This is the media life on Twitter: Readers daring to call on the phone, bloggers taking each other out to lunch, and blowhard predictions made about blowhard predictions! Today's Twitterati:
Today, a media elite replete with tweets thought about all the things they no longer have. And boy, did Wired's editor get mad at a Danish reporter! Also, food, food, and more food:
It was odd, wasn't it, that Britain's Guardian, of all publications, was first to report Hillary Clinton planned to become Barack Obama'sSecretary of State? The paper's DC bureau chief, according to today's Observer, "said... his source said he could use the information as long as he didn’t source it." One tipster of ours, apparently speaking speculatively, is certain the source has to be Sidney Blumenthal, who was a senior unpaid campaign advisor to Clinton during her campaign, was an aide in Bill Clinton's White House and — key detail — has a column at the Guardian, presumably handled by the DC bureau, since that's where he lives.
I get the sense Joanna Coles is one of those people whose unbridled enthusiasm for everything lends her a dorky quality that make her gargantuan ambitions somehow endearing. Since she took the editor-in-chief spot at Marie Claire two years ago, the magazine's newsstand sales have plunged nearly 30%, but you get the feeling she doesn't let it get her down! And anyway, people are paying attention to Joanna this Fashion Week because she just hired Project Runway judge Nina Garcia away from Elle. Fashion people sometimes say bitchy things about Joanna, mostly "that Joanna Coles is a nerdy poser who has to pay Nina to sit next to her at fashion shows," because fashion people are ridiculous and so is Joanna, a little bit. Just today Fashion Week Daily ran a huge long interview with her along with a little gossip item that seemed harmless but was actually sort of cruel! Read that and our Coles FAQ — and just for kicks, see a pic of Nina Garcia in a realllly short skirt — after the jump.
Last week, we introduced you to Max Gogarty, the son of freelance travel writer Paul Gogarty, who has written for the Guardian. Max has been granted a forum to travelblog his way through Asia for the Guardian. How marvelous! His rather clueless and privileged first post prompted such class rage from commenters that the Guardian chose to shut commenting down. And Max won't be blogging any more, adds his Dad (in the comments). Now the Guardian is bemoaning this saga of "backpackers, bullies, and internet myths." Hey, did you know? "The recent pillorying of 19-year-old Max Gogarty shows that, without tolerance, there is only mob rule online," reminiscent of "China's Cultural Revolution."
The long-predicted but slow-arriving death of print media seems to be moving at faster clip of late. Yearning to break free of their dying medium, the UK's Guardian Media Group has hired an exec whose job it is to get everyone using the intertubes like their kids do. Yesterday, in a workshop, a group of Guardian executives all learned Flickr and the YouTube and even wrote some blogs and things. The session was webcast to show to other Guardian people that nobody died or even got hurt. High fives, guys! We knew you had it in you. [Buzz Machine]
Jimmy Wales declares "transparency" a central pillar of his new startup Wikia. But the entrepreneur has quickly obscured discussion of his business's operations. Guardian journalist Seth Finkelstein says he was "moderated," or restricted from posting, for posing questions about how Wikia runs on a Wikia-controlled mailing list. Finkelstein would like to know exactly how Wikia is being funded and operated, which is not entirely clear currently. And we may never know, based on Wales's definition of transparency. The irascible Wales states, "I will allow through his posts if he wants to contribute positively to our work." That's certainly transparent enough.
Ooh, Guardian America is here, new today! Now we can get American news with that punchy English flair. It's sort of confusing because it's just like the Guardian only with fewer names that you don't recognize? But now, should we ignore the "foreign" Guardian? But what if we want to read about the Kurds? Guardian American won't write about the Kurds any more than any other American publication! Isn't this sort of like (but in reverse?) how BBC America doesn't actually carry the super-trashy English programs we really crave? [Guardian America]
The Guardian bought the profile of Wendi Deng Murdoch that was spiked back in May by Australia's Fairfax group amidst suspicion that Rupert Murdoch didn't want it to see print. The Independent hears rumors that the paper will not run the piece because "the profile is rather one-sided. " Uh, what's the other side? [Independent]
