magazines
Team Wintour Hits Back
Ryan Tate · 12/15/08 04:13AMOmg, WTF Did Hipster Power Child Cory Kennedy Do at Art Basel?
Sheila · 12/13/08 05:00PMSome people just make us hate art and Nylon mag, even though we usually like them for their downtown oh-so-cool fashion cred. What do we learn about Art Basel through Kennedy's eyes? Well, we go to Walgreens, see a band, get bored, and begin to question the existence and point of Internet video content. Is it really worth it?
Why the Hell Was Time Inc. Interviewing Angelina Jolie Over Email?
Ryan Tate · 12/13/08 02:00PMAtlantic Mag Truly Desperate for Free Labor
Sheila · 12/12/08 06:06PMThe Atlantic is Hiring for Student-Servitude Position
Sheila · 12/12/08 01:48PMPerks: More Fun When They're Gone!
Owen Thomas · 12/12/08 12:45PMSilverman Cements a Deal, Bewkes Steps Up
cityfile · 12/12/08 11:09AM• Ben Silverman and NBC have come to terms on a new contract. [B&C]
• Jeff Bewkes is taking over as Time Warner's chairman. [Bloomberg]
• As expected, Newsweek is trimming both staff and circulation. [WSJ]
• Do his 8 Golden Globe nods mean Harvey Weinstein is on the rebound? [THR]
• CBS Interactive is restructuring and making major cuts. [PaidContent]
• Hugh Jackman will be hosting the Oscars next February. [THR]
Let's Reminisce About Entertainment Weekly
Hamilton Nolan · 12/11/08 03:54PMEntertainment Weekly Considering Going Online-Only?
Hamilton Nolan · 12/11/08 01:50PMTime Canada Is Folding
Hamilton Nolan · 12/11/08 10:24AMNewsweek Nukes Itself Into Printed Blog
Ryan Tate · 12/11/08 02:37AMThe rumors appear to be true: Newsweek will amputate up to one million copies from its 2.6 million circulation, according to Wall Street Journal sources, and no fewer than 500,000. There will be an unknown number of layoffs, announced Thursday, to be achieved through voluntary buyouts like the 111 from last spring. But the biggest change at the 73-year-old magazine: It's going to become a whole lot more like Washington Post Co. sibling Slate, with contrarian, gimmicky or otherwise grabby headlines that wouldn't be out of place on Digg.
Tina Brown, The Biggest Spender
Hamilton Nolan · 12/10/08 06:11PMTina Brown, who's edited Vanity Fair, the New Yorker, and now the Daily Beast, wrote an essay this week decrying the "Media Zombies"—the "feckless bureaucrats" who spent money unwisely and are really responsible for all the media layoffs going on right now. That's a bit rich (ha), coming from a woman who is famous, above all else, for throwing money around like confetti. Let's take a wildly abbreviated tour of Tina's spending history, shall we?
Time Canada Folding?
Hamilton Nolan · 12/10/08 03:57PMAu Revoir, Open Bars
Sheila · 12/10/08 03:53PMOpen bars are de riguer at media parties, and they're just about the only fringe benefit of working in this godforsaken industry. But what happens when the parties themselves start to disappear, like what's happening this holiday season? NO MORE FREE BOOZE! Portfolio's Mixed Media reports that there is a new group called "ASSME: the American Society of Shitcanned Media Elites"—which I guess I should probably join—that will carry on the noble tradition of an open bar in season where everyone else is a god-damned Scrooge. If you're laid-off and broke, you can still keep on drinking—at least for one magical night.
More Pain for Pecker, Regan's Fat Settlement
cityfile · 12/10/08 10:52AM♦ David Pecker's AMI, the publisher of the Star and National Enquirer, has been near bankruptcy for months. Now it's one step closer. [NYP]
♦ The details of Judith Regan's settlement with News Corp. have been revealed: It cost the company $10.75 million to make her go away. [Bloomberg]
♦ Janet Robinson says there are no plans to sell the Times. [E&P]
♦ A brief explanation for why newspapers are so screwed right now. [NYT, AP]
♦ An increasingly desperate OK! has cut the price of the mag. [NYP]
♦ The reorganization of Random House will likely leave Sonny Mehta the big winner. [NYO]
♦ Les Moonves on the state of network TV: "The model ain't broke." [THR]
♦ Gus Van Sant's Milk was named by the New York Film Critics Circle as the best film of 2008. [THR]
The Bright Side Of Magazine Armageddon
Ryan Tate · 12/10/08 02:13AMOh, it's a terrible time to own a magazine. Advertising is falling and expected to plummet further. Everyone's laying people off, going online only or outright shutting down. But every editor worth his salt knows how to put a contrarian, positive spin on a dire situation. Time Inc. may be in the process of laying off 600 people, but, hey, the magazine group's executive vice president told Peter Kafka the layoffs are "pretty much" done, and if you're still employed with the company you probably won't get laid off between now and New Year's. Why, that's positively delightful! And dig the way Newsweek tried to positively spin a purported 1 million-copy-cut in its rate base:
The Nude Photos That Nearly Destroyed New York
Ryan Tate · 12/09/08 09:34PM Google somehow contrived to include full digital images of old New York magazines in its new magazine search service on Google Books. Sadly, the archive is missing key issues, containing such classics as "Radical Chic: That Party At Lenny's" and "Tribal Rights of the New Saturday Night." But both of those are available, albeit ripped from their original context, on nymag.com, and Google has one classic that isn't: Barbara Goldsmith's "La Dolce Viva," which revealed the seedy side of Andy Warhol's entourage through Viva, a shriveled one-name actress. "I had never seen anything like it," Tom Wolfe wrote of accompanying nude photos from Diane Arbus. But the article's appearance in the fourth debut standalone New York nearly ended Clay Felker's magazine.
The New Yorker's Tale of Two David Owens
Sheila · 12/09/08 05:59PMFrom page 8 of this week's New Yorker: "EDITOR'S NOTE: On the Contributors page of the December 1st issue, the book "In Sickness and in Power," attributed to the New Yorker writer David Owen, was in fact written by a different David Owen." Even funnier? The "other David Owen" is, in fact, the former British Foreign Secretary one of the founders of their Social Democratic Party. And it's Lord Owen to you.
Fresh Rolling Stone Layoffs Pave Way For Clueless Web Strategy
Ryan Tate · 12/08/08 10:43PMRolling Stone just laid off several more staff, including Online Editor Kyle Anderson, a tipster informs us. Other casualties include another editor, an assistant and a fact-checker. The cuts come one month after Wenner Media shed online, marketing and advertising staff, plus the entire offices in San Francisco and Detroit. They pave the way, we're guessing, for CEO Jann Wenner's exciting new RollingStone.com revamp, for which he's just hired a "Chief Digital Officer" from — wait for it — Reader's Digest, that bastion of online innovation. Steve Schwartz's stodgy pedigree should fit in well with Rolling Stone's steady slide deeper into irrelevance, and with old-man Wenner's vision of the internet as the place where that process can continue, only faster: