Black20.com in the New York Times

No, I don't work for Black20.com but I think I'm definitely one of their biggest fans. There is an awesome write up about the company in the Arts section of today's New York Times. It details the operations unique start and how it's become one of the most viral sites on the web. Here's an excerpt from the article:

"Most humor sites begin when some smart-aleck at an old media company begins nagging: “We have to launch a more robust entertainment vertical, guys.” But Black20 has a cool creation myth.

The story is so suspiciously cool, it puts Black20.com closer to an enterprise like “Ocean’s Eleven” or “Easy Rider” than to a technobabble online initiative you’ll never hear of again. (Then again, you never know.)

The near-perfect story goes like this. Last year two young funnymen, J. Crowley and Neil Punsalan, promising self-starters at NBC, were feeling trapped. Jeff Zucker, the president and chief executive of NBC Universal, had personally green-lighted a broadband series they had pitched called “Out of Context.” They were in their 20s, they’d shot the series, and suddenly they had the run of NBC’s brand-new digital studios department. That was exciting.

What was less exciting were the budget cuts, when they came last year. “Out of Context” was losing support; NBC had other ideas about mobisodes, Webisodes, monetizing ringtones, something. At the same time Mr. Crowley and Mr. Punsalan felt pangs of longing watching the growth of the free-form, lawless YouTube. They should be doing that kind of low-budget D.I.Y. work, they thought, instead of punching the clock for the establishment."