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BY ANTHONY CRUPI
Comcast Cable has a magazine in the works.
Cable World has learned that the Philadelphia-based MSO has begun production on Digitalife, a glossy geared toward its digital video and high-speed data customers.
Word of the start-up publication first began circulating in March, when a small number of Comcast subscribers in the Philly area began receiving a trial issue of Digitalife in the mail.
The existence of the mystery mag was confirmed last week, when a Digitalife contributing writer posted a note about the title on his Web log.
?I am writing for Digitalife, a new publication that is being offered to select Comcast Digital Internet subscribers,? wrote freelance technology writer Russell Shaw. ?Digitalife is edited by James Daly, founder and former editor of Business 2.0 magazine.?
Shaw instructed readers to access a PDF file of the article via a hyperlink in the text. The piece, a 1,200-word report on an Internet-related health condition known as ?cyberchondria,? was originally published in USA Today on June 25, 2002. Although it was largely repurposed for Digitalife, it's clear that a practiced editorial hand had made some improvements in the copy.
Daly, the purported editor of Digitalife, did not return requests for comment.
Comcast spokesperson Sarah Eder denied that the pages found on Shaw's site were anything more than a sample from a prototype.
?What you have isn't a sample issue. What you have is a mock-up,? Eder said.
Eder confirmed that Comcast's marketing department had been looking into developing some kind of publication, but said that the project was still in its early stages.
?No decisions were made with regard to the actual title or who it will go out to,? Eder said, adding that ?no decisions were made about a time frame in which [Comcast] might release this? It's premature to talk about it.?
Shaw did not respond to a request for comment. The reference to Digitalife was removed from his website last week, following Cable World's first conversation with Eder.
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