So who’s going to be the Conde Nast of the native, online, network magazine industry? Answer coming up later.

With Syntagma’s first birthday rapidly approaching on October 21, we’ve naturally given a lot of thought to our second year. The target for Y1 of 50 websites up and going has now been reached, although not all of them are currently visible.

In that time, we’ve reshaped our inventory from a random “blog network” into a Network Magazine seeking print-quality topics and authors. Like all projects, we’ve had our failures and successes.

In a comment on Syntagma, Rick Segal, the VC investor and now Chairman of b5media, writes : “The interesting thing about this investment is the ‘because of effect’. As I’ve mentioned before, these are changing times and nobody has yet seen it all nor has it all played out.”

That’s true and Syntagma was always a work in progress, as is b5.

Ultimately, we discovered that 50 sites is the maximum manageable for a magazine format. Thirty is probably the optimum.

The wide-ranging sectors, or streams, that we cover are too varied for the kind of vertical-specific publication we have in mind for the future. Where does that lead us, then?

In effect, Syntagma is a seed-bed to see what works and what doesn’t. And this is the essence of our plan for Y2. We’ll spin off our most successful verticals to become separate magazines, each with around 30 sites.

Our publishing ethos of high-end, mature (not adult), non-divisive content will remain, as will our aspiration to finding the best authors on the block. Our overall direction, pointing to the retail sector for advertising will be our focus, although a professional and technical tributary may well emerge.

At the end of Y2, I hope to have at least three, and possibly six, Network Magazines in place. The newer ones will be well-funded and executed online publications, adopting cutting-edge technology without baffling ordinary non-geek readers. We’ll innovate but not obfuscate. The user-accessibility of quality print magazines will be our template.

So who will be the Conde Nast of the native, online, network magazine industry?

S……. It’s an open secret.