Pajama Media, Major Problem.

Two seemingly unconnected events today, the combination of which leads me to suspect that Pajama Media has a serious problem on its hands, one that could, if unaddressed, cripple the entire project.

The first was the arrival of the latest Pajamagram detailing progress and all seems well and the project is developing nicely.

The second was my being invited out to lunch by a reader of this blog. A decent lunch in a decent restaurant, what could be wrong with that? (BTW, thanks again Erik!) Well, the problem that arises is the method of payment used for that very lunch. As my host was not only a reader, but a fully paid up member of the mainstream media, he was able to use the corporate credit card to pay for said lunch. Again, there is no problem with that and our discussion roamed over the role of blogs, newspapers, the coming changes, the way in which the very best bloggers (Jane Galt at The Economist for example) are already adding to the glories of the mainstream....a general and wide ranging discussion.

As he said when inviting me to the lunch:

I'm a card-carrying member of the MSM, and as such have something the blogosphere, in the main, doesn't: an expense account.

I fear that this lack could be an insurmountable problem for Pajama Media....just where are the corporate credit cards to which we can charge expensive and alcohol fueled lunches? Where, in fact, would be journalism without such? As anyone who has ever been around journalists will know, whatever we might be doing while sober will not be journalism as we know and love it.

So Pajama does face a serious problem: who’s picking up the lunch tab?