ONLINE PUBLISHING
Making money, much less humor, on the Web is no laughing matter. Enter Tony Hendra, former editor of National Lampoon and band manager Ian Faith in This Is Spinal Tap. His path to profitability: Gigawit (www.gigawit.com), a site that aims to be a hybrid humor portal and online publisher. Gigawit posts original material and ushers manuscripts from authors to bookstores - or into ebook format - in a matter of weeks. Its first title (in print and online) is Hendra's own The Gigawit Dictionary of the E-nglish Language, a send-up of Net jargon and apocalyptic vision inspired by none other than Wired's January 2000 issue.
Wired: What makes you think you can make money doing humor on the Web?
Hendra: Humor is a very time-sensitive thing, and the Web's perfect for that. I wrote the dictionary in two weeks. If you're not doing it at that speed, you're probably losing something. Traditional publishing operates on an agricultural model; they're busy in spring and fall. If Jay Leno needed nine months for his monologue, he'd be out of business.
Is there anything on the Web now that makes you laugh?
I think The Onion is hilarious. Our Dumb Century is one of the funniest publications since we were doing the good stuff at the Lampoon . It has a kind of wonderful, delicious immersion in words. I want to define Gigawit against the sort of doodie.com level of Internet humor. I mean, that's always been the first line of humor. The first thing that made cavemen laugh was someone farting after dinner. And that's fine, but it's not what I want to do. I want to be funny and smart.
Can you give us a preview of what we'll see on the site?
We have Al Franken working on a very funny miniparody, which is halfway done. Once we have it in hand, it's only a matter of weeks until it's on sale in every form. And we certainly want to do a Gigawit guide to Campaign 2000. I mean, I don't think we could have two dopier people running for president, could we? People are going to need guidance. As a publisher on the Web, we have a window of opportunity between the initiation of technology and the time when the big boys figure out a way to own it. For the moment we have this access to readers, and that means more creative possibilities.
Aren't you worried about arriving late to the dotcom party?
We're not a dotcom. We have an actual product. We're using technology to open up a direct channel from the author to the reader. In publishing, there are so many people between the author and the reader that they have to hire focus groups to tell them what works. This is an opportunity to end-run that process. Eventually, we want to invite users to participate. For example, with the dictionary, visitors will be invited to provide definitions - and if they're funny, they'll be in the next edition.
What are your long-term goals for Gigawit?
We're interested in expanding the idea of what a book is. We're toying with making ebooks with audio and video, so it's not just a book. I love reading screenplays, and because of my contacts I have access to some really terrific screen material that I want to publish. In Hollywood, a lot of great movies don't get made because all the shitty ones are getting made.
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