The Messenger’s Message: There’s A New Newspaper in Second Life
by Alphaville Herald on 09/08/05 at 7:53 pm
No, the Herald hasn’t gone to a broadsheet format. The picture above is cropped from the positively newspaper-sized new entrant into Second Life’s fourth estate, the Metaverse Messenger, which launched today. A weekly that will start at six pages, the Messenger is the brainchild of Katt Kongo , an SL avatar with RL journalism experience under her belt who has also hired a healthy editorial staff to help get things under way. Phoenix Psaltery, earlier reported to have been the RL journalist, serves as the paper’s associate publisher. The pair will split editing duties between them for the moment.
The Messenger’s inaugural number features Herald favorite Squagmire Stravinsky above the fold on the front page, and inside reminisces about the Memoirs of a Salesman in a department called Notecards from the Grid. Planned features include a Linden spotlight recognizing those Lindens that have been most handy at making life easier on the Grid, and plenty of space for advertisements, which the Messenger’s sales staff seems to have done a bang-up job of selling into the first issue.
Laying out the Messenger’s plans in a front-page feature, publisher Katt Kongo pointed out that the paper will be a strictly PG publication. “There are other venues for more X-rated news and features,” Katt said. (Hmm, now who could she have been talking about there?)
The Messenger joins a Second Life media scene which, if not growing by leaps and bounds, is at least not gasping for breath. Besides the Second Life Herald, local papers that have been spotted recently in SL include the Orwood Hour and the Nova Albion News, and there are probably more out there that we don’t yet know about. (Please get in touch if you’re putting something out; we want to know.) And on the meta-metaverse front, there’s Squagmire’s own InfoNet FreePress, coming soon to an R4 terminal near you.
Herald publisher Urizenus Sklar, currently engaged in a long undercover investigative assignment in Monaco (the Pope, you know), was unavailable for comment. But we know that if he were here in the Herald’s flea-bit offices at the moment, he’d join us in raising a glass to the Metaverse Messenger in the spirit of friendly competition. We look forward to such additions making the Grid a more and more vibrant place to spend time.
We apologize for this interruption. We now return you to our regularly scheduled X-rated news and features.
Cocoanut
Aug 9th, 2005
That’s pretty cute!
coco
Urizenus
Aug 9th, 2005
Yes, jacking in from the Herald yacht in Monte Carlo: let me add that there are a couple of local papers that also bear mentioning, including Elf Clan News and (I believe it’s called) The Port Kar Record (or something like that). Sorry, gotta run, Claudia Schiffer wants me to put some sun tan lotion on her back and Peter Gabriel started another fire in the kitchen. Must I do *everything*?
Prokofy Neva
Aug 10th, 2005
This is a VERY important development! I’m rushing to put kiosks of this new newspaper on all my malls. This is great.
And their front-page story is about InfoNet, another hugely important development in communications in SL.
There’s a reason why the FIC are howling on the forums, either rushing to smother the Messenger with “advice” or trashing the new RFP for SLTV: they sense that all their beautiful wickedness may be melting.
With new media opening up within SL that is not currently FIC-controlled — or at least not yet! — the hectoring know-it-alls on the SL forums now have a serious challenge. With any luck, the new media will make the forums — and the FIC that has a hammerlock on them — obsolete.
pandastrong
Aug 10th, 2005
We hector you here as well, douchebag!
TrannyPet Barmy
Aug 10th, 2005
what a complete load of shit !!!!!!
trannypet
montserrat
Aug 11th, 2005
i am glad to see more papers.
that way we, at the herald, have something to rise above.
:kisses:
montie
Katrina Bixby
Aug 14th, 2005
The Info net will advance the technology of SL groups and the homes of its world 6 times fold. “Its a computer in world for my computer”? An’t that a bitch…. but yes with infornet I can communicate with group members, or a community at large, list “need to know” information for new groupees…. its wonderful. StarFleet, has over 100 members our infonet will be activativate in days. Did the StarFleet/Sci Fi geeks, surpass the sl general community again!!!!! smiles.
Katrina Bixby, StarFleet Command SL Quadrant, Fleet Admiral.
Krissy Sinclair
Oct 11th, 2009
I know this is a little off topic, but I feel I must share. Second Life in the early days was very much about collaborations and helping one another. As it matured it has become more about commerce. I hope we do not loose the spirit of collaboration.
The arts and nonprofits in Second Life still afford us a chance to come together in the spirit of collaboration. We have a chance to change the world and create a world that is as we wish it was in real life. We can learn from one another.
The Survivors of Suicide Project in Second Life is a suicide prevention program. In these uncertain times and economic stress more people are feeling isolated, alone, that they don’t matter, and want to give up. Each and everyone of us can make a difference just by reaching out to one another. Spend that little bit more time and get to know a new person. People all around us are dealing with depression. Most of us with depression wear a mask and hide out true feelings.
I need your help, in getting the word out about suicide prevention. Help me distribute the Suicide Prevention kiosks. Get involved and any way you can. Step forward and say we are going to stop suicide in our lifetime by talking about it. We need to get it out of the closet and make it a topic that it is ok to talk about. I would love volunteers, everyone has something they can do to get involved.
If you have a sim, store, build, please consider posting a Suicide Prevention kiosks. I am also in great need of sponsors to help this project grow, need to get ads in the SL magazines, on the SL TV, blogs and billboards. Please, please lets do something about this preventable tragedy.
http://slurl.com/secondlife/Haetae/160/30/97
Krissy Sinclair