In today's WWD, media machers Sara James and Jeff Bercovici poll 103 people in the industry to judge 11 events from the last 16 months because, they say, "Round numbers are so overrated."
Ostensibly writing about Martha Stewart, Katie Couric, Michael Jackson and Radionhead s Thom Yorke in her Washington Post column yesterday, a chastened Tina Brown really seems to be speaking from the heart (she has one!) about her own recent experience. She writes with sympathy and feeling of the space human multimedia brands inhabit and how they come to feel like prisons.
WWD's "Memo Pad" really cooks this morning with the tale of the napkin thief at Conde Nast.
Folio's Dylan Stableford reveals that the egregious Jayson Blair has a brand new gig writing a column for BP a magazine for people who suffer from bipolar disorder. Blair now claims the disorder, combined with "trying to accomplish my job while I was sick without letting anyone know (what) was wrong with me," led to "the dangerous territory of mania high risk behavior in the form of fabricating and plagiarizing stories." His describes a recovery that includes medication and speaking engagements. Like Icarus, I soared like an eagle, Blair writes, but fell with a shattered wing. Eagle, eh? Isn't flying cockroach more like it?—MG
Shattered Wing? Jayson Blair Returns with Bipolar Magazine Column [Folio}
Somebody at the 'Nast paired their pointy-toe shoes with Bad Idea Jeans today and came up with the brilliant gimmick of passing out free stimulants to children. A Gawker spy reports:
Paper Magazine wants a new Production Manager who is "energetic, detail-oriented, a multi-tasker, able to effectively manage time under pressure, deadline-oriented (a ball-buster able to crack whips when necessary to meet schedule), a problem-solver, trouble-shooter, resourceful, flexible, and a team player" At the bottom of the ad, they add, "Salary starts mid-40s commiserate with experience."[sic] Nice to know they feel the pain of anyone trying to live in New York on $40,000 a year.—MG
[mediabistro]
What the fushizuck is going on at the Times, y'all? We thought it couldn't get better than yesterday's article that managed to pack cornrows, weaves, and Steel Magnolias into the same lede. We were wrong. Today, another Timesian gives us an article about binge-drinking and Westchester teens who, we believe, may have actually written the opener:
In today's Style Section, The New York Times ' Alex Kuczynski does some reverse advertising for the clothing chain Forever 21:
New York Times Mag contributor Benoit Denizet-Lewis is trawling for interview subjects for the upcoming book he now admits will be titled America Anonymous.
The new Thursday Styles section flexes its macho muscles and takes a swim on the wild side, sending scribe Dana Vachon into the temples of the plutocrats, private clubs like the University and the Racquet, where grown men still engage in "one of the city's most curious, enduring rituals," swimming in the nude.
Don't really know how we missed this (yes we do — see "incompetent" below), but in yesterday's column Maureen Dowd gets a little promiscuous with semantics, indulging in two back-to-back metaphors in the same paragraph. This sort of two-timing just isn't fair — is John Bolton "Naomi Campbell" or is he "Old Yeller"? You can only pick one, MoDo, so which one do you like best? You should choose as soon as possible, before they both show up on your doorstep with flowers, find out about each other, and get their feelings hurt. —NH
Page Six Goes Blog? According to the King of the Gossip Monkeys, Richard Johnson:
Us Weekly and Star magazine — the Crips and Bloods of glossy tabloidism — had their weekly cover story showdown today and this round goes to... Janice Min! As has been overreported, Us Weekly paid $1 million for exclusive pics of Brad and Angelina's beach stroll (every issue this week comes in a Tiffany box which the newspaper stand guy is required to hand over on bended knee). Meanwhile, Bonnie Fuller's sweatshop had to settle for sadly photo-shopping shots of Angelina and Brad walking on different beaches at different times for their cover (inside they 'fess up that it's a "composite photo"). Stay tuned for next week. We hear BonBon is already taking off her jewelry and lotioning up so she can get all up in Janice's grill.
—NH
What's the Price of Love? [NYDN]
Hide your work supply of Crank and the office hooker! Tomorrow is "Take Your Son and Daughter to Work Day." Expect whining, crying, face-Xeroxing, the supergluing of hands (and then there's the kids...) From the Wall Street Journal's "Cubicle Culture" column:
"Where have all the copy editors gone?" a Gawker reader asked after perusing this morning's Frank Bruni review of Florent. "The following sentence would make even Henry James weep."
"Leaner, meaner, faster, smarter." That's the philosophy of Deutsch Inc., Chairman and CEO Donny Deutsch, the ad-man and host of "The Big Idea With Donny Deutsch." We'll take his word for fast and smart. And the word of Page Six when it comes to mean: It revealed over the weekend that his firm had fired an art director after he circulated vacation snapshots of Donny in his Speedo. But lean? We (with an assist from adfreak.com) report. You decide. —MG
How many NYT reporters does it take to come up with the worst lede of all time? Three, apparently. In a truly fantastic account of a beautyshop owner that throws scalding water on a robber and hits him over the head with a stool, Jennifer 8. Lee & Co. give us this opener:
