While we're pretty excited for the Post's new Page Six Magazine - which is completely free if you, uh, buy the Sunday Post - we're even more excited for PostScript, the paper's new "ideas" section. Book reviews, essays, commentary! We can only hope they bring the same sophistication that resulted in today's coverline ("City nixes evil Iran prez bid to tour 9/11 site"!) to their disquisitions on the life of the mind.
Portfolio blogger Jeff Bercovici searches in vain for a few good gays at the New York Post. "How do gay employees of the New York Post feel about working at an institution that portrays homosexuals as a bunch of whiny, effeminate sodomites? Is the newsroom as uncomfortable a place for them as the paper's frequent gay-baiting might suggest? I figured the best way to answer these questions would be to ask some of the Post's prominent gay writers and editors. Unfortunately, I hit a snag: There aren't any."
Each morning we wake up, open the front door, grab the newspaper, look at the forecast for the day's high temperature, and dress based on that forecast. (Occasionally we also shower.) And every day, around noon, we find ourselves complaining that we're too hot because the paper was completely wrong. So we asked Intern Mary to track the weekday results of the city's three major papers and the New York Sun against the actual high temperatures over a two-week period. She also looked at the online predictions, for those of you who get your news that way. Her findings may surprise you!
We're a step closer to understanding Post dating columnist Mandy Stadtmiller: She's a product of the people she surrounds herself with. Here's a pal's advice: "New men are like Asian cuisine. The first time you have spicy drunken noodles, you're convinced it's your favorite dish, but then you have the pad Thai, and you realize there are other options." (Oh, in case you're scoring at home, she and her preppy boyfriend are still so totally in looooooove.) [NYP]
With the publication date of Rosie O'Donnell's memoir Celebrity Detox fast approaching, the Post spins into action, taking their hard-hitting approach to news to its logical extreme. They had a couple of psychiatrists read an advance copy and perform a diagnosis of the former "View" host. What did the good doctors learn? "Rosie O'Donnell is full of rage, has a profound distrust of men, craves public adoration, shows signs of post-traumatic stress disorder and dishes out her anger mostly to women because of deep-seated abandonment issues over her mother's death."
The Times finally gets around to noting this coming Sunday's launch of Page Six The Magazine. New York Post magazine editor Col Allan notes that the Post isn't just aiming at the New York Daily News; the Times itself is a target. Why? Well, the Times reminds you, "The Times' Sunday magazines—a century-old weekly, and four new, less frequent ones—attract a lot of ads and are important money-makers for the newspaper." Duly noted! And clearly necessary! Another Rupert Murdoch publication, the Wall Street Journal, has announced its launch of a glossy magazine resurrecting the "Pursuits" rubric. Robert Frank, the paper's chronicler of rich people, is expected to play a large role in the monthly mag. It's just so nice to see everyone at every newspaper on the same page (as it were). Maybe later they will start making money on the internets!
We keep hearing that the New York Post is hiring like gangbusters. There's like a parade of usual suspects up in that mother. And we hear that the weekly columnist gig for Page Six The Magazine (that person would be expected to contribute to the column as well) is paying minimum of $100K a year.
I'm Evelyn Nussenbaum. It's not an existential question. But in case you're wondering where the lovely and talented Owen Thomas has gone, the answer is Hawaii. With his spouse. Leaving me to fill his extremely large (but stylish) shoes. So who am I? The short answer is that I am a refugee from the late, great Business 2.0 Magazine—ok the October issue is coming out, but it's the last one. This is a collector's item, people! But my stint at the New York Post is probably the most relevant to Valleywag. OK, I was a business reporter, but I sat next to Keith Kelly and across from the King of All Gossip Columnists Richard Johnson—something must have rubbed off. I'll report, you decide. And you don't need to see a picture of me—I look fabulous, especially sitting here in my pj's.
It's a pleasant surprise, but we actually love Lloyd Grove's profile of New York Post editor-in-chief Col Allan in this week's New York. Allan, a saucy Aussie if there ever was one, comes off as a pugnacious tyrant who is driven by a desire to win at all costs. Also, he likes a drink every now and again. Mostly now. Read the whole piece: There's a ton of detail, and Grove's knowledge of the tabloid industry may not have saved his job at the Daily News, but it is put to good use here. Our handy highlights follow.
Post dating columnist Mandy Stadtmiller, running out of ways to tell you how amazing her new boyfriend is, resorts to the tactic of dishing on exes. You'll be shocked to learn that her last boytoy was a biter. Also, find out where you stand in Mandy's taxonomy of men: Are you a wimp, a destroyer, or a crazy? [NYP]
Give the Post some credit: at least they're not mocking his inept wrist-slashing technique.
In an attempt to stave off a decline in circulation, News Corp. has slashed prices on its flagship U.K. tabloid The Sun. Given the fact that News Corp.'s Post is also being sold at a loss, how much longer can it be before Rupert Murdoch starts showing up at your door and giving you his papers for free? Well, at least he can still charge a premium for the Wall Street Journal, one of the classier publications in his stable. That's right, Journalists, RUPERT MURDOCH OWNS YOU. Expect him in person in mere seconds. [Guardian]
Remember Page Six The Magazine? The first issue, helmed by Jared Paul Stern, was a glossy brand extension of Richard Johnson's fiefdom. The second issue, published months later, was another decent, if seemingly random, attempt to further monetize the paper's gossip sheet. It was also presumably to give the celebrity weeklies a run for their money—though coming out once every eight months or so isn't the best way to instill fear in your competitors. But multiple sources confirm that Page Six The Magazine is coming back on Sunday, Sept. 23 as a weekly, and it won't look very much like its predecessors. Instead, it'll be more like the New York Times money-minter T. But can a glossy lifestyles magazine make it attached to a gritty tabloid?
"Very shortly after Rupert Murdoch bought the New York Post (the real New York Post), I was offered a job by the NY Daily News. My sports editor at the Post, Jerry Lisker, told Murdoch that he wanted to keep me. One quiet night at home the phone rang and it was Murdoch, letting me know that he had great plans for the Post and wanted to keep me on board. I mentioned that the News was offering me more money, and Murdoch kept saying he wanted to keep me on board. There was no hint of a few more dollars coming my way. I wonder if the WSJ staffers who picked up the phone heard the same line and did any better wallet-wise..." [Romenesko]
"[R]eporters for the Times Ledger, the Queens weekly that was purchased last fall by Rupert Murdoch, thought their editors were doing their corporate big brother the New York Post a favor. The reporters had located Matt Murphy, who caught Barry Bonds's 756th home run, through their high-school alumni Website and gotten the first interview with him, which the weekly posted on the Internet. But the Post didn't appreciate the tip. "The Post basically had a fit and demanded the story come down off the site," apparently to keep the Daily News from seeing it, says a source close to the weekly. The Times Ledger complied, and the Post published its own version later that night." That's just how they roll over at News Corp., kids: Wait until you start breaking the financial scoops. Straight to the Journal! [NYM]
This week in Post dating columnist Mandy Stadtmiller's valentine to herself, Mandy is complimented by various people on her height, her pulchritude, and how generally amazing she is. Then the rich guy she's dating decides to skip breakfast because banging her is better than any meal he could ever have. Okay, Mandy, we get it: You win. [NYP]
The revelation this week that Kevin Rudd, the man who will unseat Australian Prime Minister John Howard later this year unless Howard can find a new group of immigrants to demonize, once spent a boozy evening at Scores with New York Post editor Col Allan has caused much mirth in the convict-intensive funhouse that is the land down under. But a night out with Allan is no joke: Former Postie Megan Lehmann pops up in Newsweek to share a few tales of Col's harrowing inebriated escapades.
Now that Mrs. Astor has passed on to Rich People's Heaven, the Post needs another subject on which it can exercise its comical ire. Fortunately, they've found one in the form of socialite Emily "Pemmy" du Pont Frick, whose "ailing, elderly mother... is being warehoused in a dreary nursing home in Pennsylvania where most residents are destitute... despite having a megarich daughter whose home sold for nearly $60 million last year." Can you feel the outrage? Not only is Frick unrepentant about making her mom a ward of the state, she has the nerve to kick one of the paper's fine investigative journalists off her porch for asking importunate questions. And what of her poor mother?
