Two of the founding members of JPG Magazine, Derek Powazek and Heather Champ have left 8020 Publishing over what appears to be an attempt at revisionism on the part of JPG’s “CEO.” It’s a sad story and I can’t imagine how hard it is for Derek and Heather to walk away from the community they grew. I’ll leave the “right” or the “wrong” up to you, dear reader:
- Derek’s The Real Story of JPG Magazine
- Heather’s blog post
There’s been a pretty strong reaction on Flickr and I’ll soon be adding myself to the list after I get my refund for my subscription. Upsetting that I had just subscribed to the magazine and was really looking forward to it.
You can still find the pre-revisionist issues of JPG Magazine on LuLu.
Update (16 May 2007): There’s been a lengthy discussion of the matter on Flickr, including comments from JPG Magazine. Part of me feels a bit knee-jerk reactionary on this, but the issues involved are complicated: mixing business/personal relationships, maintaining transparency, etc. etc. We web folk are a passionate (oft reactionary) bunch, which makes dealing with situations like this that much more difficult.
Ooh the drama!! Why can’t I get away from it!? Again, LJ is perfect for this kind of stuff!
Seriously, I really like the concept of JPG Mag — through there, I discovered a lot of inspiring photographers. . .who really really inspire to get better! and well, getting other photographers to look at your work and potentially getting it published is a great incentive. I’m torn as I do want to support the mom and pop of JPG. But really, they’ve got talent and ideas and I have no doubt that they’ll come out with something as inspiring. I’m going to keep my account and and give it a chance for a while and see where it goes.
At the same time, it irks me that there are so many egos flying around. It’s one thing announce to the community about the reality of the situation in a humbling, graceful manner (I respect that) and another to air dirty laundry. I kinda lost respect for everyone involved. When it comes to business I take what people write on their personal blogs with a grain of salt. I understand that part of it is a community issue, also really, executive decisions have been made even before this community got big.
Regardless, I have a life of my own that’s more important to deal with and be passionate for — everything else, should just go into LiveJournal, and well, on your blog, cause I love you. And really, there is nothing about this that anybody has to “deal” with. especially when everyone has a choice to delete the account — and that is that. So it goes.