billpalmer.net

Can't talk about the cover story yet, but various pieces of the first issue of iProng Magazine are falling into place, which isn't bad considering it's being released on the first of December and this is still October:

- My interview with Joe Hewitt about how he brought Facebook's iPhone application to life is already in the books. Nothing is expected to change with the app between now and print time, but if it does, I'll get back with Joe before the issue is released.

- I've interviewed Tim Bourquin in short-form about next year's New Media Expo, specifically about the name change and the decision to move the show to Vegas. A more substantial interview with Tim will appear in the January issue, focused on his role in the podcasting portion of January's CES (which also happens to be in Vegas).

- later today I'm interviewing Paul Kent briefly about January's Macworld Expo for the December issue, focusing mostly on the big picture. Paul and I will go into greater detail about the Expo in the January issue. In fact, Macworld and CES will represent a huge portion of the January issue; they're basically the Mecca and Medina of the iPod and iPhone universe.

If you think you're seeing a trend here, you're right. Although they'll be released a month apart, the December and January issues are essentially being produced concurrently. I'm trying to give each issue two months of prep time, which means that they're always going to overlap. I think this will give us the benefit of continuity, along with making sure we don't fire off all our creative guns on one issue and leave nothing the tank for the next one.

Yesterday, Lance Anderson (former feature writer for Podcast User Magazine) agreed to join the iProng Magazine staff as a Creative Consultant. Although we won't be writing stories himself, his input on who and what to write about, and how to approach those stories, will be invaluable. You probably won't see Lance's name mentioned much, as his contributions will be mostly internal, but having Lance on board is a big deal. And I'm not done bringing in people with industry experience.

I know, it's silly: I have yet to tell you who's on the December cover, and I'm already discussing the January cover with publicists. I know who's on the December cover, I just can't tell you yet. You'll know soon. And I hope you'll be as excited as I am.

If it all comes together like it should, we've got one musician interviewing another, two video podcasters writing about each other's new podcasts, and more one of a kind content.

I can tell you that Tim Coyne of the Hollywood Podcast is going to write up his experiences at PodCamp Boston for the December issue, while Jason Tucker of GeekFit will be covering PodCamp Arizona, and PodCamp co-founder Chris Brogan will be sharing his experiences from BlogWorld Expo. By going the tag-team route, I think we can provide on-site coverage of most of the important events in the industries we cover. And of course, everything iPod-related that happens at Macworld and CES will be featured in the February issue. Come to think of it, I guess we're producing more than two issues at a time.