Jeff Zucker and Katie Couric May Form Castaway Coalition
In your venturesome Friday media column: Jeff Zucker's rumored to have big plans, People StyleWatch is insanely successful, Demand Media's coming to buy your blog, and Mark Whitaker heads to CNN.
- Jeff Zucker is finally leaving NBC due to the Comcast merger and boy are his arms tired, from lack of peacock feathers (makes it harder to fly)! But seriously folks, there's already a rumor of what Zucker will do next: according to the NY Post, "he's talking about starting a syndicated talk show featuring CBS News anchor Katie Couric." That would keep both of them occupied and away from anything breakable, so we're all for it.
- First quarter magazine ad page report time! People StyleWatch was up 47% for some reason, which I guess is a sign that people are back to buying clothes. Huzzah. Vogue was up 11%. On the flipside, shopping mag Lucky was down by 14%, which means... people aren't buying clothes any more? Huzzah.
- Demand Media just went public this week and hey, it went so well that the company is already looking for acquisitions. Nick Carlson speculates they'd be interested in "properties like Sugar Inc, The Huffington Post, Mediaite, and Mashable." Being owned by a massive robotic content farm like Demand Media? Every writer's dream.
- CNN Worldwide has hired Mark Whitaker, former NBC Washington bureau chief and former Newsweek editor, as its new managing editor. Boring.
[Photo: AP]