metzger (show here with his wife Tara in a photo that Coop took) is now in charge of the This Is Brand X blog. Brand X is the Los Angeles Times' entrant into the "alt weekly" market, edited by Deborah Vankin. There are over 100,000 copies in distribution boxes around town.
Richard is the most knowledgeable and most interesting cultural critic I know. The LA Times scored a major coup when they signed him on.
From the press release:
Richard comes to Brand X with a decorated background, most notably as one of the New York Post's "top 20 most important new media executives" and having also been named one of the "top 100 people on the Internet" (twice!) by Silicon Alley Reporter. He's a Webby-award winner and was recently given the "New Business Award" by the Tribeca Film Festival for co-founding The Disinformation Company Ltd., a New York-based book publisher and DVD distributor, where he served as the company's creative director for 11 years.
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Someone gave me a copy of Metzger's "Disinformation" video last year and although I'm sure the project was born of good intentions it has left a bad taste with me ever since (in terms of Metzger's other work in other fields) - the whole DVD endeavor was simply a little too odd and inside for me.
I've also seen the LA Times's "Brand X" promo paper lying around in local LA coffee shops. Instead of being an "alt-weekly" it's more of a self-promoting multi-page advertisement for local restauarants and upscale art shows.
Perhaps Metzger can bring some of his oddball depth to the mini-promo paper.
Richard Metzger has this perma-devious look on his face at all times. Probably in his sleep too.
Someone make Metzger a thought bubble hat that says "I'm thinking something... crafty..."
Even though I defriended you on facebook over the 2012 soothsayers are suckers post a while back, I'm excited to see you take up at Brand X. I noticed the site a couple of months ago, and really liked it. What a neat turn to see you take the helm there. :)
Is Richard Metzger the real life inspiration for Hank Moody?
@hbl
Yes. Yes I am.
I like "Disinformation." If it was "odd and inside" I can't imagine what something really bizarre would do. To the person who "defriended" R.M. over a "2012 soothsayers are suckers" post...holy fucking shit. As for Mr. Meltzer, even though he appears to be morphing into Salman Rushdie (probly just the photo), he has earth's finest left eyebrow. I don't suppose it will be apparent on Brand X, but you can't have everything. Gonna hafta google Hank Moody. Best of luck though that's not very occult.