Q&A with Zolton Zavos (Conversant Media: Lost At E Minor.com, The Roar.com.au)

Q. Diving right in, you’re an Aussie, right? What brought you to NYC?
I am an Aussie. From sunny Sydney, in fact - land of the endless barbecue, wicked amber fluid, and some very fine beaches. I came to New York in August 2006 to run Riot, an Australian pop culture magazine I co-founded. I decided to put it all together from New York, what I perceived at the time to be the cultural hotspot of the world. And I wasn’t disappointed when I arrived…

Q. Judging from the photo, you left sunny Sydney a while back. Anyway, it seems you have your hands in a number of pots. Can you give us a little run-down, Zolton?
My Sydney-based brother Zac and I set up an online publishing company, Conversant Media, in May last year and we now publish two websites — Lost At E Minor, a pop culture publication that unearths and promotes new talent in music, art, fashion, film, amongst other creative pursuits; and The Roar, an Australian-based sports opinion website that meshes articles written by our sports fanatic readers with those by professional sports writers. We have a saying in Australia (perhaps it’s universal?), that when it comes to sports, everyone is an armchair expert. This is what The Roar is all about: giving those armchair experts a voice. In addition to this, I do digital consulting and freelance copywriting.

Q&A with John McDonald (CITY, E-BOOST, etc)

Welcome, John. Let’s dive right in. What was it like growing up? How did you end up in NYC? Born and raised in Phoenix, AZ where the temperate hits 115 degrees in the summer. Back then all I did was play sports which is probably the root of my competitive nature. After high school I did two years of college in San Diego but basically lived on the beach and played two-man beach volleyball. I woke up one day and realized I could do this for the rest of my life or get out now. My older sister was modeling for Ford at the time and because of her encouragement I moved to NYC to finish school and as you can see, never left. I can only exist here.

After you arrived here, how did you find your toehold in the city? What have you been up to since? Arrived here in 1988. Finished at college at Columbia in 91-92 and leveraged personal connections that made it possible to open MercBar in 1993. I was friends with Andre Balazs who at the time was parking his cars in the space (his office for Mercer was next door) which is how I came to know about the location. I was naïve and simply thought, “open a bar.” As it turns out the timing was right, the design has tested time and it was the one thing that kept me from having to get a real job and with that came Canteen, Lure, Lever House, Chinatown Brasserie, CITY and now E-Boost.

Remember, we met online at Prada?

Here’s a nugget, buried deep in WWD this week, in an article titled ‘Luxe Brands Follow the Money – to the Internet’:

“The great opportunity that Web 2.0 has brought is the ability to interact with people in a whole new way,” said Salter [Guy Salter of Walpole of London]. “Some brands realize it’s good to bare their soul a little more and entertain comments from customers both positive and negative. I see a day when people will meet each other in the context of commercial brands,” he said. For example, a brand-related social networking site could be very useful for luxury customers who want recommendations from peers they trust. [my italics]

Seems to make sense. Something like this: “Let’s see. We both like Prada, APC and the Georges V in Paris… now what do you think about those Louboutin heels?”