In your global Wednesday media column: strongman manager buys biz show, rumors of trouble at OK! Magazine, management shuffles at Time Inc, and press freedom threatened in South Africa and Venezuela.
Rolling Stone has a cover story about HBO's vampire-sex show True Blood, and for the photo... well, they got stars Anna Paquin, Alexander Skarsgard and Stephen Moyer naked, and then... uh, they seem to have sprayed them with fake blood.
Chris Anderson will generate plenty of chatter with his "The Web is Dead" Wired cover, foretold here previously. Fair enough; that's what a smart magazine editor does. But all the more reason to note the rich ironies in his eulogy.
In your cocky Tuesday media column: those Red Eye boys are just as penis-obsessed as ever, News Corp gives a million bucks to Republicans, Nielsen's big IPO, and a reporter fired for wearing a nice hat.
In your murderous Monday media column: Mexico's reporters have a terrible job, the NYT Co. tests its paywall on a small stage, nobody trusts TV news, and James Kilpatrick dies.
In your finally Friday media column: News Corp attacks your iPad, a magazine editor's suicide considered, Howie Kurtz vs. Jake Tapper on a topic of import, and media softball is here, for what it's worth.
In your evasive Thursday media column: the WSJ is becoming more like your little hometown paper, Mediaite doesn't justify itself to anyone, an alt-weekly judgment upheld, and Bill O'Reilly and Glenn Beck have a mystifying chat.
Jonathan Franzen is the first living novelist to grace Time magazine's cover in ten years. Halle Berry is the first black woman on Vogue's September cover since 1989 (and her over-40 peers are suddenly popular). Three possible explanations exist.
In your wondrous Wednesday media column: a mobile phone-focused magazine launch, a J-school's magical new fee, Stefano Tonchi talks trash, a sluggish growth forecast, and Northeast recruiting explained.
In your trendy Tuesday media column: another big name leaves Newsweek, ProPublica's employees are shockingly well-compensated, magazine trends examined, more freelance payment fuckery, and OK! is not OK!
In your muckraking Monday media column: MSNBC.com borrows a little too liberally from the NYT, the Washington Post grits its teeth as another competitor launches, Clark Hoyt gets a new job, more advice for Newsweek, and Forbes.com gets Gawkery.
"So has the decaying world of magazine publishing reached a point where all magazines are emulating Maxim and Playboy with sexy young women exposing themselves in order to attract consumers' attention?" Yes. Although that's not working, either. [Fox News, Mediaweek]
Like all magazines, New Scientist is desperate for any gimmick to attract slackjawed readers from our increasingly video game-addled society of functional illiterates. NS's idea: "neuro-marketing" to design an irresistible cover. The incontrovertible findings: human brains are quite dumb.
In your contentious Friday media column: freelancers say BlackBook's not paying them, a family sues Metro for misleading photo usage, WaPoCo makes money (no thanks to the newspaper), and a bidder for Newsweek says he was ignored.
Time magazine is a little embarrassed this morning, after Jack Shafer pointed out that Time ran "Can Animals Think?" stories in 1993, 1999, and this week. Psht. That's nothing compared to Newsweek's Historical Jesus coverage. Some things are always important.
In your scraggly Thursday media column: CNN is proud of odd things, the Glenn Beck boycott is a failure, a lawsuit against Interview magazine, and Moe Tkacik takes DC.
When Conde Nast announced early this year that it would be pursuing "brand extensions" to try to scare up some cash, we took it as a joke. But it's all too real! A cafe...named for GQ...in Istanbul? Sure, why not?
Ann Moore is out as CEO of Time Inc., the New York Times' David Carr reports, and will be replaced by Meredith Corp. exec Jack Griffin, another traditional magazine executive.