Less than a week after a hyped launch, an online venture designed to bring together top online writers, journalists and commentators under a single umbrella, has decided to change its name to avoid a trademark battle with an existing public radio show.
Open Source Media, until last week known as Pajamas Media, will now be called Pajamas Media once again.
OSM Media LLC returned to its old name after discovering that Public Radio International already distributes an hour-long radio show called Open Source, from a production company that goes by Open Source Media Inc, Associated Press (AP) has reported.
The show's producers said they consulted lawyers and asked the new venture to stop using the name. Pajamas' founders agreed to the request and suggested in an online posting that they were never fully comfortable with Open Source Media to begin with.
Over 70 Web journalists, including Instapundit's Glenn Reynolds and David Corn, Washington editor of the Nation magazine, have agreed to participate in OSM � short for Open Source Media.
OSM planned link to individual blog postings and highlight the best contributions, chosen by OSM editors, in a special section. Bloggers were to be paid undisclosed sums based on traffic they generated. The ad-supported OSM site is also to carry news feeds from Newstex, which in turn receives stories from the Associated Press, Knight-Ridder/Tribune News Service, and other traditional media organisations.
