They say New York is full of aspiring filmmakers, fresh from film school or, you know, the streets, eager to get their creations in front of the eyes of the world. We sure hope so, because we're looking for a few good video producers to create short clips suitable for web viewing. And especially ones that don't suck.
• Nearly a month after ur-Politicker Ben Smith left the Observer for a lower-brow but higher-salary life at the Daily News, the pink paper has found a new political honcho to fill his shoes (if not necessarily his gym socks). Josh Benson, a political reporter for the Observer in the mid-Nadler years and now covering Jersey politics for the Times, will return to Kaplan's crew after the Newark mayoral race wraps up.
Wonderful news. A mere six months — nearly to the day — since we got him fired from Conde Nast, where he was a freelance market researcher, Gawker mascot Andrew Krucoff finally has a new job. He'll be the web content developer at the 92 Street Y, which means he'll be writing for the Y's blog and also working on web marketing efforts. Most important, though, it means we'll perhaps finally stop feeling guilty about this whole thing, and that maybe Krucoff's Mom won't hate us anymore.
Lots of assistant fun today: Depending on who you ask, today or tomorrow is Secretary/Assistant's Day, during which we take a moment to thank the little people who carry the responsibilities of their overlords upon their hunched backs. We'd like to honor this special time by presenting you all with an exciting career opportunity:
Jann Wenner's longtime and beloved assistant — and that's beloved by everyone at Wenner — is leaving, as WWD reported two weeks ago. And look what recently showed up on HotJobs:
Forbes magazine, no doubt still reeling from the departure of Charles "I give perfect hed" DuBow, the online lifestyle-features guru who "generated hundreds of millions of page views per year" for the magazine's site, is facing further defections. An early-morning tipster apprises us of two other notable departures: Tech writer Nicole Ridgeway, who's heading to SmartMoney.com, and L.A. bureau chief Seth Lubove, who's off to Bloomberg News. Why the exodus? Explains our tipster:
Word this afternoon is that Michele Ingrassia, a features writer at the Daily News is the latest of Orla Healy's minions to hit the road. She's been at the News since 2000, where she wrote on fashion, lifestyle, and social trends; she arrived from Newsday, where she'd most recently covered politics, and before that was at Newsweek. We're told this makes the eighth resignation since Healy arrived. (Lance Gould's departure, we're now hearing, was also a resignation, rather than, as we heard Friday, a firing.) Of course, this might not be a problem for Healy: We're also told she wants her sections to be largely freelance-driven. Which no doubt makes the remaining staffers feel great, too.
Lest you think the Post is the only New York tabloid facing personnel problems, keep in mind that the News has lately been shedding features-side writers and editors the way Mort Zuckerman usually sheds editors-in-chief (and glossy celebrity magazines). Among the moves of which we're aware:
This just arrived:
First thing's first: Word we're hearing is that Chuck Eddy's replacement as the Voice music editor will be Rob Harvilla, currently of the VVM-owned East Bay Express.
As we predicted earlier this afternoon, we've now received multiple tips that Chucky Eddy is gone from the Village Voice. And we've learned that Robert Christgau apparently ended a recent podcast — yes, we know someone who listens to them, ashamed though we are about it — certain that he, too, was about to fired. That's it, folks. Two more Voice legends down. At the rate they're going, that leaves, what, only Musto and Hentoff to go? Hope Mike Lacey has enough napkins.
With the caveat that we have absolutely no idea that this is really true, a source claiming to be familiar with the goings-on at Village Voice Media HQ in Phoenix passes along this prognostication:
WWD's Jeff Bercovici is reporting that Hearst Magazines is installing Joanna Coles as editor of Marie Claire. She replaces Lesley Jane Seymour, who has edited the magazine since 2001 and will now leave the company. Coles was previously executive editor of More, Meredith's magazine for baby-boomer women.
Spotted by a reader last night:
• Hachette looks to trim payroll costs (huh, feel like we've heard that before someplace); and Time's Jim Kelly throws a party for Joe Klein. [NYP]
• Feeling you haven't been reading enough memoirs lately? (And, really, don't we all feel like that?) Not to worry: There'll be twice as many next year. [WSJ]
• And the newspaper business continues to slowly die. [NYT]
• In new Howell Raines memoir, only two chapters of 43 are about the Jayson Blair saga. [E&P]
• Jann Wenner's longtime assistant is set to leave the company, and, remarkably for that shop, everyone likes her. [WWD]
The Gawkerites moved into new digs — did you hear? — painted them dark and depressing, shipped a couple of sofas from upstate, and then ran out of energy. So, as usual, we're hoping for a bailout by a Gawker reader. (When in doubt, we throw ourselves on your mercy.)
Jossip has news this morning that BlackBook editor Aaron Hicklin is leaving the glossy arbiter of downtown hip to take over Out, the glossy arbiter of what straight actors are playing a gay role and willing to be on the cover. No word yet on succession plans at BlackBook — we hear the mag's staff only learned of Hicklin's impending departure over the weekend — nor on what plans Hicklin has for Out. But at the very least, we hope he'll be able to find himself a perhaps-apocryphal closeted baseball star to call his own.
Cargo canned at Conde, three books axed at AMI, 200 more layoffs at Time Inc. — that couldn't be any more magland bad news over the last week or two, could there? Oh yes; yes there could. Turns out there was a mini-massacre last week — on top of long, slow bloodletting — at Giant, the indie "entertainment magazine for men." A spy who knows of what he speaks reports:
• Joyce Purnick, the longtime Metro Matters columnist for the Times and the wife of former executive editor Max Frankel, will publish her last column Monday. No word on what comes next.
