Haven't we been here before, we thought, entering the event space on 42nd St. for last night's WSJ. launch party? Yep, for a Travel + Leisure party and then some strange thing about underwear. No matter, as long as the champagne's free.

We could find nary a copy of the magazine floating around (one was in the gift bags handed out as we left), but there were many expensive suits wandering about with ad people filling them out well. Rumors of a Rupert Murdoch appearance earlier in the night were making the rounds. We exchanged pleasantries with Robert Christie, head of PR for The Wall Street Journal and spoke with Kingman Gordon, WSJ. western sales director. He told us that the Chicago debut snafu was a "glitch" and that people in the company were working to "corroborate it." "Until they do, it didn't happen," he said. Ah, the eternal optimism of ad sales people.

Michael Carroll, director of multimedia advertising sales for The Wall Street Journal, said that the magazine didn't give away a single ad. "Even Hermes paid," he said with obvious glee. "And they paid a 25 percent cover premium." Again such optimism. It must go hand-in-hand with perfectly tailored duds.

We saw two people with copies of the magazine. This was one of them.

The premium Hermes back cover

Well, that's a boring one to end on

Better?