Friday, August 11 09:36 PM
Impact 24/7 Gets Better! Can't Say the Same for Soul Purpose Newsletter.
Soul Purpose newsletter has steadily gotten worse, if such a thing was possible, proving that James Andrews can't walk and chew gum at the same time. Perhaps the problem is that as they make the push to become daily; they are realizing that Mr. Andrews has nothing to say. The level of content seems to be aimed more at transit workers than "tastemakers" (whatever THAT is…). Needless to say, David Mohammed's phone is not ringing off the hook. Soul Purpose makes a bold claim of being an informative newsletter for urban industry professionals. To this end, James Andrews provides what he calls "Thought provoking articles" with such titles as "POLITIKIN". Evidently, James Andrews feels that the way to deliver news to Urban Industry Executives is thru Dennis Page style pigeon English. SP has re-launched their website which includes a perpetually empty chat room, banal polls and empty bulletin boards that feature messages like "where r the posts on these messageboards?" We also noticed that the site directly copies the Urban Exposé message boards. Flattery will get your everywhere. The site also features a store that allows you to buy N'Sync and Brittany Spears CD's as featured items. The Business of Urban Culture indeed. James Andrews: "The sad thing about all of this is that these are the Napster addicted, sideline busters who I see wasting VC dollars at 360hiphop, Hookt.com, Volume" Soul Purpose can make the claim of being helpful, but mostly for James Andrews. Thinly disguised sections called "Andy's Eatery of the Week" and "Andy's Toy Box" allows James Andrews eat and drink up stuff for free and expense electronic toys to UBO. There doesn't seem to be much need to review restaurants considering that UBO has spent thousands on huge database of reviews of restaurants for Sheryl Huggins' yet to materialize The Gauge website. He also reviews gadgets like MP3 Watches that, while cute aren't influencing anyone to do anything. There isn't even a link to buy it. Generally we recommend that grown men refrain from saying "Toy Box" in public, least of all in business newsletters. The International business section in the newsletter has been the same for three weeks straight. He also has a Rumor Mill section that amounts to him mentioning someone's name with no rumor. RUMOR MILL: Mai Huggins (Columbia Records) Ok James. No Talk. No Action. James Andrews: "Disappointed at the low-level, no stock option having, graduate of source school of hip-hop, player hatin, can't get into events, record company reject kids who started the site." James Andrews ends off each newsletter with a begging segment that's longer than most articles. They beg for everything under the sun, ads, subscribers, information, a shoe, a lamp, a 3-cent stamp. They promise to never reveal a source, however that doesn't seem to get them any hot tips. Soul Purpose couldn't even get an ad from a Shelly Garrett production, although with David Watkins on board that might change. To Impact 24/7's credit, its newsletters have become an industry must-read. We have found the new format extremely informative. They haven't been afraid to license content where they are weak from sources like Screaming Media (SCRM) and are just managing to produce a daily newsletter since the Plugin conference. Their coverage of our yearly stomping ground Urban World was great. The funny thing is Bo Kemp has decided it's was cool to cull e-mail addresses from sites for the purpose of adding them to their mailing list for Impact 24/7. They have to pad those subscriber numbers anyway they can. We take that as a compliment. James Andrews: "We have decided to bring in expert detectives to not only find out who started the site but who's posting anonymously.andy will find you!!! the witchunt has begun!!" Still waiting for those detectives James. Don't be so nervous, sending two newsletters in one day doesn't make it any better…. Stay gold baby, we'll stay platinum.

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