We’ve always wanted to use “gate” in something.
This morning, Glenn “Instapundit” Reynolds cheerfully reports: GET IT RIGHT THE SECOND TIME: OSM is going back to “Pajamas Media.”

I’ve been wondering when this shoe would drop: GM Job Cuts Fail to Assuage Investors

I would like to see them succeed (assuming that Dennist the Peasant is exaggerating in his woes of involvement in the initial birth of the enterprise, otherwise the founders have a bit of a problem with what I regard as ethical and moral behavior). My issue is with how little communication there was with the 230+ bloggers who signed the non-disclosure/non-compete contract but who didn’t “make the cut” of the 70 that are included in OSM.

At the least it is bad public relations, especially among the target audience, but it also speaks of a lack of understanding of the bigger picture.

For OSM to succeed, those runnning it need to understand that their audience and their contributors/workers are the same. This is rare (if not unique) in business. Typically the vast majority of readers for any blog are bloggers themselves. Unless OSM has plans to package the content to appeal to non-bloggers, and then find a way to publicize the site outside of the blogging community, they MUST understand their target market of bloggers. Alienating that target market by the manner in which the Pajamas Media sign-up was handled indicates a complete lack of comprehension.