Nice little story in the Fosters today on old pal Erik Crago and Port City Web. While it is not surprising that the article focussed on the one unexpected aspect of his business -- that they do shipping fulfillment for a shoe company -- it did strike me as odd that they didn't mention the name of that shoe company. But because Erik and I go way back, I happen to know who it is.

Slightly embarrassing side note: Back when e-commerce was just a puppy in the window, my brother and I had the idea to sell shoes on-line. But ultimately, I pooh-poohed it: "Who wants to buy shoes without trying them on first?!" Uh, apparently, a lot of people. Whoops!

Meanwhile, still poking around and getting used to the new Fosters.com. Interesting idea with this Foster's toolbar but with Google, Yahoo, StumbleUpon, etc., how much screen space is really up there?

And speaking of new things (see my post, "Change is Annoying" below), by now you may have heard that Foster's Daily Democrat is switching from an afternoon paper to a morning paper? This is huge. And risky. Frankly, I always thought it was neat that the Fosters was a PM paper. Journalistically, it gave them flexibility to respond to the morning's events, and from a marketing perspective, it was the key differentiator between it and its chief rival newspaper. Here's a great review of the ongoing "battle" from SeacoastNH.com. As the editor-at-large opines, there is precious little wiggle-room these days in the battle for newspaper-reading eyeballs. Everybody wants to be the "community resource for news and information" and the new Fosters and Herald web sites are a bold move into the web 2.0 news-sharing arena. But yes, with the NH Gazette and The Wire, WSCA-FM, PorstmouthNH.com and SeacoastNH.com, the local media market is as wide-open as it is fractured.

Let's see what kind of buzz bump Fosters gets with the switchover on the 26th. And what, if any, response is forthcoming from the Herald. This could be interesting.