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"This guy is a master of reporting, analysis and prose style," says Village Voice Press Clips author Cynthia Cotts. "The rest of us media reporters might possibly be qualified to clean his monitor and keyboard." The Inside masthead is listed alphabetically, like the credits for some Robert Altman movie. Star writer Kim Masters gets second billing to a relative unknown like Denise Levin. Recently fired Mercury Records wunderkind Danny Goldberg, now hawking his new independent label, is also a contributor. But this nonhierarchical approach does not permeate the site. The Power Index (a list of media moguls and their relative place in the pecking order) is all too familiar, and its billing seems like a parody of itself. As Andersen prophesied in his novel "Turn of the Century," it's EW for Kids. "Check in throughout the day to see how the moguls are doing as they buy and sell companies, announce new deals and initiatives, demote and are demoted," reads the intro. Suck did this for Net Moguls and managed to make it funny. But it's early yet. The tech problems will doubtless be sorted out, and, given the pedigree of the talent involved, so will the funny business. A few magazine editors have already told me that they could have gotten a pedicure while waiting for Inside's pages to reload. Others have found valuable information on the site -- information they would have paid a researcher to find for them -- and will happily subscribe. Of course, they'll be writing off their subscription (as will I). The skeptics among Inside's readers insist there aren't enough of us with expense accounts to justify the site's business model. Who cares? The fact that so much of the criticism of Inside.com (criticism that began long before its launch) focuses on whether it can last is bizarre to me. Call it the anticipation of schadenfreude. The failure of such an ambitious site won't benefit any of us, nor will its success spell our demise (I hope). One complaint I've heard is that all this information is available elsewhere. "I've already got places bookmarked to read all this stuff," gURL producer Tanya Edwards posted on Media News. And though Inside's Latest Deals and Job Changes puts me in mind of Done Deal, among other insider sites, it's nice to think I might find a lot of this stuff in one place. The supermarket needn't kill the boulangerie, you know, especially if the latter offers cheaper fresh-baked goods. Me, I like shopping at both -- just as long as I don't go hungry. And the Naz said, "Straighten cat with the bent frame." After it was reported last week that CBS would not run ads for Christian Web site iBelieve.com during its miniseries "Jesus," more than 95 CBS affiliates contacted the site to offer to run the ad locally. Now iBelieve spots will be featured in 16 major markets when the two-part biopic concludes Wednesday. (Part 1 pulled in an ungodly 8.2 Nielsen rating Sunday -- I read it on Inside.com! -- and millions more are expected to tune in to find out what happens to the Nazarene.) Call it the power of prayer.
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