Is there a behind-the-scenes magazine war going on between Vogue and Interview for the services of the best photographers in the business? Sources say there just might be! It's a rather important issue, considering the publications. The spat, we hear, goes to the heart of icy Vogue editor Anna Wintour's sense of entitlement in the fashion magazine world. Do not make her jealous:
People magazine has always been sickeningly nice in its celebrity coverage-it interprets kid-glove coverage as "respectability" in the generally not-nice celebrity news world. They've even crowned Anne Hathaway a "princess" for finally breaking up with her con man boyfriend, for chrissake. Part of the problem is editor Peter Castro, last seen here partying it up in the Bahamas on the corporate dime while the rest of the company crumbled. Shady anonymous whisperers tell us he likes to suckle at the teat of Madonna, figuratively!
Rumor from where The Rich hang out: Charles "Chuck" "Commodore" Townsend, the CEO of Conde Nast, has gotten engaged to Jill Roosa—she's been spotted with an engagement ring. It *looks* like Roosa has a picture of Townsend posing with her on her Facebook page, and there are multiple pictures of them together in their natural habitat, the New York Yacht Club. Anyone know any details about the happy couple? Email us.
Yesterday's rumor of Hearst folding Quick & Simple magazine was quickly confirmed by several emails that poured in to our world news headquarters. (You know your magazine has problems when "rapidly rising paper prices" can do you in for good). But at least one staffer had such a P-M-A (Positive Mental Attitude, yall) that we feel compelled to share her note with you. Think of it as a shining example of how to feel good about a bad situation. With wine:
$8 million. Does that seem like a lot of money for a company to pay to have mediocre models use their hair products on a mediocre cable show for a few seasons? It kind of does. But that's how much The Weinstein Company, run by entertainment mogul Harvey Weinstein, is trying to squeeze out of L'Oreal for three seasons of sponsorship of Project Runway. Of course, Weinstein has a long history of pimping out the fashion reality show to every company on earth willing to pay a dime to be on it, using it as a profit machine to support his company's less sure-thing ventures. And he's still milking it for every cent. How do we know? Because he left all the evidence in a public trash can:
All those rumors about Madonna and Guy Ritchie possibly getting a divorce? Not to worry: Madonna's flack, Liz Rosenberg, says publicly that "There are no divorce plans." But wait—is that the same Liz Rosenberg who assured everyone in 2006 that Madonna was not adopting a baby in Malawi? Yes it is! That would be a confirmed lie, meaning that Rosenberg gets added to our always-open list of lying flacks—we've handily numbered seven of them for you, after the jump:
We hear that Hearst's Quick & Simple, the housekeeping tips magazine, has just folded. No word yet on what's happening to the current staff, but there's been heavy turnover there for months, particularly in advertising and marketing. Any further info? Email us. [UPDATE: Ad Age says it's true. Click through for the spelling-challenged intro to a perfunctory goodbye note from a Q&S editor.]
Bonnie Fuller was axed last month from her job as editorial chief of American Media. But the company gave her $2.4 million in fiscal year 08, which is 50% more than even CEO David Pecker got. And AMI, which is facing some serious financial challenges of its own, was planning a $2 million severance package for her if she left by the end of March (since she didn't, they haven't revealed her actual severance—but it's surely in that ballpark). Fuller's rich, but she's still a well-known neurotic about money issues, dating back to her own mother's rough period of being broke after a divorce. Understandable—but it doesn't really give one the right to start yelling at the good people from the freaking Make-A-Wish foundation, as Fuller once famously did when she thought they were being too stingy:
Clay Felker, the founding editor of New York magazine, died today at the age of 80 after an extended illness. The Missouri native got his start in journalism as a magazine writer for titles like LIFE, Time, and Esquire, but he will go down in history as the man who codified a method for chronicling the elite of New York, while providing a platform for the city's best writers. He's responsible for creating the only real glossy city magazine that is also a good magazine on its own merits—unapologetically elitist, but not blinkered. And slick enough to justify it all.
It's Anna Wintour's 20th anniversary as editor of Vogue, and the be-bobbed one has certainly earned her title as one of the most feared figures in fashion. But it's worth remembering that she hasn't had a smooth ride. In fact, Wintour was beset by a salacious—and probably false—sex scandal rumor as soon as she took her job. Here, from the pages of Jerry Oppenheimer's biography Front Row, is the story of the alleged Wintour love connection with her boss, Si Newhouse—and how Wintour's reaction became a rare and fleeting moment of feminist pride inside Conde Nast:
An associate of Jann Wenner says the Us Weekly owner-rumored to be ready to sell the title to a magazine group such as Condé Nast-isn't so attached to the celebrity weekly. It's vastly profitable but doesn't really understand the modern pop culture from which Us Weekly plucks its stars. The source tells today's WWD: "It's not really his world, not like Rolling Stone, a world he instinctually understands." But just how clueless is the 62-year-old former hippie, who founded Rolling Stone at the age of 21 after dropping out of Berkeley? His minions joke that Wenner's musical evolution ground to a halt some two decades ago. He's never quite figured out that Us Weekly staple Beyoncé has one of those accents at the end of her name. Wenner refers to her as be-yons, much to colleagues' amusement. One hopes he doesn't refer to his hoped-for buyer as "cond-nast".
Last week Charlie Rose wondered if Conde Nast was trying to buy Rolling Stone. Now Keith Kelly reports that they're actually trying to buy Us Weekly, Jann Wenner's other, more valuable but less cherished property. The "price tag could hit $750 million," according to the Post. Which would give Wenner enough cash to continue running Rolling Stone into the ground for decades to come. Us does seem like a more likely target for Conde Nast, but the high price and the overall print market these days are cause for skepticism. And though Charlie Rose may have gotten it wrong on that particular issue, that interview's main benefit stands: it is still accurate to call Graydon Carter a "self-described pussy." [NYP, Previously]
For unclear reasons, the Times felt compelled to hand a huge chunk of its Sunday Business section over to a profile of Bonnie Fuller—the woman most responsible for creating our nation's soul-destroying cast of powerful celebrity magazines—who was recently axed from her multimillion-dollar gig as editorial chief of American Media. A sympathetic profile! The news peg, purportedly: Bonnie Fuller is doing some vague new project on the internet. For women! With specifics to be determined! Color us skeptical. The Fuller that the Times describes does not sound like the woman who was so despised by her assistants that they put snot in her food. What's the major malfunction here?
New York media is, of course, incestuous; its Russian subset even more so. Russia! magazine, edited by New York magazine contributing editor Michael Idov, is "a niche quarterly about Russian culture and design," as the Observer put it in a recent party report. The salmon-colored paper had a lot to say in a sniper-neg style that made us wonder if one of its authors had a bone to pick. Either that or they just really don't like the "inexplicable little magazine"? Oh:
I recently started subscribing to National Geographic, and its coverage of Stonehenge and jungles is incomparable. But I'm convinced that the sly geography wonks on its editorial staff get their kicks each month by selecting the most insane letters to the editor, and putting them into the magazine. The new issue has letters about a March story on animal intelligence. They must have gotten thousands! So who's represented? Inexplicable dog haters, lamb-whisperers, and schizophrenics:
FOLIO magazine spotted a juicy bit at the very end of a Charlie Rose interview earlier this week with Vanity Fair chief Graydon Carter and Rolling Stone editor Jann Wenner. Rose casually asks, "What's this story that Conde Nast wants to buy Rolling Stone?" That triggers a look of sheer terror on Graydon Carter's face, and a great deal of forced laughter and jabbering between the guests. We think we can hear Graydon saying, "We'll see." What it does not trigger is a denial. RS would certainly be a decent pickup for Conde Nast, but what the hell would Jann Wenner do with himself if he sold out? (Then again, Jeff Bercovici thinks Wenner's company is in a permanent decline, and he should cash out). Click to watch the clip, and parse the reactions carefully. [If you have any further info, email us.]
Barack Obama is on the cover of Rolling Stone again! So soon after the last one. And just one week after he showed up on the front of publisher Jann Wenner's UsWeekly! In fact, if you have a magazine, you have probably put Barack Obama on the cover. It's summer, so nothing is really going on besides Batman and this Barack Obama character. Does anyone without a pair of breasts sell so many magazines? Did our prettiest president even get this much ink until he tragically died? Attached, a composite of the media maelstrom. (The Tiger Beat one, sadly, is from The Onion. It was our favorite too.)
The last time Vanity Fair editor Graydon Carter ever met with Gonzo god Hunter S. Thompson, the drug-vacuuming writer was sitting in a hotel one morning with "a tumbler of scotch, a bowl of cocaine, and some cereal." He asked Graydon what he would like. So did the patrician editor hoover up some massive lines or what? Well, he prefaces his answer by telling Charlie Rose, "I'm such a pussy." Sigh. Click to watch the tale of Gonzo vs. Non-Gonzo in action
