So, call me a self-promoter, but you read the subtitle to this blog so you know what you're getting into... I am now taking the opportunity to promote PGPlus, our new innovative premium content web site. The Guardian of London has even written about us!!! And I shamelessly sent out this email to friends, which I will now post here:

If you're bemoaning the slow demise of the print newspaper, and of all that excellent journalism that seems to be vanishing, here's a way you can help! The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette has come up with a ground-breaking new initiative that we hope will create something of a new business model for ALL newspapers. We learned from the NYTimes failure of "Times Select" -- when they made people pay for all their favorite columnists and writers. It was a flop. We are NOT going to take away ANYTHING that people already get online now at www.post-gazette.com... for free. Rather, we have a new initiative being unveiled on Tuesday that we hope will make money for the paper. It's called PGPlus, and for the low, low price of $3 a month you get access to all sorts of NEW online "extras" -- but original content nonetheless.

It's a way to address the fact that we have millions of unique users who pay nothing for our first-rate journalism provided online.

And hey, that's okay... except that even journalists need to eat!

We have lots of talent in this newsroom, lots of professional journalism experience, that we can offer in this new format. Most of PGPlus, frankly, is aimed at Pittsburgh's huge sports audiences who cannot get enough of the Steelers, Penguins, Penn State and Pitt football or basketball -- or even the miserable Pirates.But there will be other things in the mix besides sports.

I will be hosting a ten minute weekly webcast (with guests!) called "Mackenzie Carpenter's Omnivore," loosely modeled on Tina Brown and her "Daily Beast," where I talk about whatever suits my fancy -- in politics, culture, books, gossip, lifestyle and try to interview smart, funny people about these issues without being too stuffy.

One recent show noted, for example, that the New Yorker's online "Book Bench" blogged about and linked to my story a few weeks ago on the lively independent publishing scene in Pittsburgh -- prompting an online fight in their comments section about the merits/demerits of Pittsburgh! In THE NEW YORKER!!!!

PG Plus will also have book critics, movie critics, food writers, photographers, cartoonists all offering their own content too. Again, for $3 a month, you can help us invent a new business model that's rich in content, fun AND will help save newspapers and ... DEMOCRACY!!! :)

To learn more, go to www.post-gazette.com and click on PG Plus...