AvaStar to expand beyond Second Life
By Eric Reuters
“We’re looking into expanding into other virtual worlds,” said Leider Stepanov, deputy editor of Second Life tabloid The AvaStar.
The move, which Stepanov discussed at the mixed-reality Metaverse 07 European Second Life Conference and Expo, would echo a recent rebranding of the now-defunct Second Life Insider into Massively.com, which covers multiple virtual worlds.
As Massively and the AvaStar aggressively try to build their brands and pursue larger stories, the latest entrant into Second Life’s topsy-turvy media landscape is CNN’s I-Report.
Thus far, the CNN site focuses on one paragraph descriptions of Second Life locales accompanied by a SLurl link. In-world media outlets, who have been championing virtual “citizen journalism” for years, say they aren’t impressed. “We are glad CNN is in SL, because they offer training classes on how to write headlines and conform to AP Style,” said Marvel Ousley, editor-in-chief of the Second Life News Network. “After these new reporters get more experience, we’ll just hire them at SLNN and pay them!”
