Gawker
Dana Thomas' gig at Portfolio sounds wonderfully cushy. The former Newsweek writer, now European editor at Conde Nast's business title (she asked for the title because it sounded "very grand"), went on a "couple-thousand" shopping spree after she signed her contract, according to the New York Observer. We suspect, however, that Joanne Lipman's extravagant magazine, which is funded to the tune of $100m, will waste more on the forthcoming opus by Jay McInerney.
The novelist, modelizing author of Bright Lights, Big City, was commissioned to explore Art Basel Miami. The belated piece hardly touches on the art market, the only excuse Portfolio has to cover the event. According to our informant, McInerney, who was likely paid more than $30,000, went to a few parties, and dropped a few names in a sloppy account that he bashed out on the plane home. "Can't blame the guy for scamming, but how pathetic that we commissioned it and then ran it."
Bonus quote from the author, who chronicled the excesses of New York nightlife of the 1980s.
We were more interested in having fun and drinking vodkas and snorting cocaine when we could get it and staying up all night. It wasn't very conducive to fact-checking. [Guardian]
Comments
I don't get it, Nick... this is a pretty small, obscure publication with few employees and subscribers. So why are we getting almost weekly posts about it? I'm honestly just asking - our of real curiosity.
Yes, but who did he rape on this trip and can you direct me to their Facebook page?
@TheHonJudgeSmails: Because he's an oil man!
(Sorry; if it's not plainly obvious yet, I just saw There Will Be Blood and am obsessed with it)
@Furious_George: Haven't seen it yet - dying to.
@TheHonJudgeSmails: It's only the best movie ever! Get on it! Then we can quote it, ceaselessly, to everyone's great annoyance.
@Furious_George: I saw No Country For Old Men, so I'm going to have to kill you now.
@Colonel Mustard: But I thought we were friendos!
@Colonel Mustard: @Furious_George: I watched "The Nines" last night. None of you, or this, is real.
@VirusWithShoes: I watched "Briana Loves Jenna" last night, so I guess at some point we should eat each other out.
And just where did Dana Thomas go shopping, pray tell? After Deluxe, I wouldn't be surprised if a few stores refused her service.
I saw the new Hannah Montana movie.
Somebody hold me?
@TheHonJudgeSmails: Small? Obscure? Portfolio is Conde Nast's biggest ever bet. $100m investment is hardly small. And there's a bigger story. This is the last of the magazine industry launches. It's like General Motors launching a gas-guzzling SUV with oil prices at $100 a barrel, the last gasp of a bloated and outmoded industry. (But I should probably write all that.)
@Nick Denton: As always, very servicey! I honestly did not know/realize any of that. I like the angle, but without that context, it seemed kinda like a vendetta or a hatchet job.
@TheHonJudgeSmails: Stick around, Judge ... who doesn't have a vendetta against anything Condé Nasty? Now where's that hatchet?
@Nick Denton: I read His Honor's original comment as sarcasm, but I guess not.
@TheHonJudgeSmails: By the way, Judge, Portfolio is the Waverly Inn of magazines, if you haven't figured it out yet.
But when New York magazine hires JMac, or that other magazine hires him to write about wine, nobody complains. And frankly, doesn't every mag hack bang out his stories on the flight home? What is sad is that this could have been a great magazine, but the chances of saving it, even with an editrix switch, are decreasing. (I still have a crush on perky semititrix Jlip.)
@CosmoBarkley: Awww puppy!!!!!!
@veraikon: Never underestimate my stupidity.
@CosmoBarkley: I'm getting that sense.
Shouldn't she be called the Europe Editor? That's quite a job if they can change your citizenship status AND give you a 401(k).
@TheHonJudgeSmails: Hey now, you're usually pretty spot-on!
@Nick Denton: This is the publishing industry's Edsel. There are no magazine ideas anymore - only websites with possible print components. Someone should have told CN that.
It's only good to be the European Editor if she gets paid in euros.
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