|
All the news that's fit to link
After Shakespeare, entrepreneur takes on news publishing gig
Staff Writer, The Prague Post (January 29, 2004) The opening of Vrsovice's Shakespeare and Sons marked a new era for expat cultural life in Prague. Almost overnight, a hip English-language bookstore and cafe appeared in a neighborhood where many long-term expats lived, outside the overtouristed center. Shakes (as it became known) soon blossomed into a cultural touchstone often compared to the original Globe. Those who were there for the store's debut may remember the lone expatriate among the shop's four founders: Bryn Perkins. A Czech-speaking American who still takes his language lessons twice a week, the soft-spoken Perkins was eager to talk to customers -- both locals and imports -- about everything from books to beer. But after a year and a half at the bookstore, Perkins left the shop to work full-time on a burgeoning side project called the Prague Monitor. A Web site and daily e-mail service that links to a number of Czech-related English-language publications, including this one, Prague Monitor functions as a newswire on all things Czech, no matter where they appear: The Prague Post, Radio Prague, the Czech News Agency or wire services such as Reuters and The Associated Press. It's less like an e-mail of headlines than it is a publication in its own right. "This is the closest thing to a daily newspaper in English in this country," says Perkins. Temporary brewer Starting an Internet newspaper may seem like a strange step for a former bookstore owner. But the 30-year arc of Perkins' life to date is composed of a number of similar jumps and jags. Raised in west Los Angeles, he attended Carleton College in Minnesota, where he finished in 1995 with a bachelor's degree in geology. So what does any aspiring young geologist do next? Move to Anchorage and start brewing beer, of course. "I originally went to Alaska for the summer," he says. "I stayed for two and a half years." Starting out as a volunteer at a local microbrewery, Perkins worked his way up the ladder at different establishments, ending up as an assistant brewmaster at Alaska Glacier Brewhouse before going freelance. "It was fun for a little bit, but I didn't want to do it 40 hours a week," he says. "So I became a temp brewer. Any brewer who wanted to go on vacation would call me, and I'd work there for two weeks." Perkins' Alaska sojourn was cut short in 1997 when his mother, 67-year-old Carol, was diagnosed with cancer. Perkins moved home to help care for her and his father, 80-year-old Walter, who had suffered a stroke several years earlier. Carol died in October when Perkins was 24; Walter died 11 months later. After a year spent cleaning up and selling the family home, Perkins moved to Portland, Oregon, in August 1999, where he worked in a computer lab at Portland State University. But after less than a year, memories of a college semester of geological field work in Italy began to whet his appetite for the road. A brief pause Abandoning his computer job in the fall of 2000, he embarked on a lengthy trip, making it across the United States and around Europe before a pause in Prague to work with a friend on a freelance radio project. Here, his intended around-the-world voyage came to an unexpected halt. As in Alaska, he ended up staying longer than planned. "I realized I could stay," he says. "I wanted to see more of the world, but I was only spending two weeks in each city, and that wasn't doing me."
So after a short trip home to take care of unfinished business, Perkins resettled in Prague in late 2001. That fall he worked on more freelance radio projects. The next spring he and three Czech partners began work on the bookstore. Hyperextended deadlines are a recurring theme with Perkins, and after getting the keys in April the group believed they could be open by June. It took until September. With the bookstore off the ground, Perkins embarked on a new project the following May. With former Prague Post Managing Editor Theodore Schwinke, he began sending out a daily e-mail with headlines and links to news stories about Prague. Their initial subscribers were people Perkins approached in the bookstore. But toward the end of 2003, he realized that Prague Monitor required more and more of his time. Furthermore, he and his partners began to have "an amicable difference of opinion" about the direction of the bookstore business. By the end of the year, they had bought him out. Perkins used his newfound free time to build the subscription base and guide the Monitor through a redesign. Since it doesn't supply original content, he acknowledges that the Monitor wouldn't exist if it weren't for other publications. But he believes that the situation is mutually beneficial. "The Monitor creates readers," he says. "Our relationship would be parasitic if we weren't driving more readers to our 'hosts.'" Freshman seminars Perkins doesn't strike you as the kind of guy who's quick to anger or passionate about much of anything. He's unassuming. He looks ... normal. Talk to him about expat publications, however, and you can sense a set of iron-clad beliefs beneath the surface. "Many of these magazines cater to people who've just arrived," he says. "For a long-term expat, it's like taking the same freshman seminar over and over again. I want to be surprised and learn something. And I know it's out there, because I have Czech friends whose lives have nothing to do with what's being written in these magazines." Those are the kind of stories he wants to see in the Monitor as it grows into something larger. He's not making money yet, though he hopes to: The Monitor is just starting to receive its first paying advertisements. He's currently supporting himself and funding Monitor with his share of the money from the sale of the family home. Once the Monitor is self-sustaining, he hopes to get back to broadcast journalism. Though none of his projects have yet hit the airwaves, he has plans for a new one that he hopes to send to public radio in the United States. Don't expect it too soon, however: Perkins' life has a pattern of delays and sudden changes. But he knows this. So while he's proud of the Monitor, he acknowledges that his inexperience often causes him to miss his goals. His radio project may be broadcast next fall. Or it might appear in 2010. "Essentially," he sighs, "any deadline I've estimated in the past few years you'd have to multiply by a factor of five."
Alan Levy has been ill. His Prague Profile will return next week.
Evan Rail can be reached at erail@praguepost.com The Prague Post, a weekly newspaper published in the Czech Republic. Unauthorized reproduction is strictly prohibited. To order home or office delivery of The Prague Post, click here. |
This page supported by the Carleton College Geology Department.
