In your loving Monday media column: Howie Kurtz sticks up for Ed Henry, Brian Stelter gets a book deal, Erik Wemple launches his blog, the NYT profiles the media's most already-profiled people, and the royal wedding saves magazines, momentarily.
In your shiny Thursday media column: the Tumblr-magazine relationship debated, Erik Wemple goes soft on the WaPo, Dorothy Parvaz's fun prison stories, HuffPo keeps on HuffPo-in', and your daily Katie Couric update.
Erik Wemple was the longtime editor of the Washington City Paper, where he routinely ripped the Washington Post various new assholes, as is the job of any good alt-weekly editor. A little over a year ago, Wemple left the WCP to join TBD.com, the hot new startup that would revolutionize online local news in DC.
If there's one thing we're absolutely sick of it's journalists complaining about other journalists for no reason except to revel in the glorious, righteous contrarianism of complaint. And we are about to complain about it. Ha, cause we're so contrarian! Check out my surprising viewpoint, baby! I'd like to start off my complaint by telling Washington City Paper editor Erik Wemple to shut up. Wemple's column, which I am now whining about, is him whining about the whining of the New York Times. Specifically, about the Times being disappointed at the fact that their pretty fucking awesome Sarah Palin blowout story last weekend didn't have the same resonance that it would have had in times past, because the media is overcrowded these days. ***WHICH IS TRUE.*** Okay then. Go, Wemple:
The Chicago Reader cut more costs last week by firing four of its most experienced journalists. "Thousands of bloggers could type for a millennium and not come up with the kind of deeply reported story that freed innocent men," writes New York Times media columnist David Carr of the work of those fired. A millennium is a long time but that is probably totally true! But what's more: Does firing real journalists actually cut costs? A look at any newspaper's most popular stories suggests the most obvious thing of all: That reporting actually makes money for newspapers.
The hard-charging reporters at Mediabistro's FishbowlDC finally succeed in landing the first post-wempling interview with kinda-sorta-almost Voice editor-in-chief Eric Wemple, who has since returned to the Washington City Paper. With a get like that, no doubt Fishbowl would deliver all the gory details, right?
• The Village Voice's new EIC Erik Wemple changes his mind, quitting the gig before he had technically started. Not surprisingly, the New Times has fucked things beyond repair.
• Britney Spears assures Matt Lauer and the world that she's just as pathetic as we all suspected, if not worse. (YouTube then slaps us and takes away our video.)
• Finally, Page Six finds someone to accept their job offer, it's just not who you'd expect: Post City desker Bill Hoffman.
• Hour Media buys Absolute; the mag's audience of rich people shrug, go about with their usual, rich-people lives.
• Rite-Aid removes Shock from its newsstands, arguing that the magazine clashed with the drugstore's Danielle Steel selection.
• MTV begins filming its reality show in the offices of Rolling Stone; Men's Journal and Us Weekly staffs are promptly forgotten.
• Rocco DiSpirito refuses to disappear.
• Now that Ellen Barkin has removed her balcony's privacy fence, neighbors are easily treated to a night of watching her kids drink bongwater.
• AMI plans to sell off five of its lackluster titles, if only so the company can afford Bonnie Fuller's driver.
• Beyonce graces the cover of Spin, and it's overwhelmingly clear why Andy Pemberton was sacked.
• Hell has a zipcode, and it's 02138.
• Nothing's the same, not even the simple things.
Late yesterday afternoon, it was announced that incoming Village Voice EIC Erik Wemple had changed his mind about the whole job thing, quitting before he had officially started. The official response was that he had encountered disagreements over newsroom management, and Village Voice Media executive editor Michael Lacey explained, "The Voice is an enormous and complex horse race. We asked Erik to mount several ponies mid-stride, and he was alarmed to find us still in several of those saddles." Gee, thanks for the clarification.
We'll let this speak for itself, as the sordid details are inevitably TK:
We understand Wemple's City Paper did that, too.
Now that you've had a night to relax, digest, and sleep on the fact that the Washington City Paper's Erik Wemple will be the new EIC of the Village Voice, it's time for the real issue: who the fuck is this guy? The Times reports that the 41-year-old Schenectady native is an "unorthodox" choice:
