What a way to launch! Byliner debuted today with...

What a way to launch!

Byliner debuted today with an 89-page (pdf!) exposé by THE Jon Krakauer on Three Cups of Tea author Greg Mortenson. The article is making the rounds. Haven’t cracked it, yet. Looks good, but it’s not what I’m primarily interested in.

I am most interested in: Who and what is BYLINER.com?

Well, don’t expect the site to tell you. There’s no “About Us” link. A little snooping around (read: Google) however, lead to me John Tayman, editor of Techland, Time Magazine’s technology blog, who takes credit for Byliner on his personal site (which looks like a Tumblr, but sadly is not).

The Byliner homepage promises stories by William Vollman, Bob Shacochis, Anthony Swofford and David Rakoff at “proper length.” It does not come right out and say that you’ll have to pay for them, but the suggestion that all proceeds from Krakauer’s story will go to charity suggests that a paywall is coming.

I am intrigued. Paying for long-form has a lot of potential, but format is a big concern. It makes sense in the rush to get something up that the site would rely on PDFs—they’re cheap(er) to produce and you have complete creative control—but I wonder if that is their long-term strategy. You can’t categorize PDFs. You can’t keep people from sharing them. It’s harder to make them interactive—obviously versus something designed specifically for a tablet (like what Atavist is doing), let alone something designed specifically for the web, ie no comments, share functions, related links, etc.

But I get a head of myself! The name of the game is to get something up, right? And not only has Tayman done that, he’s made a splash. People will be talking about Byliner, which means investors will be talking about Byliner. So what are you going to do about it, John? I’m curious to find out.