Esquire Really *****d The *******s
Hamilton Nolan · 04/21/09 01:18PM
In your overblownTuesday media column: Time is a biter, Michael Wolff is an exaggerator, Portfolio is a fantasist, Newsweek is stank, and Esquire is an [expletive deleted]:
In your overblownTuesday media column: Time is a biter, Michael Wolff is an exaggerator, Portfolio is a fantasist, Newsweek is stank, and Esquire is an [expletive deleted]:
• The New York Times Company reported a first-quarter loss of $74.5 million today, as advertising revenue plunged by more than 28 percent. [NYT]
• Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia's Wenda Harris Millard is stepping down as the company's co-CEO and president. [Crain's]
• One magazine that hasn't been crippled by the recession: Hearst's Food Network Magazine, which is now ramping up circulation. [AdAge]
• What's former Condé Nast star James Truman up to these days? Among other things, he's working on the in-room magazine for Ritz-Carlton. [Portfolio]
• Washingtonian magazine has a shirtless pic of Obama on the cover. [WM]
The New York Times Co. released its financial results for the first quarter this morning, which are just as bad as expected. Or, more accurately: even worse than expected.
The Pulitzer Prizes were announced today, and the AP was on hand at various newsrooms to capture the celebration. Even though winning one doesn't matter, we've put together a small gallery of the best photos.
New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman didn't have a column in yesterday's paper. Was it because the company that his wife's fortune is invested in went bankrupt last week, and he's too sad to type?
It's Pulitzer day! Our first wild Pulitzer rumor: that the NYT won the 'Breaking News' category for its Eliot Spitzer scandal coverage (sexy!). Heard more Pulitzer rumors? Email us, or put them in the comments.
The New York Times' lead story today reports that, according to the torture memos released last Thursday, the CIA waterboarded two suspects a total of 266 times. They read about it in some blog.
• The first quarter wasn't such a hot one for NBC Universal: Earnings dropped 45 percent as the ad market continued its downward spiral. [WSJ, TVWeek]
• The world's largest newsprint maker has gone bankrupt. [NYT]
• Rolling Stone is closing up shop in San Francisco. [Portfolio]
• Ads sales figures at The New York Times Co. are looking pretty ugly. [E&P]
• Some good news, at least for impoverished porn addicts: Time Warner no longer plans to charge customers based on bandwidth usage. [Wired]
He could blame his investment firm's failures on the economy. His wife's DWI could be covered up by media pals. But the Obama Administration's auto-bailout adviser can't hide a bribery investigation.
• The Times is folding in several sections of the paper (City, Escapes); scrapping the weekly fashion spread in the New York Times Magazine, and cutting the budget for freelance writers. Grim times, indeed. [NYT, Gawker]
• NBC CEO Jeff Zucker is reportedly concerned that CNBC has become too conservative and is becoming "the anti-Obama network." [P6]
• The new Ben Silverman? That would be ABC's Stephen McPherson. [NYP]
• Bill O'Reilly tends to ambush liberals more often than he does conservatives. Could that mean he, like, has an agenda or something? How surprising! [NYT]
• Twitter on fire: Traffic is up 131 percent from February. [AdAge]
• Gannett Co. reported a 60 percent decline in first-quarter profit today. [AP]
New York Times executive editor Bill Keller has updated his staff on the cuts he's making to the newsroom budget. There had already been word that the City and Escapes sections — both largely produced by freelancers — were being scrapped. But today's memo makes it clear that the paper is looking to trim its freelance budgets everywhere, including ending the weekly fashion spread in the New York Times Magazine.
Apparently Ryan Adams lives in Los Angeles forever now? The whiny singer blames his departure from New York on a mean, vicious publication—That's not a filthy blog like the one you're reading: a newspaper.
Uh oh! Silicon Valley journalist Sarah Lacy laughed when Tesla Motors CEO Elon Musk called a New York Times writer a "douchebag." Now the Times is in a snit and she's calling the newspaper sexist!
There is a correction to that Times article on Die Hard auteur John McTiernan's movie about how Karl Rove is the reason he is being prosecuted for lying to the FBI about Anthony Pellicano.
Political reporter Adam Nagourney went to Minnesota to explain just what the hell is going on there to New York Times readers. It is a mess.
Judging by their advertising on NYTimes.com. The National Organization for Marriage has employed their savvy marketing skills and placed the horrible Gathering Storm ad on... the ArtsBeat Blog? I saw it while reading about musicals.
These memos went out to Newspaper Guild members this afternoon. They want members to take a survey on the NYT's proposed pay cuts—but they left out the survey. As one tipster says, "Not confidence inspiring."
The New York Times continues its endless parade of recession porn today, this time with a story about how some weird people like being poor.
Life in the media is rough. CNET's Natali Del Conte got stuck in the foot, while Fox's Nancy Loo suffered a wound in makeup. These and other reports of suffering from the twittering class: