Scan-N-Land

AT

We’ve talked in class about how blogs are a good vehicle for breaking news.

But the mission of the blog I mentioned on the first day of class, apartmenttherapy.com, is “changing the world, one apartment at a time.”

“AT” has been called “quietly addicting” by The New York Times. Its founder, New York City interior designer Maxwell Gillingham-Ryan has been dubbed “part designer, part life coach.”

Fans of HGTV’s Mission: Organization can still catch him sometimes in reruns of the earlier episodes, riding to the rescue on his motor scooter. He is also a commentator on the network’s Small Space, Big Style.

Maxwell believes in analyzing how your home should work for you and how you can realistically achieve it. It's not merely about organizing or decorating.

Maxwell’s book, the eponymous Apartment Therapy, is the showcase for this ideology, carried out in The Eight-Step Cure.

The Web site has a special Cure blog with reader photos and comments.

Maxwell and his wife Sara Kate, a food writer, also blogged on AT the renovation of their 250 square foot West Village rental apartment in tandem with SKGR’s pregnancy this year. Title: The 9 Month Cure, complete with reader comments thoroughly analyzing MGR and SKGR's financial and family life.

AT shows me that there are real people like me who make things work in tight space with little cash, multiple kitties and no car to go to malls for shopping for the place (but good street pickings).

I've had the opportunity to look into other people's homes with the photos they submit and see how they organized, arranged, how they did things.

To start, there was one site only, for New York City.

The first contests were held. Then a new "sister" site: The Kitchen.

In time the Open Threads and other features with comments often got tense.

And things are now much more entrepeneurial, with sites in LA, San Francisco, and Chicago. T-shirts. More sites are planned.

The increasing volume of posts makes it hard to find specific subtopics under topical threads in the blog format. Many wonder if a forum-style format with user registration would serve the site better than the Open Threads.

AT's growing and changing so fast.

How is multimedia success impacting the core readers? What new markets and niches are still unplowed ground?

Nothing ever stays the same, even in a virtual neighborhood of friends and family. Maybe the expansion and branding will make this community last.

I really hope so -- I love what Maxwell has done for us! And I love looking at those photos and videos!

(Interview with Maxwell: http://www.podcasts2.com/podcasts/060330Ryan.mp3 -- from the WrittenVoices.com site)

---jg

posted by Mark H. @ 12/14/2006 09:49:00 PM