There's no place like Aspen at Christmas and New Year's Eve, and everything in between.

….Fast forward to New Year's Eve, but returning to the same location, the St. Regis ballroom was transformed from a couture runway to a rocking bandstand and roomy parquet dance floor with bars set up in strategic corners. This was the highly coveted by-invitation-only Aspen Peak party, formerly located at the Sundeck on top of Aspen Mountain.

Aspen Peak is one prong in publisher Jason Binn's Niche Media crown. In a recent article in The New York Times' "Talk of the Town,"  reporter David Carr described this newly minted media mogul's accomplishments.

"Mr. Binn has built a vertical out of the status obsession of both old and new money. People in the Hamptons may build their hedges high, but part of them wants the rest of the world to see just how fabulous their life is.  Niche Media has tapped into the current need to live out loud, and the occasional discreet spread in Town & Country or Architectural Digest just doesn't quite get it."

Remind you of anyone, or shall I say, anywhere?

Mr. Binn did the countdown to midnight, flanked by part-time resident and songwriter Denise Rich and Ivana Trump. Ivana and the Donald's' daughter, Ivanka, are launching a diamond jewelry line, and the brochure was included in our 'goodie bags' that we received at the end of the evening. Ranging in price from $2,800 to $370,000, those diamond mines must be working overtime to supply the gems that drip from her luxurious and star-studded pieces that will inevitably drip from the stars who wear them.

As former Aspen mayoral candidate and CNN anchor Bonnie Behrendt says, "There's no place like Aspen on New Year's Eve." I couldn't agree more, Bonnie ...  Let the pictures tell the rest of the story.

Happy, healthy and prosperous 2008 to everyone, whether you are a part- or full-time resident or visitor to our snowy shores, how lucky we all are to be here during this very festive and social season, as well as any other time. On to Wintersköl and the X-Games...

Is Aspen big enough for seven high−end magazines?

With two daily newspapers, a growing list of more than six radio stations, multiple local television channels and four high−end glossy magazines, Aspen AC/,! " with little more than 6,000 year−round residents AC/,! " is certainly one of the nation's most saturated media markets. And this winter the highly competitive market might be even fiercer when three new Aspen−based magazines join Aspen Sojourner, Aspen Peak, Aspen Philanthropist and Aspen magazine.

Swedish media group Bonnier has already launched its first issue of Snow, a lifestyle magazine with the tag line "life, lifts, luxury."

Edible Aspen, part of the 30−plus magazine chain Edible Communities Publications, plans to release its first issue aimed toward culinary aficionados and oenophiles later this month.

And MountainTime, a magazine dedicated to arts, culture, travel, architecture and dining in mountain towns throughout the Rocky Mountain region, will debut in mid−December.

But with nearly one magazine for every thousand residents, the big question is whether or not Aspen is large enough to support them all.

"I think there is an important distinction between the magazines that are about Aspen and the magazines that happen to be based in Aspen," says Aspen Sojourner Managing Editor Michael Miracle. "And that distinction determines how the magazines will be directly competing against one another. What we try to do at Sojourner is to reflect the reality of Aspen without trading on the stereotypes of the town."

The heads at both MountainTime and Snow acknowledge that their magazines have a bent that reaches far beyond Aspen and the Roaring Fork Valley. Snow's three winter issues will be distributed in first−class lounges in airports and VIP events from New York City to Los Angeles to Canada, with the aim of reaching skiers while they vacation in high−end ski resorts.

"With our content, we're trying to make sure that we have good representation all over the skiing nation, whether that's in Europe or the Americas," says Snow Publisher Barbara Sanders. "And while we're not focusing on Aspen, this is a market that's hard to ignore."

Sanders adds that because of Snow's more global focus, she doesn't really view the magazine as being in competition with others already in Aspen.

"I don't really see us being in contention with Aspen Sojourner, Aspen Peak or Aspen magazine," she says. "We won't even come close to providing the type of in−depth, local content that it would take to go head to head with them. If you're in Aspen and want to know exactly what's going on, you should read those because you're not going to get that from us. But you kind of need us both, because we're going to tell you what to wear as well as give you information for other trips."

MountainTime has both a unique publishing schedule and distribution method that Editor Philip Armour says distinguishes it from all the rest. The magazine will come out biweekly and will be inserted into the newspapers of 18 ski towns across the region, including Mammoth, Calif., several papers in the Lake Tahoe area, Jackson, Wyo., Big Sky, Mont., Park City, Utah, Aspen, Vail and a host of others. It will focus on food, wine, travel, and architecture, as well as profiles of interesting, high−profile locals in each of the towns.

MountainTime's distribution technique also ensures that the magazine will have a circulation of nearly 200,000 from day one, a business model that Armour says was the reason he signed on to the project.

"It's a brand new business model if you really look at it," he says. "It's smart because it really decreases the overhead for a startup, and brings our distribution costs down to zero."

But while each of the magazines profess to have a mission and target audience that is quite different from the rest, each acknowledges that its advertisers largely consist of high−end retail stores, local businesses and art galleries, as well as national products like top−shelf liquors, jewelry and cars. The competition for advertising dollars would seemingly create a situation whereby the introduction of three new magazines into such a tiny market would stretch budgets for all parties involved. However, none of the magazines see this as the case. Each magazine believes that the focus of its product AC/,! " be it regional or national ski and mountain town culture, top−notch, locally focused editorial, philanthropic and nonprofit causes, the culinary world or the luxury lifestyle AC/,! " and the sheer abundance of advertisers can allow each to thrive.

Aspen Sojourner Publisher Nancy Mayer says that even if the new magazines entering the market did begin to threaten her business, it's not something she can worry about.

"Everyone says that competition is good, and it is," Mayer says. "It makes us more responsible. Our response is to continue to move straight forward with the great work that we do. We can't get sidetracked trying to worry about what other people might come in and do. All we can do is stay true to our advertisers and stay true to our readers."

Chris Nolan, editor of Aspen Philanthropist, agrees, adding that the uniqueness of her product means that the magazine won't be too threatened by newcomers in the market.

"While we do have some of the same advertisers you see in other lifestyle magazines, we don't consider ourselves a lifestyle magazine," she says. "We don't think that our advertisers have to make a choice. Our advertisers are looking to support something with meaning, which means they don't have to make a choice between them and us. They can do both."

Ultimately, the fact that several new publications can launch at all speaks to the pervasiveness of not only the Aspen name, but the Aspen lifestyle. The success of any of these media outlets thus depends not just on how well one can use the name and location of this tiny mountain town, but how well each can find its own niche.

"I think what this situation reflects on more than anything is what a known brand Aspen is," says Sojourner's Miracle. "I mean there are people abroad who have heard of Aspen but who haven't heard of Oregon. And a lot of people are looking to leverage that brand."

It's fitting that a deal to publish a new ski magazine with the theme of "Life, Lifts, Luxury" was given the green light on the Aspen Mountain gondola.

Barb Sanders, a part−time private ski instructor on Ajax, got the idea for an upscale magazine while she was writing a feature called "Private Lessons" for Skiing magazine.

Then, after learning that one of her regular Aspen Mountain ski clients happened to be the head of a magazine publishing company, she made her pitch for the forthcoming Snow magazine.

"It took awhile," she said. "We explored it from a bunch of different angles."

And while taking a bunch of runs.

Eventually her client, Bonnier Corp. CEO Terry Snow, said yes to the new magazine while making one more lap on the bucket.

Snow magazine will be published three times a winter with a circulation of 30,000. Distribution of Snow will include some subscriptions, some newsstands, and a variety of high−end resorts. It will also be sent out with Saveur, an upscale food and wine magazine also published by Bonnier.

The Bonnier Corporation is the U.S. division of the Bonnier Group, a Swedish media company with 9,700 employees and net sales in 2006 of $2.8 billion.

Bonnier Corporation was formed when the Bonnier Group bought 18 magazines from Time Inc. in early 2007 −− including Ski, Skiing and TransWorld SNOWBOARDING −− and then merged those magazines with the list of titles published by Florida−based World Publications, which Terry Snow founded.

The company also publishes Resorts & Great Hotels, which it is turning into a quarterly magazine about luxury vacation spots, as well as other upmarket magazines like Islands, Yachting and Spa.

Sanders is working from Aspen to recruit advertisers for Snow, which is scheduled to debut this December with a cover story written by author Daniel Glick about a luxury snowboarding trip to Alaska with big−wave surfer Laird Hamilton.

The magazine, which was born in Aspen, and is all about the essence of the high−end Aspen ski resort lifestyle, is also being launched here by a group of Aspen locals working from their homes. David K. Gibson, a former staff writer and associate editor of Aspen Magazine, is editing the new publication from his breakfast table in Centennial. Designers Paul Viola and Katie Kissane Viola mocked up the original concepts to show to Terry Snow and now are putting together the pages of the first issue from their home in Woody Creek.

And while they are grateful for the support of a large company, and the personal support of the CEO, they also know that expectations are high.

"They are throwing us to the wolves," Gibson said. "Corporations like that don't want to wait around."

On the other hand, Terry Snow, the CEO of Bonnier Corp., also has a vested interest in seeing an Aspen−based product succeed, as he owns vacation weeks at both the Hyatt and St. Regis hotels and is dedicated to skiing on Aspen Mountain.

And there is the fact that his last name, purely by coincidence, is on the cover of every issue.

Aspen's new emergency historic preservation ordinance does not go far enough in saving the city's historic character for the greater good of the community.

The ordinance, which the Aspen City Council passed 4−1 last week with Dwayne Romero casting the dissenting vote, mandates that all houses (aka "hard−earned homes" to many people) more than 30 years old must undergo a review for potential historic designation before the owner can tear it down or do any significant exterior remodel.

Somehow or other, the City Council left out perhaps an important element of these houses in question −− the interior. What about the interiors of these potentially "historic" homes, some of which look like tract houses in Aurora?

Somewhere in Aspen, there may still be a den completely covered in orange shag carpet, circa 1970. Shag carpet was popular across the United States from the late 1960s and into the 1970s for reasons that trained psychologists still don't understand, so carpet like that must be located, inventoried, recorded and preserved at all costs. (Plus the fact that perfectly useable drugs may still be found in some of those stringy carpets.) What about rabbit−ear antennas on TV sets? That's a historic artifact that must be saved for the "community." These antennas demonstrate the difficulties Aspen residents faced in connecting to events in the outside world before the advent of cable TV.

Let's not forget those macrame plant holders that swung from ceilings and attracted ferns of all varieties plus spider plants, and sometimes served as ashtrays for tall drunks during wild parties. Think of the careful craftsmanship that in some cases took minutes to learn that went into creating those timeless pieces of 1970s Americana. Aspen cannot afford to let that kind of heritage slip away or be thrown into the Pitkin County dump.

Although the City Council addressed many issues during its July 10 discussion on the historic preservation ordinance, there's one thing I still don't get. Who is the "community" that the preservation activists talk about? The community whose wishes and whims trump the property rights of homeowners who might want to replace their cramped, energy−inefficient houses with something more earth−friendly, comfortable and spacious?

Who is this "community"? Is it the trust−fund communists who never had to work for a living and who think the government's primary duty is to keep them happy? Is it the people who think Aspen should remain exactly as it was the day they moved to town? Is it the party crowd who moves to town for a year or two before checking into a rehab clinic somewhere? Is the community the people who spend half their time in Aspen and the other half in Maui, and want Aspen to look exactly the same each year when they return? Who is the "community" that everyone talks about? It seems like in most cases, when someone stands up in a meetingand refers to the "community," what they are really saying is "people like me."

In any case, no matter how one defines the "community," here's one thing the community isn't. The community isn't going around paying the property taxes on the homes affected by this historic preservation ordinance. The community doesn't come over every week and mow the lawns at those houses. The community doesn't save up for a new roof on those houses when they need replacing and the community doesn't come over to help paint the house every few years.

Hmmmm, this makes me wonder. If the community isn't doing anything for these affected homeowners, why are these homeowners being forced to do something for the community?

***

On a related note, if you want to see some historic images of Aspen, check out page 170 in the current Aspen Peak magazine (available for free at the Rubey Park bus station if you're shy about slinking into fancy hotel lobbies to grab a copy or feel weird asking how much they cost at various stores around town).

The six−page spread, with text by Mirte Berko Mallory, features 13 photos by Ferenc Berko from the late 1940s to the early 1950s plus one from 1964. One image is familiar, and shows the Red Onion with a dirt road running in front and vacant lots all around. A full−page photo shows a group of picnickers at the Maroon Bells, with several cars parked at the lake's edge.

The captions are written by Joy Caudill (co−founder of the Wilderness Workshop), Alan Fletcher (president and CEO of the Aspen Music Festival), Merrill Ford (former director of the International Design Conference), Walter Isaacson (president and CEO of the Aspen Institute), Tage Pederson (physical trainer at the Aspen Institute Health Center), Dick Butera (former owner of the Hotel Jerome), Jill St. John (actress), and Paula Zurcher (daughter of Walter and Elizabeth Paepcke).

In her caption, Zurcher writes about the abandoned houses that could be bought for back taxes "some with clothes still hanging in the closets." She also explains that neighbors "indeed leaned over fences" to admire each other's sweet peas.

If you're interested in Aspen's post−World War II history, the Berko photos and captions are well worth looking at and saving.

If Pete Luhn were to return to his old homesite of some 40 years, he would maybe think he's hallucinating.

Gone is his cabin, a place he kept warm by chopping firewood just yards from his front door. Replacing Luhn's old confines and other cabins is the setting for a planned eight starter-castle subdivision, which Aspen Peak magazine recently touted as "Aspen's most exclusive neighborhood." A remaining cabin is the historic and renovated A.R. Smith Cabin, from which landlord Black Diamond Holdings evicted Luhn.

Though it's a different setting than the often-outspoken Luhn had been accustomed to, one thing hasn't changed: Black Diamond and Luhn remain engaged in a legal battle that has been marked by bitterness.

"It's been an unfortunate set of circumstances," said Greg Gordon of the Aspen law firm Garfield & Hecht P.C., the law firm representing Black Diamond. "We really tried to do everything we could to help Mr. Luhn."

Last month's ruling by the Colorado Court of Appeals may be the first sign that this fight is almost over. The court reversed a ruling made in July 2004 by Pitkin County District Court Judge James Boyd, who had determined that Black Diamond and Luhn were both bound to terms of the lease for the cabin in question. While the ruling meant that Luhn had to move, it also meant that Black Diamond had to find Luhn a place to live.

Boyd's ruling came after he presided over a trial pitting Luhn against Black Diamond, which had been trying to develop the 5/12 acres of Difficult property, located 4 miles east of Aspen off Highway 82. Black Diamond had acquired the Luhn family in March 2002 for $2.5 million, with the funds going to Luhn's sons (today, the parcels of land on the property command a starting price of $5 million).

When the two sons sold it, a condition of the transaction stipulated that Luhn could rent a cabin, with Black Diamond having the right to move Luhn from cabin to cabin while the land was being redeveloped.

When Black Diamond filed eviction papers against Luhn in July 2003 because he wouldn't move out of the A.R. Smith Cabin, Luhn fired back, saying he was given a lifetime tenancy on the property. Black Diamond, however, claimed that the cabin didn't meet the county's sanitation standards. Luhn also turned down offers to move to other cabins on the property.

In any case, the argument spilled over into the hands of the Pitkin County Sheriff's Office that same month, when Luhn detonated an explosive on the property as Black Diamond tried to evict him. Luhn even pried away wooden boards from a doorway of a cabin he wanted to make his. Sheriff's deputies then got involved, ordering Luhn to leave because of a judge's order.

Boyd ruled that Black Diamond must find a place for Luhn to live under the terms of the lease, but that never materialized. Gordon said the company went out of its way to find a place for Luhn, but Luhn wasn't agreeable to any of the potential dwellings.

While that episode played out nearly two summers ago, a technical ruling by the Court of Appeals said that Boyd erred when he supported part of his decision with an "equitable" rather than "legal" application.

Luhn is in his mid-70s and fighting cancer. His attorney, John Case of Woody Creek, said he's unsure if they'll continue to fight. Case said one option is to ask the Colorado Supreme Court to hear the case, but that's just a consideration at this point.

Gordon said the eviction proceedings against Luhn were contentious, but had to be done. He said the Luhn case was one of a kind.

"I've never had threats of physical violence, nothing close to this," he said, referring to Luhn's surly behavior during eviction proceedings. Gordon also said the matter didn't have to go to court.

"In my opinion it was unnecessary," he said. "Black Diamond went out of its way for Mr. Luhn and had no obligation to help him. He could have lived there for the rest of his life."

High season is here in full force. How can you tell?

Summer is a season for socializing, especially in Aspen. The last week provided long-awaited beautiful weather and great summer get-togethers. Wednesday night was the kick-off to the holiday weekend party series with Niche Media LLC hosting the launch of ASPEN PEAK, a new magazine long on articles by local luminaries and photos of all kinds of parties. Ajax Tavern was as energized as the room was fashionable for the launch of ASPEN PEAK. Those in attendance were wearing everything from summer cocktail dresses to jeans with casual tops. ASPEN PEAK executive editor Leigh Jude Vogel was radiant in perfect Aspen cocktail attire: a Kelly green chiffon top with rhinestone spaghetti straps and dark Levis and a gorgeous smile. And her cowboy hat was a clear display of her love for Aspen.

The party turned an ordinary rainy Wednesday into a truly special event. The craziest thing was, an hour after the party ended, the skies opened up and the rain came again. The sun shone for those four hours while Niche Media overtook Ajax Tavern. For that moment, the sun was shining on ASPEN PEAK.

...Consider what happened when Jason Binn decamped at The Little Nell during a recent sojourn to Aspen... he knew everybody in the lobby: all the guests, the people brunching at the hotel, and all of those in between who had just stopped by to pay their respects...

.."Aspen is a very special, very unique place," he tells the Daily News, "and I think everybody wants to show their friends and family what makes their Aspen so unique and so special, a place they can embrace and love."

ASPEN PEAKexecutive editor Leigh Jude Vogel added, "I see this as a natural fit. There's been a lot of excitement from a number of people across various industries in Aspen. From people who have lived here for 30 years, or for five, or for part of the year. What we are is a voice that reaches a local and national audience."...

.In addition to the glossy look of the book, as they say in the magazine business, Niche Media shows some muscle when it comes to distribution—and circulation that is audited by the Audit Bureau of Circulation, something that neither Aspen magazine nor Aspen Sojourner can claim. One major distribution strategy will be aimed via direct mail at homeowners with domiciles worth a minimum of $750,000 in Aspen-Snowmass and surrounding areas, and will also circulate in other markets with newsstand promotions in the key feeder markets such as New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Dallas, and Denver...