Always a clutch player, the Observer comes through today with some winning coverage of the demise of Condé Nast's Cargo. While we don't learn too much more than what we already knew (denials that it had anything to do with Men's Vogue; Condé cockteased secured a loan for EIC Ariel Foxman to buy an apartment just last spring), there's some telling quotage from Foxman just hours after he was thrown out of his home.
After faux-manly shopping mag Cargo went up in flames yesterday, there is one question that presses more urgently than all others: What about their bowling team?
Charlie Suisman's Manhattan User's Guide today points us to the city health department's most recent inspection report on the legendary, Gehry-designed, garlic-free Conde Nast cafeteria. Food-service establishments get points for violations, with the goal being the lowest total score and 28 points requiring a reinspection. How'd the caf do? Fifteen, which is low enough to pass but higher than the overall city average of 13 points. Most interesting, though, is one of the reasons for that score:
Late yesterday afternoon, the brutal lords of Condé Nast pulled the plug on woefully misguided shopping mag Cargo — and the people, well, barely shrugged. In the aftermath, Women's Wear Daily asks today why Condé hadn't given Cargo another shot with a new editor. In the months since publisher Lance Ford's August arrival, word was the Cargo would be perking up:
• For their weepy reality show Extreme Makeover: Home Edition, ABC casting execs are hunting for families with multiple children born with Down's Syndrome — or, even better, kids suffering from Progeria, aka "little old man's disease." Sad, but we always knew Ty Pennington was bad news. Never trust a dude in a hemp necklace. [TSG]
• Through the power of lemonade, one girl will try to save Lil' Kim from the harsh realities of prison life — now in pre-production for Lifetime. [Philadelphia Will Do]
• How to be a really questionable curator, courtesy of those daffy dilletantes at the Whitney. [Art Fag City]
• We're not sure if the author of the following post is really named Jen, but could she actually be the mythical Evelyn the Food Whore? [Craigslist]
• Wearing Prada loafers for your Condé Nast job interview means nothing if your family isn't sitting on piles of money. [Almost Girl]
• Who uses Meetup these days? Rat people, that's who. [Meetup]
• You're not going to believe this, but: Celebrity publicists use gossip columns as PR tools. We know, we know — is nothing sacred? [OPRN]
• Last but certainly not least, the kings and queens of Manhattan now know how to shit like royalty. [NYM]
Bad news from the land of useless Japanese gadgets and rare Italian hair gels: We hear that Condé Nast has pulled the plug on quasi-homo magalogue Cargo. We've put in our calls for comment; while wait for more information, we'll be creating a personal shopper position around Gawker HQ so that EIC Ariel Foxman can keep himself busy. Distract yourself from the pain, brother.
Yes, we know: Friday afternoon, Amy Stevens, editor of the Weekend Journal section, announced she'll be leaving the paper to go join her old boss Joanne Lipman at the still-TK new Conde Nast business magazine. She'll be co-deputy editor, we hear, with Jim Impoco. We're told Journalists are on one hand not at all surprised about this, as Stevens has long been a protege of Lipman's, and on the other a bit surprised, as Stevens is a WSJ lifer, there for her whole two-decade-ish career.
• Will Katie go to CBS? We continue to not really have any idea. [USAT]
• What did Bonnie Fuller learn from getting fired from Conde Nast? "Blatant disloyalty is never the smart course of action." Who knew? [NYT]
• Kurt Andersen thinks — hopes! — that the celebrity moment might finally be over. [NYM]
• Elizabeth Spiers is starting a blog about Wall Street. Also, she used to work here. [IWantMedia]
• Esquire has a funny spoof in its new issue written by — who else? — a Foer brother, in this case champion memorizer Joshua. [WP]
• Simon Dumenco isn't sure newspapers will survive, and he can't believe it took the Times until now to get rid of the printed stock tables. [Ad Age]
• Jim Surowiecki thinks newspapers will survive, and he can't believe it took them until now to get rid of printed stock tables. [NYer]
• WWD media reporter Jeff Bercovici breakfasts on spelt toast with almond butter and a home-brewed cappuccino. [Jossip]
• Syd Schanberg quit his job as the Village Voice's Press Clips columnist just after the New Times deal closed, feeling that the company was no longer interested in media criticism. Friday he won an award for his Voice media criticism. [VV]
We'd like to see you write nearly 4,000 words about the April issue of Vogue. No, seriously — the fact that anyone can take such mind-numbing "sophistication" and spin it into critical inspiration amazes us. Case in point: our beloved Earl Grey, known for his rambling Gawker Stalker sightings (which earned him the widely embraced Crazy Stalker nickname) and intense critiques of high-heeled glossies.
Because Toby Young isn't quite done milking his ill-fated tenure at Vanity Fair for every last drop of post-facto enrichment, he'll be back this summer with yet another memoir, containing yet more reminiscences of Graydon Carter. The Sound of No Hands Clapping is set for July publication, and a mole at The Book Standard today passes along some choice bits he found in an unedited copy of the (apparently long overdue) text:
Woe is the poor Conde Nast editor. These poor champions of intellect have but only a single comfort in their threadbare lives: the view from their offices at 4 Times Square. Those who work in the Tower o' Gloss have always been blessed with the increasingly rare sight of Manhattan air space, which floods offices with sunlight and delights tired eyes with an impressive view of the city beneath them.
Why are New York's drug delivery services so... uncreative? In California, the DEA just busted a bunch of dealers who had been distributing a clever line of Marijuana-infused candy bars and beverages. The brands available for purchase: Toka-Cola, Pot Tarts, Puff-A-Mint Pattie, Stoney Ranchers, Munchy Way, and Buddahfinger.
We've been distracted away from monitoring Debbie Gibson's every waking moment — yes, she's still alive — long enough to get our hands on the first staff memo from newly appointed Atlantic editor James Bennet. It's not the best of news. William Langewiesche, the veteran national correspondent who reported and wrote the magazine's remarkable three-part series four years ago on the "unbuilding" of the World Trade Center, is leaving for Vanity Fair. We were all set to make a joke about how much we're looking forward to his in-depth pieces on tea parties thrown by Princess Michael of Kent, but then we got to the second paragraph of Bennet's memo. It seems Cullen Murphy, the managing editor who ably ran The Atlantic from Michael Kelly's death in April 2003 until his magazine was moved out from under him to Washington last year, will also be joining VF. He'll be a part-time editor.
Women's Wear Daily's Memo Pad — one of the city's leading media-gossip columns — is sometimes derided as the Conde Nast School Paper, a comment on the (probably unavoidable) prevalence of news about its corporate owner, which just happens to be one of the biggest mag companies. Sometimes, though, you can learn the most interesting things from an in-house rag.
One freelancer was troubled by Monday's anointment of Conde Nast as the company that treated her sort best in 2005. "Was this posted as a joke," she asked. Flummoxed freelancer then forwarded this tale:
• As Fairchild is integrated into Conde Nast, portraits of the Fairchilds go, a fancy cafeteria arrives, and garlic is banned. [NYO]
• Absolute mag might live again, that to Realtor William B. May. At the very least, the already-completed next issue will be distributed. Oh, and that trademark thing the Post was all worried about last week? Not a big deal, May says. [NYP (second item)]
• ABC's Bob Woodruff still has a face for TV, his brother reports. The talking for TV? Less so. [NYDN]
• Judy Miller admits she was wrong! OK, the other Judy Miller, and about moving to New York. [Romenesko]
• Maer Roshan delays your plane. [Media Mob/NYO]
Sometimes it pays to fabulously frivolous. Conde Nast was ranked the top company for New York City's freelancers, according to a survey released today by The Freelancers Union. 1,000 people were asked to vote on the one company that treated them the best of those they worked for in 2005; not surprisingly, the money-throwers at Conde Nast came out on top. The rest of the list includes:
From the table of contents in the current Vogue:
