First in a series: Condensed Knowledge, a less-than-trivial pursuit Photo: Beau Gustafson

But the big story behind mental_floss is the marketing savvy that focuses this kind of media attention on a magazine chock full of item upon item of "staggering insignificance." Getting a newspaper, magazine, or TV news show to cover almost any topic, especially a near-niche publication, can be a frustrating endeavor, which may explain why mental_floss posts its successes on its website, like notches on a gunslinger's Colt 45. (The website, www.mentalfloss.com, enjoys its own popularity, generating approximately 250,000 hits a month.) "We never want anyone to come to our website and see that nobody's written about mental_floss in five or six months," Pearson says. "But, at some point, we have to prepare for the fact that we will not be the new magazine on the block forever."

Concerned about the ever-present risk of becoming yesterday's news, mental_floss is constantly seeking new outlets that keep its brand fresh, front, and center. Pearson agreed to appear weekly on CNN Headline News a year ago, hosting a short trivia segment. Just in time for grads and dads, in May, HarperCollins published the first in a planned series of mental_floss books, Condensed Knowledge. A regular column in Reader's Digest made its debut in June. A mental_floss board game is slated to hit stores in 2005.

Pearson and company leave little to chance, even going so far as to make certain that the publication of the book and the release of the board game would be far enough apart to generate their own publicity--and reflect positively on the magazine.

Deals to provide content to Salon.com and Discovery Channel websites are in the works. A syndicated radio show, a nonprofit educational magazine aimed at children (named elemental_floss), and a TV game show are on the drawing board.

"Everything is aimed at driving people to our website and toward signing up for subscriptions," Pearson stresses. "So it all points back to the backbone of our business, which is the magazine."

Mental_floss has turned down a number of potential suitors, including several television producers. "It's tempting to do a mental_floss TV show, but the timing isn't right," Pearson says. "We're about gradual growth and creating a brand that has substance."

The task of maintaining mental_floss' distinctive voice--a fine line between smart and smart aleck--falls to Neely Harris '00, who joined the magazine in late 2001 and is now editor-in-chief. Finding writers who can discuss head-scratchingly obscure or complicated topics in a conversational style that mixes humor, sarcasm, and education--and do it all for limited pay--is not easy.

"The tone is light; it's humorous," Harris says. "We want to make jokes. But it has to be clear that the information we print is nonfiction." And, she adds, "It's all meant to be in laymen's terms, so it's easy to understand."

Today, mental_floss has a staff of nine scattered from Birmingham, Alabama, to Birmingham, Michigan, and Cleveland, New York, and Durham. "It's largely a virtual company," says Pearson. Pearson spent the past school year in Durham, where his wife, Georgia Liston Pearson, started as a graduate student at Duke's Nicholas School, before returning to his hometown of Birmingham, Alabama, for the summer. He now holds the title of president and publisher, and Hattikudur is vice president for product development.

"We really have the perfect blend of personalities," Hattikudur says. "Will is really gifted in terms of promotion and directing the company. I handle the creative side."

The staff gets together as a group only three times a year. The majority of communication is handled through e-mail. "Everybody has their own branch of the company to run," Hattikudur explains. "It doesn't really matter where they do it. For creativity, I think it's best when people are where they're happiest."

This emerging multimedia mini-empire was hatched during late-night conversations freshman year between Pearson, Hattikudur, and other students living in Alspaugh dorm on East Campus. Pearson, an inveterate collector of trivia since sixth grade, was toying with the idea of publishing a book. Hattikudur suggested a magazine instead.

"We thought that if a magazine could bottle some of that enthusiasm and that love for education from those late-night conversations, it would be something that we would really want to read," says Hattikudur. A check of the shelves at Barnes & Noble failed to turn up such a publication, and so the pair decided to put one together themselves. They enlisted the help of three classmates: Milena Viljoen '01, John Cascarano '01, and Risako Koga '01, who remains the magazine's art director.

The lightness of the magazine's content is belied by the seriousness with which the aspiring publishers applied themselves to their task. After distributing a trial issue on campus their junior year--Hattikudur remembers it as "a complete embarrassment"--they turned to industry experts for feedback. Their goal was to build from the inside out, starting with a board of formal and informal advisers "because they are living in the publishing world on a daily basis," Pearson says. "We knew what we didn't know--which was anything about the publishing industry."

They approached Susan Tifft '73, Eugene C. Patterson Professor of the practice of journalism and public policy studies at Duke and a former associate editor at Time magazine. (Tifft is also a member of the Duke Magazine Editorial Advisory Board.) She put them in touch with George Hirsch, an old friend and publisher of Runner's World, who formerly published New York magazine and also launched Men's Health. They added Jackie Leo, editor-in-chief of Reader's Digest; Books-A-Million vice president Patsy Jones; Jerrold Footlick, a former senior editor at Newsweek (also on the advisory board for Duke Magazine); and others.

"First of all, I was just impressed with the concept. And Will struck me as a person with not only a good idea, but the ability to listen, work, and do something with that idea," says Tifft. "He's also got a pretty thick skin, in my opinion, and I think you have to."

The board members helped mental_floss avoid early missteps and continue today to provide important wisdom and contacts. Pearson illustrates the point by opening up his ever-present Palm Pilot. "If we've got a question about anything, we've got somebody in there we can go to."

Samir Husni, a magazine-industry analyst and professor of journalism at the University of Mississippi, was an early believer. Pearson and Hattikudur had read his book on magazine publishing and hired him as a consultant as they prepared to put out their first issue. "They had a good plan of execution," recalls Husni, whose website refers to him as "Mr. Magazine." "Their feet were definitely on the ground, and their heads were definitely on their shoulders. It was a much easier job to work with them than with a gazillion other people."

They chose to call the magazine mental_floss after hearing about a comedy troupe with the same name. "It says everything you need to know about us. It's smart. It's educational. But it's also a joke, a pun. It doesn't take itself too seriously," Harris says.