National Lampoon pacts with Neurotrash

Cyberbiz Brief

By ANN DONAHUE

In a shift of its business model, NationalLampoon.com is moving toward syndication and pacting with Netcaster Neurotrash to provide content for its English and German-language sites. J2 Communications, the parent company of NationalLampoon.com, fell almost 7% to close at $12.50 in trading Friday with the announcement of the establishment of a syndication unit, which will be based in L.A. "As the difficulty of supporting a content-driven site with advertising suddenly became apparent last year, we had to quickly adjust by aggressively leveraging our product into venues other than our own site," said J2 prexy and CEO James Jimirro. "Creation of this syndication unit is the result of our recognizing a sea change in the market and adapting our business model accordingly."