PC Mag, which celebrates its 25th Anniversary this month, asked me to write a short essay on the future of media and how current trends will shape what happens in the next few years. It's hard to write short on that one, but I gave it a shot. The six-word summary: continued fragmentation and more consumer choice.

Also included in the issue are essays from Bill Gates, Michael Dell, Vint Cerf, John McCain and Boston Red Sox pitcher Curt Shilling. (See here.)

The Media Company of the Future [PC Mag]

My Fast Company column for February is up now. You can read it here. It's about the health-ification of junk food brands. In the interest of research, various "healthy" junk foods were consumed in the making of said column:

I bought something at Whole Foods last week called Laura's Wholesome Junk Food Chocolate X-Treme Fudge Bite-lettes. I was willing to forgive the spelling of "extreme" here as if it preceded a dirt-bike competition, but the "bite-lettes" tasted so bad that I had to chase them with a Dove Organic chocolate bar, the medicinal aftertaste of which only disappeared after the consumption of a handful of Ferrara Pan Red Hots, which are, according to the packaging, a "fat-free food." ... Certainly, it's possible to find and highlight the healthy aspects of nearly anything (arsenic: cholesterol and fat free!).

Devil's Food [Fast Company]

As previously mentioned, I foisted Edward St. Aubyn's last book (Mother's Milk) upon nearly everyone I know after reading it in 2005. It was published here by Open City and enjoyed a bit of extra publicity in when it was shortlisted for the Booker in 2006. Nonetheless, St. Aubyn doesn't seem to be as well known in the U.S. as in his native U.K., so I still recommend it constantly, along with his previously published trilogy, Some Hope.

So I was happy to see that Mother's Milk just won the Prix Femina Etranger. The Times on Sunday has an interview on the subject here. It talks a bit about St. Aubyn's two earlier novels, On The Edge and A Clue to the Exit, both of which I was desperate to read after finishing the trilogy and finally found via Amazon UK used books, although it made me $100 poorer because those books were apparently out of print at the time. Fortunately, recent accolades seem to have convinced Picador to republish them with a Feb 1 '08 pub date, so you can get them now via Amazon UK for the (relatively) low, low price of £ 4.75. (On the Edge takes place at Esalen, by the way--a detail of which should make it of interest to at least half of yuppie Brooklyn.)