From the world of Birmingham-area magazines …
• Birmingham lifestyle magazine Portico has recently relaunched its Web site, porticomag.com. What do you think?
• EXCLUSIVE: Shelby Living launched today. This quarterly lifestyle magazine on Shelby County, from the publishers of the Shelby County Reporter weekly newspaper, also has a site at shelbyliving.com.
• EXCLUSIVE: What’s up with Thicket magazine? We last reported in August that two of the four founding partners had left to run Birmingham Magazine. Since then, the September/October issue has been published, but no sightings of the November/December issue.
We asked senior editor and founding partner Todd Keith if Thicket had folded. Keith responded, “I wouldn’t say that. We are in discussions with several groups as well as individuals about the magazine and looking at a number of possibilities.”
When pressed further about the missing issue, the two partners who left but are still listed on the site, the current state and future of the magazine, and which groups or individuals were in discussions with Thicket, Keith responded, “We should have a more clear picture of where Thicket is going in the first quarter of 2010 and feel free to check back in at that time.”
Hmm …
Media of Birmingham 
The Portico site is looking good, but there are some things that are slow to load and some typos.
We think typos are annoying but bearable.
We couldn’t find a screenshot of the previous version, but one thing worth noting: It is almost completely devoid of any mention of “Birmingham,” the city it covers. Sad.
Typos are convincing evidence, to me, of indifference to the reader, or an incompetent editorial staff. Life is too short to spend any of it reading magazines that can’t hack the language. If all you really want to do is sell ads, I might as well be watching television.
OTOH Thicket is the best magazine I’ve seen come out of Birmingham. I hope the first quarter of 2010 brings it a basis for longevity.
The funny thing is: We can’t find any typos on the front page. Zero.
Maybe we’re missing something, but we don’t see it.
I’m not only loving the new website but Portico has really gotten better. I think they have really turned things around over there. The photography for the Flip Burger is beautiful.