Typophiles aren't fans, they're people who mostly work with type for a living.
TypeCon (where he previewed the Helvetica flick) is a trade conference, not a StarWars convention.
He's leveraging professional organizations, not "monetizing fanbases".
But that that sounds cooler, ennit.

Agree, it's almost as silly as another quote from today...

"Font junkies haven’t had reason to get this excited since the release of Helvetica."

http://www.inhabitat.com/2010/03/15/bold-type-chair-made-from-100-biodeg...

The term 'fans' is used in the context of social media. You can 'fan' an entity on facebook. You can 'follow' an entity on twitter. Etc.

So the point is completely valid. It's niche marketing made easier with technology.

If I have a fanbase, someone else appears to be monetizing it.

Darrel, I don't buy that. At least for Helvetica the buzz was not built on facebook and twitter. It was built on the typophiles, and the fan-base term (in the way the writer uses it) puts us in the same bucket as these guys... http://www.film.com/features/story/the-five-most-rabid-fanbases/22494925

OK, I get it.
It's like in politics how neoconservatism replaced citizens with taxpayers, monetizing the voter base.

While Twitter, itself, may not have been the primary channel for promoting Helvetica, it's hard to deny that Gary having 18 thousand followers is not an effective way to market to a niche base of people: http://twitter.com/gary_hustwit

Never underestimate the power of buzzwords (at least for 15 minutes).

Helvetica the typeface had decades of overexposure before social networking.

...it's hard to deny that Gary having 18 thousand followers is not an effective way to market to a niche base of people

And harder still to deny you didn't mean what you just said.

Just another example of the bastardization of English by a field, in this case, marketing.

Monetize originally meant turning metal into money. Minting coins. I guess having 18,000 followers is pretty close to that concept.

pbc

From Google's Feedburner:

The language may be awkward, but I admire what Gary Hustwit has done, and his insight in figuring how to get his work before the public and make it pay.

When you have a vertical market, you find the elevator key or stay out of the building.

"And harder still to deny you didn't mean what you just said."

doh! Er...yea, omit the double negative in my last comment. ;)