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tina brown
Princess Di Stalker Reminded of Princess Di
You know who Sarah Palin totally reminds Tina Brown of? Princess Di. Previously in "People who remind Tina Brown of Princess Di": Paris Hilton, and everyone else in the world. [Daily Beast] -
Panel Report
Ari Fleischer, Tina Brown, and Peggy Noonan (and Al Jolson!)
Hello, I've just returned from a panel of some of our favorite dynamic media personalities: Daily Beastie Tina Brown! Bush roboflack Ari Fleischer! And the (charmingly?) doddering Peggy Noonan! Come explore the fun! More » -
Crazy schemes
Daily Beast Now Features 'Advertising'
The Daily Beast, Tina Brown's online journalism venture, has decided to sully itself by accepting money from a company in exchange for displaying various sales pitches for said company on its pages. Is nothing sacred? More » -
Media Crack
Philly Papers Run By Terrible Person
In your ideal Tuesday media column: Forbes layoffs, Havana goes dark, Brian Tierney's a greedy rat bastard, career suicide, and Tina Brown's a communist: More » -
trendwatch
Five Print-to-Online Crossovers, And How Many Will Survive. (Maybe None!)
Long-form trend alert: Lots of former print media people are launching websites. There was another one today! It's time for us to rate five of these—and their chances of survival—honestly. This is important: More » -
Crazy notions
The Daily Beast Trying to Make Money?
What's this, Tina Brown's internet project The Daily Beast is trying to get a business model? I thought it was all just for kicks! Nevertheless, the Beast is considering selling some "advertisements." While staying pure: More » -
Media Crack
Alt-Weeklies Doing Way Better than Time Warner
In your frostbitten Wednesday media column: Time Warner burns billions, the Daily Beast loses luster, alt-weeklies miraculously manage, and more! More » -
no depression
Tina Brown on the True Victims of the Recession
Tina Brown, author of a best-selling book on Princess Diana and editor-in-chief of a neat blogsite that is like HuffPo but without the faux-populism "anyone can blog" shtick, is really sweating this new media environment. More » -
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Annals of Travel
Tina Brown Gives Up on the New Yorker Crowd
Spotted: World's fanciest former magazine editor Tina Brown in Tulsa, Oklahoma, spreading the gospel of microfocused Princess Diana gossip-rehashing to interested citizens of the Sooner State. The local paper relives the magical encounter: More » -
media
Tina Brown's 'Reinvention' Is Wearing Thin
Tina Brown — who once edited Tatler, Vanity Fair, and the New Yorker and Talk — has reinvented herself by editing a website that mixes high and low culture. Where have we heard that before? -
tina brown
Tina Brown, The Biggest Spender
Tina Brown, who's edited Vanity Fair, the New Yorker, and now the Daily Beast, wrote an essay this week decrying the "Media Zombies"—the "feckless bureaucrats" who spent money unwisely and are really responsible for all the media layoffs going on right now. That's a bit rich (ha), coming from a woman who is famous, above all else, for throwing money around like confetti. Let's take a wildly abbreviated tour of Tina's spending history, shall we? More » -
tina brown
Tina Brown Is The Media's Last Safety Net
Can Tina Brown and her newfangled "website" The Daily Beast singlehandedly provide refuge to all of New York's talented laid-off writers? Ha, no, of course not, not even a glimmer of a chance. She'll be lucky to get through the next two years without burning through tens of millions in start-up funds and flaming out like the Talk magazine of the internet. But there's no reason talented laid-off writers can't get a piece of that sweet monetary pie while it's here! The Observer notes that Tina's passing out freelance bylines to many deserving newly unemployed vets of dead publications like Radar and the New York Sun, like a blond Brit Santa with a media fetish. And the pay is not bad! Not by recession standards, at least: More » -
recessionomics
A Free Burger and Beer Is Media Excess, 2008 Style
When Tina Brown's Talk magazine launched in 1999, its party was one of the biggest events of the year, an overblown, garish party that sprawled over Liberty Island. Today it's a sad memory of where magazines once stood in the New York social strata. Bob and Harvey Weinstein, then the dominating heads of Miramax Films, had lured away Brown from The New Yorker and Ron Galotti, the real-life inspiration for Sex and the City's Mr. Big, from Vogue. The Daily Beast, which launched last month and is bankrolled with a supposed $18 million of IAC's Barry Diller money, splurged for a party last night at tiny Pop Burger in the Meatpacking District. People were treated to mini hamburgers and hotdogs. More » -
great magazine die-off
Tina Brown Glad She Got Out of Print Just in Time
Tina Brown just can't stop gushing about her new digital venture, the Daily Beast—especially now that she's escaped the overspending print world of Conde Nast. "I’d hate right now to be in the magazine world," Portfolio reported her saying at a conference with Hearst president Cathy Black. "It’s a really tough time to be a magazine editor," Brown added, rubbing salt into the wound. Meanwhile, Black floundered about, defining the future of media in Orwellian terms: we won't have "newspapers" but "news and content distribution." As far as making a profit, "it depends on how you define money," Fishbowl quoted her as saying. Given the harsh cutbacks at Conde today, it looks like making money is out for Fall and thereafter. -
tina brown
How Much To Birth Daily Beast?
"A one-time $18 million start-up cost for the launch of a web site is excessive, inconsistent with IAC’s operations, and just not accurate in this case." [Wired] -
arianna huffington
Internet Doyennes Both Love Cash Bonfires
It is easy to be so taken by Arianna Huffington's charm and personal history that one loses sight of the big picture. Just ask the New Yorker's Lauren Collins, whose profile of the Huffington Post publisher had too much on Huffington's yoga and sleeping habits and not enough about how she operates her business. The Times, too, seems to be overly concerned with personal narratives this morning, educating readers at length about how Huffington and royalist competitor Tina Brown went to fancy London parties together in the 1970s and both dated older men, so they're friendly rather than cutthroat competitors. Whatever. The real question: How is either of these money-losing publishers going to attract advertising? More » -
tina brown
Tina Brown Says Arianna Will Publish Anything
Internet publishers Arianna Huffington and Tina Brown may both be foreign transplants to the U.S., but there's little question which of the two fifty-somethings has more fully assimilated her site to the democratic rough-and-tumble of American Web culture. It was Huffington who offered blogs to five virtual strangers over the course of two days, as documented in the New Yorker earlier this month, including "the Asperger’s-afflicted teen-age son of a radio d.j." and "a woman, dressed exclusively in green, who was trying to stop insecticide spraying." Brown, in contrast, has lent her Daily Beast a distinctly royalist feel, as one might expect from a Commander of the British Empire. And the former New Yorker editor played the snob angle for all it was worth in a lengthy interview with Portfolio's Lloyd Grove: More » -
tina brown
Tina Brown Orgasmic Over Getting Buckley Fired
Though she's a newcomer to the internet, Tina Brown has spent a lifetime honing her ability to self-promote. Which is how the former Vanity Fair editor seemed to have instinctively grasped what was expected of her last night on the Colbert Report: sell the sizzle, not the steak when it comes to her new internet venture, the Daily Beast — and remember that no points are deducted for going a bit over the top, per the self-parodying bloviations of host Stephen Colbert. When it came time to discuss the Beast's central role in getting Christopher Buckley fired from National Review, Brown couldn't just say the incident was exciting — no, she had to claim it turned the whole office into a party! Lest anyone think she was joking, Brown again mentioned how much the firing thrilled her a few breaths later. Brown, who has herself done away with plenty of magazine writers, may be learning the nuts and bolts of the Web on the job, but her gleeful, shameless bloodlust may yet reveal her as a natural for the medium. For proof, click the video icon to watch the attached clip. -
tina brown
Beast To Devour $18m
Is The Daily Beast Tina Brown's clever homage to Evelyn Waugh's fictional newspaper or an inadvertent description of the new website's voracious financial appetite? The web property needs $18m from Barry Diller's IAC to fund its next three years, according to Simon Dumenco. -
ousters
Buckley Ankles 'National Review'
So Christopher Buckley, the smart-ass novelist son of late conservative intellectual William F. Buckley, went and endorsed Barack Obama in the internet pages of Tina Brown's Daily Beast. He explained, in his endorsement, that he was writing for the Beast because he didn't want to read the hate mail he'd get if he wrote the endorsement at his usual venue, the back page of the National Review. Joke's on him, everyone who reads the National Review Online is even crazier, and the NRO linked everyone to the endorsement! Now it is time for Buckley to write a "wow look at my crazy hate mail" column. And also to quit the National Review! Like forever! More » -
design
Tina's Homage To Philadelphia
Magazine-turned-web guru Tina Brown has never claimed her design sense was that original. At the stillborn Talk, she opted for a portable format, a magazine published on thin paper that could be rolled up and carried around like a European newsweekly such as Stern. And that same inspiration is shared by her baby news website, the Daily Beast. "I've always loved the look of the European smart tabloids," she says with the sophistication that comes from a media career on both sides of the Atlantic. There's just one problem: the logo of the new IAC-backed website looks more like that of the Philadelphia Daily News, the tabloid paper of New York's rather dowdy southern neighbor. -
tina brown
Tina Brown Stumbles Early In Comeback Attempt
Tina Brown's image as a media power player remains anchored in the 1980s and the 1990s, when she edited Vanity Fair and the New Yorker. She's attempting to change that with an internet venture, the Daily Beast, funded by InterActive Corp. chairman Barry Diller. But an early blunder getting Beast off the ground has left Brown red-faced and more shackled to her past than ever. It seems Brown's big idea for launching her website was — stop us if you've heard this one before — to publish a big list of the most powerful people in Hollywood. "The idea is so 1980s," one source told Nikki Finke. Apparently no one is even bothering to call Brown's staff back as they attempt to report the feature: More » -
dan rather
Is Dan Rather Joining Tina Brown's New Venture?
Dan Rather's contract with Mark Cuban's TV network HDNet should not be up until nearly a year from now, assuming the terms Rather disclosed just before he inked the deal still hold. But would the contract prevent the former CBS Evening News anchor from contributing in some way to Tina Brown's forthcoming news website The Beast? Perhaps that's what Brown and Rather were discussing during a "very long lunch" at The Park on Tenth Avenue, as reported by a Post spy. Though Rather's work at HDNet has garnered some positive recognition, it's not nearly as visible as his work for CBS was. A Web gig or partnership would give Rather a shot at regaining more of the attention he once had — and that any veteran TV newsman would crave. Perhaps the skilled lawyers working for Brown's business partner Barry Diller can work something out on the proud old newshound's behalf. [Post] -
Nicholas Wapshott
Tina Brown Building Powerhouse Of Impeccable Reporting Instincts
Former New Yorker editor and Princess Di grave-dancer Tina Brown has been working on a big new internet venture over at Barry Diller's IAC building for a few months now. So how's it coming along on the recruitment front? Well, she'll have the cruise ship beat covered, at least. We hear that Nicholas Wapshott, currently a columnist with the NY Sun, has been telling people at parties that he's going to join Brown's startup. Wapshott's claim to fame: when he came to America in September of 2001, he decided to sail over in style on the gaudy QE2—causing him to completely miss the 9/11 disaster, which had to be handled by a junior reporter he was supposed to be managing. Heh. -
anna wintour
Is Anna Wintour Locked In A Feud With Interview?
Is there a behind-the-scenes magazine war going on between Vogue and Interview for the services of the best photographers in the business? Sources say there just might be! It's a rather important issue, considering the publications. The spat, we hear, goes to the heart of icy Vogue editor Anna Wintour's sense of entitlement in the fashion magazine world. Do not make her jealous: 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.
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magazines
Purely Random People Coming Together: The National Magazine Awards
When I saw a tall, dark-haired, model-esque woman sliding through the pre-awards crowd at the National Magazine Awards in the Rose Ballroom on 60th St. last night, my canny journalistic sixth sense kicked in. "She sure doesn't look like a magazine writer," I thought. Later, she strode out on stage during the awards ceremony. It was Padma Lakshmi, supermodel. "Fiction. It can...raise fire in the loins," she purred. Half of the audience shifted in their seats. "The sharpest weapon an editor has at her disposal is her pen. (Pause). Or her tongue." It really drove home the primary question in everyone's minds: Isn't this supposed to be, like, a magazine thing? What the fuck are all these famous people doing here? And Julia Allison? An attempted explanation, and some terrible, terrible cell phone pictures to sum up the night, after the jump.
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media
Michael Eisner, Titan Of Talk
We love the fact that Michael Eisner, the former Disney CEO and once one of the most feared men in the media business, was reduced to staking his claim for media influence with only his shitty little chat show on CNBC. It's almost as satisfying as when former New Yorker editor and dressed up gossip hound Tina Brown had to stake her claim for influence with a shitty little chat show on CNBC. Fantastic schadenfreude for the unsuccessful masses. In Eisner's latest hard-hitting, needle-moving interview, he tracks down designer Vera Wang and gets the scoop on her Olympic ice skating dreams, and her thoughts on wedding dresses. Hey Mike, work like this is why they RE-broadcast you at midnight! More » -
newsweaklies
How Things Work (Or Don't)
We realize that former mag queen Tina Brown is still a "name" and Hillary Clinton's last week was a compelling story (resembling though it did so many of her previous weeks) but isn't there a wee bit of favoritism involved in a newsweekly running a front page story on a presidential candidate written by a woman who needs that candidate to become president in order for her forthcoming book to actually sell? [Newsweek] -
hillary's choice
Hil Makes Friendly With Backstabby Press
Hillary Clinton is never, ever, ever going to stop campaigning. If she wins Ohio and Texas, she will obviously soldier on. If she wins Ohio but not Texas, she will slightly less obviously soldier on. If she wins neither, she will probably still soldier on. Meanwhile she's getting all punchy in her speeches, she's thrilled that everyone is making fun of her 3 a.m. phone ad, and she's getting friendly with the press again. Even the members of the press who have written or are in the process of writing embarrassing books about her! According to the New York Times, Hillary even pretended to be happy to see Gail Sheehy, a woman who has made Senator Clinton's public life miserable almost since she entered public life. More » -
hires
Rupert Murdoch's Foreign Troops Surge
Rupert Murdoch can't hire media maven Tina Brown to the Wall Street Journal, because, well, she hates him and the feeling's probably mutual. But a clone has been found! Her name is Tina, she's a Brit, and she worked at Tatler too! Tina Gaudoin will be the editor of the Journal's new "lifestyle magazine" when it launches in the fall. Rupert, dear, perhaps we ought to devote some time to this during our next session? Murdoch's murky id aside (or not!) what's with News Corp's anti-American hiring proclivities, hmm? Besides Gaudoin (far left) Murdoch's top people include Robert Thomson, the Journal's new Australian publisher and his countryman Col Allan, prickly editor of the New York Post. A few weeks ago, Allan's replacement was rumored to be Rebekah Wade, the firey-maned editor of the Sun. The Post has since dismissed that rumor. Wade wouldn't have been the first UK lady to run the tab—Xana Antunes was editor there till she was canned in 2001. Not that we, um, have anything against editors from overseas. We're just saying. -
magazines
Tina Brown
The former editor of Vanity Fair and the New Yorker (let's not mention the now-silent Talk) is to receive a lifetime achievement award from her magazine industry peers. Intelligencer's harsh conclusion: that the 54-year-old magazine legend is "at that point in her career when the final retrospective is in order". -
five year plans
Let's Play Editorial Shuffle!
Today on the New Republic website, retired blogger Elizabeth Spiers reviews the second issue of Portfolio. Spiers finds the title pretentious and lacking in substance. Her suggestion? Replace editor Joanne Lipman with former New Yorker head Tina Brown, who will bring both flash and purpose to the title. Surely Tina, who is currently sitting on her ass awaiting royalty checks from that Princess Diana book, would go for it. But what would happen to poor Joanne? We've come up with a plan that requires a little editorial shuffling throughout the media world, but ends up with everybody comfortably ensconced in positions for which they might be better suited!
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media
Media Bubble: Thin On The Ground
- Say hello to the new Wall Street Journal. For free! [WSJ] More »
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media
Remainders: For You. Tina Does it for You.
· On Tina Brown's never-ending dinner party duties: "Tina Brown herself slogs through this muck, week in and week out, voluntarily—that's how much she cares about the news, about getting the story. For us, her readers. We are blessed." [Weekly Standard] More » -
media
How to Receive a Free Speech From Tina Brown
Those starting to feel the effects of Tina Brown withdrawal need fear not — inviting Tina to your next barbecue or cocktail party is fun and easy! Here's what to do: More » -
media
Topic A With Tina Brown: Good Night, Tina.
Henry the Intern would like to apologize for the delay in filing his review of Sunday night's Topic A — but he needed a few days to recover. You see, May 29th was Tina Brown's very last moment of basking in the CNBC sun, the final episode of her much-loved and under-appreciated magutalk show. Not only does this leave a void in our clusterfucking world, but now Henry is faced with Sunday nights spent outdoors. When Tina quits the game, everyone loses. Grab a kleenex; what follows is Henry's final, emotional farewell to Sundays with Tina. More » -
media
Topic A With Tina Brown: T-Bro Calls Federline 'Retarded'
I know you all have your calendars marked for the final episode of Tina Brown's Topic A, so surely I needn't note that last night was the second to last episode of Tina's CNBC magudrama. (I just made that word up — not sure how I feel about it. Leaning towards the negative, actually, but it's a trial run.) As the clock winds down, Tina brought in Dan Rather — a kindred spirit? Perhaps, but we won't stretch it. And for those of you looking for the lighter side of Tina, Maer Roshan sits on the editor's roundtable for an intimate discussion of Britney Spears' and Kevin Federline's television trainwreck. After the jump, Henry the Intern's report (filed late because of his Desperate Housewives habit). More » -
media
Topic A With Tina Brown: The Lady Begins Her Exit
You knew it would be like this. The second she announced it was over, you just knew Tina Brown's CNBC romps were going to get good. It's a sad but inevitable irony, but at least these final weeks with T-Bro will leave Henry the Intern feeling that the past year wasn't completely for nothing. Last night's episode was the third to last chapter in Sundays With Tina and — dare we say it? — it left Henry beaming like a proud papa. His report (and Tina's footwear) follows. More » -
media
Topic A With Tina Brown: Let The Countdown Begin
Now that Tina is officially leaving us for greener pastures, each remaining episode of Topic A is an event, a journey into poignancy. Especially when Christopher Hitchens wears brown loafers and white socks! Henry the Intern's heartfelt review (only three more to go, sniff) after the jump. More »





























