"I think that the sort of caricature of the magazine, which had too much truth in it, was that it was a magazine for the Upper East Side. We had to signal that the magazine was as much for people who ride the L train as for people who live on Fifth Avenue or even Second Avenue."—New York magazine editor Adam Moss, emphasis ours. [Ad Age]
New York mag editor Adam Moss is the Lord God King Of All Magazines, says the American Magazine Conference. Or at least he is the "Ad Age editor of the year." (And at a time when the editing is getting significantly less skillful at his magazine—though the packaging is increasingly stupendously good!) Also Conde Nast was named the "publishing company of the year." Those crazy young upstarts! [NYP]
Former White House spokesbot Tony Snow will be the keynote speaker at the American Magazine Conference in Boca Raton, Florida at the end of the month. Men's Health editor David Zinczenko, the AMC 2007 chairman, is super jazzed about it. But should he be? Former keynote speakers included former President Bill Clinton, former future presidents Barack Obama and John McCain. Tony Snow was a regular guest host for the Rush Limbaugh Show and frontman for the band "Beats Workin'." He did, as Zinczenko made sure to mention, survive the cancer that God so unjustly gave him. Who else is speaking in Boca, and why?
Mediabistro, the little $23-million media company that could, is turning 10! So they're throwing themselves a party tonight, with a special extra: The Golden Boa Awards, which recognizes 10 media stars from "from within the 10 verticals that mediabistro.com serves," according to the press release. Mmm, verticals. Each lucky honoree will go home tonight with an actual bronzed feather boa—provided, that is, that they show up—in honor of nutty genius and former owner and for-now senior vice president Laurel Touby. But which of these 10 "media stars" might you see if you crash?
Book parties tend to be circle jerk affairs: sordid Chardonnay-and-canapé-fueled minuets of self-congratulation. Last night's New York mag Look Book book party at Bergdorf Goodman, however, was amazingly a creative act. Characters who'd otherwise only rub shoulders when on adjoining pages were actually in the same room with each other and in some cases even talked! This was great! And Nikola Tamindzic found that these people were eager and comfortable photographic subjects.
You'd think that New York would've learned something from the Times' mishandled move to its new building, but alas, it appears that the move down to Varick and Grand isn't going quite as well as perhaps Adam Moss would've liked. Oh, and bloggers? Don't think you'll be able to "work" from home anytime soon! Coen, Rovzar, Ozersky, Gallagher et al: We're looking at you. The full memo follows.
Today on the New Republic website, retired blogger Elizabeth Spiers reviews the second issue of Portfolio. Spiers finds the title pretentious and lacking in substance. Her suggestion? Replace editor Joanne Lipman with former New Yorker head Tina Brown, who will bring both flash and purpose to the title. Surely Tina, who is currently sitting on her ass awaiting royalty checks from that Princess Diana book, would go for it. But what would happen to poor Joanne? We've come up with a plan that requires a little editorial shuffling throughout the media world, but ends up with everybody comfortably ensconced in positions for which they might be better suited!
Yesterday, there was such a dishy little item for the New York magazine's Intelligencer blog! It was about how former Men's Fitness editor Neal Boulton is telling people all about how he's still dating publisher Jann Wenner. But today that item is nowhere to be found. We hear that Jann called New York editor Adam Moss over it even. Now that's how the gays used to get things done in ye olden times. Love it.
Today Radar launches a much-deserved attack on New York magazine. John Cook writes: "New York is to journalism what The Eagles were to rock: a technically flawless assemblage of expertly crafted elements that look, on paper (as it were), as though they ought to translate into a superb magazine, and yet somehow still manage to suck." The whole thing is so worth your time (bonus points for "Reading it is like eating a bowl of ice shavings prepared by Jean-George Vongerichten") and it also put us in mind of an email conversation we had some weeks ago with New York's icy publicist, Serena Torrey.
Last night, you watched the Oscars from your couch with a bucket of Cheez Things. Gawker editor Emily Gould and Gawker associate editor Doree Shafrir watched the Oscars at the Spotted Pig with people from reality TV and the bitchy queens of New York magazine, while Gawker photographer Nikola Tamindzic took lovely pix. Jealous much? Well, don't be: it was damn hard to see the show over all those people's heads. (Ooo, sort of a pun!) But Doree and Emily did make some fun new friends at the party, like ganja-toking socialite Arden Wohl (pictured above with a pregnant pal). And they even made it home in time to catch John Travolta's bizarre allusion to his queenliness. The first half of their epic postgame IM convo is after the jump.
This week, New York magazine takes a look at New York, a city "radically transforming itself before our eyes." The magazine shows us "what that city will look like in just ten years."
Adam Moss: Legendary editor. ASME winner. Secret masturbatory fantasy of ink-stained wretches on both coasts. Honestly, look at this photo.
Just a bit more than two years ago, in a surprise last-minute move, Bruce Wasserstein won the auction to buy New York magazine. Just a bit less than two years ago, in a surprise move, Adam Moss left the Times to become editor of New York. For the last two years, then, a common Manhattan media conversation starter has been, "So, what do you think of the new New York?" In a press release issued this afternoon and based upon various just-compiled 2005 statistics, the magazine itself thinks it has an answer:
• As the news business reels — layoffs, papers for sale, Google Base, Judy Miller — j-students become even more characteristically naive and optimistic. [USAT]
• Jon Friedman thinks Adam Moss's New York can be one of the legendarily great magazines, like Gurley Brown's Cosmo, Ross and Shawn's New Yorkers, or Felker's New York. Moss's staffers, meantime, are all afraid they're going to be fired. [MW]
• This just in: Howie Kurtz has conflicting roles, covering media for both WP and CNN. As he has for years. [NYT]
• Times public editor Barney Calame's latest earth-shattering announcement: "Anonymous sourcing can be both a blessing and a curse for journalism." [NYT]
• Miller got axed and Woodward won't because Woodward's one of the cool kids and Miller isn't. Or something like that. [BG]
• On CNN, Maureen Dowd — did you know she wrote a book? — calls for more female columnists. [E&P]
• How to ride the subway. If you want to be hated. [This Is What We Do Now]
• All the President's Men was screened in Tribeca last night, with Woodward, Bernstein, and Bradlee in attendance. Also Woodward's young daughter, who was overheard having the crushing realization that, no, her father does not look like Robert Redford. [MyJewishBooks/JewishFilm]
• It's so cute when Germans try to act ghetto. [Verbose Coma]
• With today's New York mag web headlines, Tristam Shandy officially turns on Adam Moss. [Tristam Shandy]
