What Creates Buzz?

And does it have anything to do with merit or importance?

Case in point: Details magazine is seen as buzz-worthy. It is both beneficiary and evangelist for the metrosexual phenomenon which it helped drive into the public consciousness. Its circulation is 418,000 and is flat compared to last year.

The Atlantic Monthly is not buzzworthy. Yet its circulation is 520,000 and increased 3.6% this year.

So why does a larger, growing magazine get less attention than a smaller magazine that is just holding its own?

I'm tempted to make the same point about Woodstock. Hundreds of thousands of kids go to a concert in upstate New York and give birth to Woodstock Nation and the Woodstock Generation. Yet hundred of thousands of people go to Daytona EVERY YEAR for Speedweek and no one (except maybe Tom Wolfe) talks about Daytona Nation or NASCAR Nation.

(Until now, maybe. The Dems are at least talking about the need to appeal to "NASCAR Dads.")