562CITYLIFE.COM HAS ITS NAME TO ITSELF AGAIN
By Dave Wielenga
Publisher Jeremy Zachary will still begin printing a monthly arts-and-entertainment magazine in Long Beach this fall, but it won’t be called Long Beach CityLife. Just after 6 o’clock Tuesday evening, Zachary e-mailed Matt Saunders of the local social networking website 562CityLife to say he would be calling it … well … that part he didn’t say.
“After much consideration and the willingness to work with our future partners in Long Beach,” Zachary wrote to Saunders, “we will be changing our name.”
The e-mail arrived about five hours after Greater Long Beach posted a story at 1:21 p.m. Tuesday about Saunders’ unhappiness with Zachary and his ad salesman, Noah Witenstein. Saunders charged that they had “ripped off” not only the “CityLife” suffix from his three-year-old 562CityLife site, but also “the typography, the color scheme, the name, and the content.”
Saunders, who had originally made his accusations against Zachary and Witenstein on Aug. 7 on 562CityLife and various social media sites, was pleased by the outcome. “This is all we wanted,” he said. “It’s the right thing to do so that people don’t get confused.”
Zachary had flatly denied all Saunders’ charges during an interview with Greater Long Beach on Tuesday morning. “He believes we stole his idea,” said Zachary, publisher of IE Weekly and Culture magazines, “but the concept of a cultural magazine in Long Beach is not a new idea.” Zachary asserted he was “going forward” with Long Beach CityLife and insisted that he was not fazed by the possibly negative publicity. “Not at all—press is press, whether positive or negative,” he said. “We’re just getting our name out there in a way we didn’t expect.”
By Tuesday night, however—a few hours after his e-mail to Saunders—Zachary wasn’t speaking to Greater Long Beach, anymore. When texted at 9:31 p.m. with a request for an interview, he texted right back, “Naw, wasnt too happy with ur last piece, gonna pass on any commentary.”
The tone of Zachary’s e-mail to Saunders was quite a bit more congenial and collegial.
“Having grown up in Long Beach, my heart and soul reside there, and I understand keenly the importance of community,” Zachary wrote. “Our goal is to greater enhance and bring together all areas of LB for a greater Long Beach.”
Greater Long Beach? Hey, that’s our name!
5 Comments
Fantastic news! And if it WAS all a ploy for some early publicity….brilliant!! No, really, I mean it….I’m all for savvy marketing and even a bit of manipulation, when things come to be fair in the end….and this is a fair conclusion. See, NOW I’ll be willing to check out the new publication, even if part of me will always wonder if the ‘dis and eventual rapprochement were always part of the plan!
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Print is dead. Good luck guys!
“Greater Long Beach? Hey, that’s our name!” – Cracks me up!
Seriously, though we want to say thank you to everyone who stood up a voiced their minds about what’s right… Now, it’s time to get back to work!
Great news happy to hear that the name was changed so quickly. It’s funny though, hearing about an art’s magazine that basically ripped off the name of another organization. It’s an art magazine, how can you not be creative with the title?
Does that mean that all their articles would be on plagiarized work?
thinking of creating an online newsletter called “Feelings of Jeremy Zachary.”
But it in no ways is going to be affiliated with Jeremy Zachary, it’s just a coincidence.
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