Latest Update: January 24, 2001

An Interview with Labelnetworks' Kathleen Gasperini

W.I.G. (women in general) Magazine unified a tribe of like minded women in ways few other magazines have. It was built for smart, cool, creative, active girls/women: people a lot like Kathleen Gasperini. Like most good publications it was popular with the readership and difficult for advertisers to understand. Now she's got a new thing going on the incorporates W.I.G. and builds from there. It's called Labelnetworks.com and we think it's pretty cool.

The following is a short interview on what Labelnetworks is all about and how W.I.G. fits into the new group of sites.

So what is Label Networks?

Label Networks (labelnetworks.com--we're still building it) is a network for independent artists; mostly revolving around the action sports industry, art, and music. There are 4 of us--all previously from Rivals--working on it. We host sites and will eventually have a Label Lab in which people can create their own web pages/sites, which will be voted on by users to enter the mothership of Label Networks. The Label Lab concept is something we'd like to promote in universities or, for example, in Shibuyu Square in Japan where these kids are taking web courses late at night to create their own websites. We want to have an educational component to Label Networks. The name Label is sort of a pun on how we get "labeled" all the time as "Gen whatever." So, we're saying, fuck that. Let's beat the so-called "Labelers to the punch and label ourselves." Or bar-code yourself and be your own trendsetter. Label Networks we hope will provide a vehicle for that to happen--at least online, which is what we know how to do best right now.

We have some hardcore engineers on board, a marketing person, and myself. The backend engine can track data and statistically and scientifically (with quantifiable data) analyze trends based on polls, surveys, etc. We can then back up our findings, say in trend reports to clients, not from the old-school of stupid focus groups, but from actual data from users and trendsetters online. The dudes working the magic at Label are some of the best in the industry (of course I think so) because they've built huge networks before, know what works and what doesn't, and are sick of all the mistakes people have made, business-wise, with their technology. So, together, we have a plan that we hope is unique and highly targeted and will be a viable business someday. But we're in it for the long haul. None of us are looking for the quick investor and IPO bullshit. We're building this on or own terms no matter how long it takes. It's fun, really.

As for the technology, we've strung together best-of-breed third party applications and built our specific specs on top of it. That way we have a very powerful and agile system for little money. The dudes who built it know what it takes to scale, but also, based on having built networks before of various sizes, realize the enormous costs involved with building your own technology. They know what's hot out there and know how to put it all together and then build on top of it. So, we've done it all relatively cheaply--just a lot of work for a little staff.

What is the current status of Wig?

I want to print wig again. That's my big goal for the new millennium. Unfortunately, I still need to raise funds for the printing and I'm still paying off old print debts. I thought I could at least get wig back up online and perhaps even raise the cash that way. With the website, we can at least have an outlet for our community and stories and art--we have loads backed up from over a year ago. I called my contribs and they were all pretty cool about me running their stuff on the web...with the goal being another print issue. But on the web you can get the scoop right away, it doesn't waste trees, and people can respond in a heartbeat. But we love art and that part of it, art on the web, has been a challenge. I worry about the 28.8 modems out there. Eventually, we'll turn Vespula Comix into Flash, but again, I don't want to alienate someone because of technology. I swear, on my other computer, Swell makes it crash and if it doesn't, all I can see is a big blue page.

Under the section "What is W.i.g." I list my two goals and one is to print an issue as fat as Vogue (during fashion season). We desperately want to print wig quarterly again with an emphasis on sports for women--because that's what we like. And now that there's no place for women adventurers, it's high time we get the mag back out there. (I must say, I got re-motivated/pissed when WS&F was canceled and the publishers sent me "Self" in place of my subscription to WS&F stating "that as a subscriber to WS&F, you share the same vision as Self"...blah blah. I wrote a letter back to Self and said I DID NOT share the same vision as Self and never subscribed to Self and how dare they say that I DID share the same vision as Self. I asked for my money back for the remaining portion of my subscription to Women's Sports and Fitness. I haven't heard a response yet.)

Are there more sites planed for the Label Networks? If so what?

Yes. We are going to be serving Modart. Which, you'll see, will have a completely different design than b4bc and wigmag. The guys at TBD are designing it, in LA, and we're hosting it, doing the ad serving, running their auction for breast molds for the BBC Foundation, store, and message boards. We want to have sites on board that round-out the other sites on the network. But keep it an exclusive network--we only want to take on what we can handle. And after the Rivals fiasco, we know what it's like to have 500 sites on a network--it ends up that only 20 percent bring in anything worthwhile. We don't mind just having five sites, if we like them and have fun working with them. We wouldn't mind hosting Sacklunch...we love it. But it doesn't look like you "need" us like, say Modart. I would love to have a couple more guy-oriented sites, perhaps musically or artistically inclined. Hip Mama and Adventure Divas would be a coupe, but we'll have to see.

I WANT the DETAILS?

Hope that answers some stuff. I'm really excited about this because Label, I truly believe, will enable the smaller artistic sites, like Modart and wig, to live. Why re-invent the wheel? If we share certain aspects of a publishing system or datamining or ad serving, no one has to know about it--but it helps us be sustainable as little businesses. Yet allows us the creative outlet we need for our own sites.

Kathleen Gasperini can be reached by clicking here.