The Boston Globe has earned deserved accolades for its photo blog, "The Big Picture." Curated by Alan Taylor, the blog showcases some of the most spectacular shots captured by photojournalists around the world... unforgettable images that are usually scaled down to a few column inches or thumbnailed beyond recognition on the web. "The Big Picture" publishes images at a generous 990x660 pixels, easily ten times larger than conventiona presentations, finally revealing incredible details most people never see.
Well, the Boston Globe must have been onto something, because the venerable Wall Street Journal has launched their own photo blog, with the same great concept. The idea was too good not to copy, I suppose, but the Wall Street Journal copied the name, as well. Yep, "The Big Picture." Tacky.
Yes, I know, "The Big Picture" isn't exactly trademarkable -- its a cliched phrase right up there with "The Bottom Line." And I am certain that there were dozens of individual photo blogs out there titled "The Big Picture" that were unceremoniously Googled into oblivion when the Boston Globe launched its own.
But the Boston Globe has earned much of the acclaim its received for "The Big Picture." And it seems to me that the only reason the Wall Street Journal adopted the same name was to spite their colleagues to the west... or to try and steal the idea wholesale.
Curiously, the Boston Globe's Alan Taylor just announced that he was going on vacation, silencing "The Big Picture" for over a week while the Wall Street Journal's copycat tries to stake its claim.
What I hope happens is that bloggers call the Journal on its tacky move (being sure only to link "The Big Picture" to the Globe site), and Alan Taylor comes back at work to hear about the Wall Street Journal's almost-new photo blog, "Another Big Picture."