Media, Radar - Gawker

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snugbug: Actually, Bono's worst op-ed piece to date was an interminable "ode to Berlin" that he penned for the NYT for the 2oth anniversary "of the wall's fall... more »
TheologicalSong: that's all well and good, but how does "aging midget who wears sunglasses indoors" buttress your point, exactly, Ravi? an example of responsible, inci... more »
Tweezergal: But even worse than your-average-run-in-the-mill celebrity "authors" are business-people, anchors, and politicians who hire academics, reporters, or i... more »
AzureTexan: "I'm confused. Suzanne Somers is famous, and SHE'S a good writer." — Kim Kardashian, in Sunday's London Times more »
Banjo-Sea Kitten: What's been worse is the speaking Sean Penn--on Larry King especially. He cannot form an articulate sentence to save his life. At least Sarah Palin is... more »
Tweezergal: Hooray Ravi Somaiya, for exposing what everyone knows but few want to admit, that "celebrity writer" is an oxymoron. The fact is, even edited pieces b... more »
johnny_carsick: More lift, less separation. And enough with the Myspace-style shots, lady. Urryone knows that shit is ovah. more »
Tammany_Fall: That hairline hurts me from here. more »
resipsaloquacious: "And I was the hooker?" Well, I sure hope you were not banging Gov. Gold Toe for free? more »
Brad Brown: Please photoshop some bangs and shoulder-length hair. I never realized how mannish she was until seeing that photo. Beauty may be just a light switc... more »

#media

The Evolution of Zombie RadarOnline
RadarOnline was once an intelligent site, written by funny people. Really! Now, it seems to have degenerated into all Octomom, all the time. What's happening here? More »
#newthings

Newspaper Discovers 'Radar'
"Most Americans had likely never heard of RadarOnline before now. But the site almost instantly made a name for itself with the Octo-Mom story."—LAT, today. Come on now. I mean, really.
#gossip

Jett Travolta Story Shows Off RadarOnline's Gossip-Laundering Skills
RadarOnline.com was bought by National Enquirer publisher AMI in October, and Enquirer editor David Perel was put in charge of it. And thanks to Jett Travolta's death, the site is now a great gossip reputation-launderer. More »
#magazines

Radar: The Final Insult
Radar magazine died a particularly gruesome death in its third iteration: bought by AMI, its website was gutted and replaced by a terrible Zombie Radar. Now, print mag subscribers received one last insult via postcard: More »
#ronburkle

What's the Point of Being a Secret Media Mogul?
Ron Burkle, supermarket magnate and friend of Bill Clinton and sleeper-with of models, used to own a magazine, with his friend Yusef Jackson. The magazine was called Radar. Last Friday, Jackson and Burkle closed the magazine and sold its carcass to AMI. It's not really clear why Jackson and Burkle invested in Radar to begin with, except that they wanted to be media moguls, maybe? Then it turned out that being a media mogul doesn't mean publishing one sarcastic niche title, really. More »
#radar

RadarOnline To Be National Enquirer-ed
The new editor of RadarOnline.com—presumably replacing Alex Balk—will be David Perel. He's the current editor of the National Enquirer! So what does he do on the same day that AMI buys the website and everyone there gets laid off? He tells CoverAwards, “I have already been contacted today by some top entertainment and news journalists who want to be part of this new venture. I am looking forward to putting together a new team that is the best of the best. We are hiring now!” Uh, is it just me or is that an enormous prick move?
#radar

Silver Lining: Radar Closure Means Recession Is Over!
The death of Radar is just one more reminder of the incessant economic crisis that is destroying jobs for hardworking members of the media (and, you know, everyone else). But there may be an upside! Way back on September 16, when The Panic of '08 was just getting started, Curbed founder and real estate blog generalissimo Lockhart Steele made this prediction to Guest of a Guest: "You will know when we have hit the bottom of this financial crisis the very day when Radar Magazine goes out of business. And you can quote me on that!” So things should be looking up!: More »
#radar

Maer Roshan Unplugged
AMI asked Radar boss Maer Roshan to stay on for their new celebtastic version of RadarOnline.com, and Maer's like, "I don't think so." Also he thinks Portfolio should have folded way before Radar. [NYO]
#radar
Three Reasons Why Radar Was Too Late
You have to give it to Maer Roshan: he was persistent. The man was determined to will Radar magazine into existence, and he did it. Three times. And now, for the third time, the magazine is folding—and taking a pretty great website with it. (When RadarOnline.com returns under AMI next year, it will be unrecognizable). The fact is that Radar, despite having an above-average amount of good content, was just a doomed idea from the start:
- It was too late to have a new tone: Radar's tone is wry, arch, post-modern, skeptical, and, you know "snarky" (*retch*). Had the magazine launched five or ten years before it did, it would have been a lone, intelligent voice amongst the wilderness of celebrity coverage. As it was, it was just one more magazine with the same tone that hundreds and hundreds of blogs had made into the default voice of the entire young American audience. Radar was never bad—it just wasn't fresh.
- It was too late to start a standalone magazine: There are plenty of people who dream of starting their own magazines. Few make it happen. Roshan did,somehow, but he missed the era when it would have been a viable enterprise. What was the last great standalone magazine to launch, and be successful? Wired, in 1993? And Wired is still around because it now has the money of Conde Nast to back it up. The day of launching new, large-scale, general-interest print magazines (rather than super-niche ones) that turn a profit are gone. Technology will determine the future of publishing, but that's not it.
- It was too late to own its category: Celebrity coverage with a twist. Smart celebrity coverage. For people who are actually intelligent, but have a pop culture habit. This is a niche with no space left in it. It is a niche that was filled before Radar got a chance to get to it. Radar didn't lack talent—it lacked a compelling reason to exist. That Maer Roshan got three cracks at it is a testament to his otherworldly skills as a salesman.
[Pic concocted by Steven Dressler]
#radar

AMI Buys RadarOnline.com
As rumored, AMI has bought the website RadarOnline.com, just as the print version of Radar folds. That, incongruously, puts the site under the same corporate umbrella as the celebrity mags Star and the National Enquirer, which may now become off-limits for mockery. The site will be "relaunched" in 2009. Judging from the tone of the press release alone, the site may well be repositioned to be far more credulous in its celebrity coverage, and consequently less funny. The effect on the RadarOnline staff is not clear yet; we'll fill in details as they come. Full press release from AMI below: More »
#breaking

Radar Folding
BREAKING: We hear that Radar, the smart-shallow magazine and website, is laying off "EVERYONE." Repeat: "EVERYONE." Including some beloved former Gawker editors. This will be everyone's last day at the office, apparently. The New York Observer says that "there might a business arrangement to keep the web site afloat and that it will be sold to AMI," although we've heard no confirmation of that [UPDATE: It's true]. It appears that Radar chief Maer Roshan has, indeed, killed trees until all the money is gone. More »
#revlolvingdoors

CHOIRE SICHA TO RADAR
Former Gawker editor twice over (twice-former??) Choire Sicha recently got canned from his job writing columns for a pittance at the New York Observer because he wrote something about how no one at that sad newspaper has any air conditioning, because of wee Jared Kushner (and now we know that we shall never work there!). But good news for him! He is joining former Gawker editor Alex Balk at Radar, where he will certainly never get in trouble for writing anything about anyone who may or may not own that fine publication. He will be called an "Editor at Large," just like Hamish Bowles! The position is sort of the one our own Moe was going to take, but then she came to Gawker instead. There are like three jobs in New York and they now they are ALL taken. [Radar]
#recklessspeculation

The Jacksons, The Obamas, and 'Radar'
So while we're on the subject of Radar and who owns them and what they won't cover, let's all read this fun story about the Jesse Jackson family from last February's New Republic! It's about Barack Obama the Jackson kids. First: the younger Jacksons like Barry Obama a lot more than Jesse Sr. This has been amply demonstrated recently. But the Obama family and the Jackson family are totally intertwined! Let's learn about that, shall we? More »
#top

Media Bitchery: The Definitive Bibliography
Think of how easy it might have been to understand Arianna Huffington's bloggy animus toward Tim Russert if there were a book out chronicling all the sordid details of their decade-and-a-half-long secret feud. (There is.) Every gossip-mongering gadabout should know the full backstory on every spat, falling out, and long-running mutual antagonism in media. Below are the volumes no shelf should be without. More »
#jobs

Ana Marie Cox Now Radar Contributing Editor
"I’m just happy to have a place that’s as good as Radar for the kind of writing I want to do. I’ve never been good at judging a publication’s longevity." [Observer]
#rumors

Sigh. More 'Radar' Departures?
So. Chris Tennant sorta faded away from Radar a couple months ago. Tyler Gray just left. As did Leigh Ann Boutwell. Now an anonymous source tells us Radar president Fred Poust quit this week, along with Finance Director Dwight Holovach. They're both still on the masthead, but we've heard the Poust story twice now. Can anyone confirm? Is this the summer Radar folds again? What the hell are we supposed to do when we quit here? Not all of us are pretty enough for the Times Magazine. Update: Site manager Mike Small is leaving too!
#ripmagazines

'Radar' Dropping Editors
Oh no, is Radar in trouble again? Maybe. Chris Tennant left back in March, and senior editor Tyler Gray left last week for Blender. Now, John Clarke Jr at Portfolio reports that managing ed Leigh Ann Boutwell is "moving to Los Angeles to freelance." Poor Radar. They are apparently relying on more of this "celebrity coverage" stuff just to pay the bills. (Maer says things are just great, though! Ad sales up 6 percent from last year! Radar will live forever! Hooray for Ron Burkle!) [Portfolio]
#jtothea

Julia Allison: I'm Not a Jerk
As some of you may have heard, oft-chronicled Star magazine editor-at-large Julia Allison was on CNN's Reliable Sources this morning. Host Howard Kurtz asked, "You've been called the Paris Hilton of the media world. And Radar magazine says you are the third most hated person on the Internet. I don't know how that statistic was arrived at, but doesn't that kind of criticism and mockery, doesn't it—don't you find it depressing?" Ms. Allison responded, "Actually, I found that really amusing. I actually ranked above the Marine who through the puppy off the cliff. That's quite an accomplishment. I mean, you know, I said to 'Radar'—I said, 'Thank you very much for hating me more than Rachael Ray, more than Tony Kornheiser.' I mean, how is that possible? I was impressed with that, yes. My parents were very proud.'" Then Kurtz asked if she thinks that any press is good press. More »
#fabulists

We Had No Idea War Zones Could Mess With The Memoirist's Mind
Tinker, tailor, soldier, fabulist alert! The credibility of A Long Way Gone, the bestselling Farrar, Strauss and Giroux memoir from child soldier Ishmael Beah has been called into question by an Australian couple. It seems Beah may have spent a mere three months—not two years—kidnapped, drugged, running for his life, and watching his friends and entire family be raped and hacked to death. The outrage! Listen here, Ishmael, there will be no getting mixed up, we don't care how much brown-brown they made you take or how heavy your AK-47 was. Our rules about memoirs are very serious. More »
#announcements

Alex Balk To Radar
Alex Balk, the man who drunkenly typed his way through a thousand angry posts on the deficiencies of Radar, has done the unthinkable. He's leaving Gawker to become the executive editor of Radar.com. Do you know what this means? It means he was right about every single thing he said. We claim victory. All sort-of kidding aside, what can we say? We love him and we'll miss him terribly; it's sick. We are taking his fingernails now to clone him. And his last two weeks here should be a wild ride.
#appointmentinsamarra

Magazine actuary The Reaper thinks the following publications have a rendezvous with death: "Tango, Hollywood Life, Radar, TV Guide, Sound & Vision, Kiplinger's Personal Finance and, in the long run (meaning two years), Portfolio." [MediaLife]
#mediabubble

Lindsay Lohan Live On 'Radar'
Post calls out News' circulation figures: The "paper's overreliance on bulk sales is propping up a single-copy sales disaster." Expect some lame News response involving the phrase "New York area" tomorrow. [NYP] More »

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