As Lorne Greene Would Say, That's More Like 127 in Web Years

Welcome to the fifth anniversary of our humble little experiment in Web journalism, Pajamas Media. Here’s the boss’s take:

Sometimes I think Jonathan Klein was right.  Klein was the CBS exec who inadvertently gave Pajamas Media its name by dismissing bloggers who questioned the veracity of his network’s anchorman Dan Rather as amateurs “in their pajamas.”

Of course, Rather has long been out of his job and PJM is today celebrating its fifth anniversary — but like the former anchor, we’ve made more than our share of mistakes.  We just try to own up to them.

In fact, I remember the opening week of our new media/blog alliance in mid-November 2005 as one giant fiasco.  For reasons that elude me now — some version of being thought serious, probably — we had decided to call ourselves OSM Media (for Open Source) only to discover, mid-way through our gala launch at New York’s “W” Hotel, that the name had already been taken by a relatively obscure online radio program.

My co-founder Charles Johnson and I — not to mention our principal partner in crime Instapundit Glenn Reynolds — were embarrassed.  In order not to appear the new bullies on the block, we instantly reverted to Pajamas Media, a name we should never have abandoned in the first place.  But that didn’t prevent us from being the object of massive Internet ridicule.

For a flashback to the Internet equivalent of the Longest Day — certainly one of the craziest — click here for my blog posts live blogging and recapping the events of the day.  And then go back and finish Roger’s post. As Roger concludes:

What’s next? We certainly have ideas, which will be disclosed in due course. But we are ever-mindful of one of the rare smart things said by John Lennon:  “Life is what happens to you while you’re busy making other plans.”

I will close with another inevitable rock and roll cliché:  “What a long strange trip it’s been!” Of course that trip has not been nearly as long as the Grateful Dead’s.  (Whose could be?) But I like to think we’ve only just begun.

From my vantage point, it certainly seems like one heck of a trip — and at times certainly a strange one! Thanks for coming along for the ride, and for those who’ve commented, whether in the blog comments or via email, thanks for participating as well.

Insert silly obligatory Stan Lee/Al Gore by way of “South Park” Excelsior! line here.