Magazine Feud: SYS-CON’s Virtualization Journal Blogger Mud Wrestles Virtualization Review Editor

We’re getting used to the mud slinging between virtualization vendors and their respective marketing & communication departments, which are often publicly available for all to watch through blogs etc. Now niche publishers covering the world of virtualization are getting in that particular game, too.

The protaganists in question?

In the red corner, we have Keith Ward, editor of 1105media‘s Virtualization Review. In the blue corner, James Hamilton, consultant and blogger for SYS-CON. At stake: the title of the first (only?) magazine to write exclusively on our beloved topic of virtualization.

So what happened?

This post on SYS-CON claims:

“Founded in 2006, SYS-CON Media’s Virtualization Journal is the world’s first magazine devoted exclusively to what Gartner has earmarked as the single highest-impact IT trend through 2012: virtualization. And now it will be available in print, on newsstands worldwide, as the first and only print publication serving Virtualization markets.”

This sparked Keith Ward from Virtualization Review to call SYS-CON outright liars on his blog.

“I have no problem with competition. I think it’s good for Microsoft, VMware, Cisco and AT&T. It’s just as good, and healthy, for IT publications. I do have a problem, however, with publications that either a) Outright lie, or b) Are woefully ignorant, and don’t check facts before they publish something.

…

That would mean that their magazine is not the only print mag in existence covering virtualization. And not the first, either. Welcome to the party, Virualization Journal folks. There’s room for others here. Just try to be more careful when you make such bold claims. Doing a little homework on the competition wouldn’t hurt, either.”

SYS-CON blogger Hamilton struck back with a vicious post calling for the firing of Ward as editor of Virtualization Review, and wonders if he’s on drugs.

“SYS-CON Media, the world’s leading i-technology media company, has been publishing Virtualization Journal for the past three years at www.virtualization.sys-con.com – long before your publishing outfit expressed its intentions to cover the virtualization market last November and long before they hired you as an employee.

…

‘Allegedly debuted,’ Keith? Why don’t you get your lazy blogging butt off your basement chair and go to JavaOne for a change, one of the most important technology conferences, around for more than a decade, and see how more than 5,000 copies of Virtualization Journal out of 12,000 shipped were picked up the first day of the show! A single day’s qualified circulation of Virtualization Journal is more than you will accomplish in a year! By the way, have you ever heard of JavaOne? I haven’t seen your rag around here. How about newsstands? Which newsstand can I find your magazine on? Any?”

Hamilton goes on to make fun of an event organized by 1105 Media that had a small number of attendees.

We’re not going to pick sides here, but we certainly wish there was a little more maturity on display. Virtualization is a hot space, there’s plenty to say about it, and it’s natural that there are multiple publications about the subject competing against each other. Get off your high horses and cater to your readers as good as you can instead of bashing each other. We enjoy reading both of you and will continue to do so, but please drop the cheap, pointless accusations because it doesn’t benefit anyone.

Oh, and Keith, keep your personal life stories for your own blog 😉