Gawker
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field guide
Jay Penske: The Hard-Partying Si Newhouse Wannabe of Bel Air
As the L.A. media otherwise disappers, Jay Penske is in empire-building mode. His hitherto low-profile Mail.com Media Corporation acquired Nikki Finke's showbiz blog and he backed Movieline in April. From what we've gleaned, the guy's a true Tinseltown dreamer. More » -
media
Si Newhouse and the Droopy Conde Nast
Conde Nast has always been able to afford the luxury of publishing money-losing magazines, thanks the other half of their parent company—the Newhouse newspaper chain—subsidizing them with cash. Those days are gone. Now, a cable company is all that keeps Conde afloat. And the Newhouse family's getting antsy: More »
4,694
Comment by stanhalen: Fascination? with what? A bunch of smug hacks, obviously out of touch with the rest of the world? Hardly. ... 2 Responses | Other threads
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portfolio
Joanne Lipman's Dream That Could Not Be
A year before Portfolio's launch, the magazine produced mock-ups, obtained by the New York Observer. The titles are awful, but the cover lines reveal a compelling vision editor Joanne Lipman couldn't pull off. More »
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By Ryan TateComment by Richard Lawson: Funds & Ammo? Cash Fancy? Layoffs Home Journal? 2 Responses | Other threads
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magazines
Tina Brown Terrified That Burning Money Now Frowned Upon
When Tina Brown looks at the closure of Portfolio, she must worry for her future. Publications are now expected to turn a profit? Time for the notorious spendthrift to panic. More »
5,258
By Ryan TateComment by TalbotSmith: Does anyone actually care what Tina Brown has to say? I mean really. 3 Responses | Other threads
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rumormonger
Socialite Nepotism At Condé Nast: Shock Charge
Si Newhouse Jr. ordered more layoffs at Condé Nast last month; receptionists and online writers were promptly fired. But the magazine honcho apparently doesn't mind adding another Newhouse to the payroll. More »
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By Ryan TateComment by Kari's Favorite Mark: So the point is, boob jobs help job prospects? Is that the take-away? 4 Responses | Other threads
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magazines
Another Irrelevant Portfolio Cover Coming
What is wrong with Joanne Lipman? Does the Portfolio editor detest business journalism? Is she trying to finally get fired? There must be some reason she's putting Sarah Palin on next month's cover. More »
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By Ryan TateComment by Choire: I'd love to see a transcript of his solicitations of Palin. Of course Palin is way down the social ladder... 2 Responses | Other threads
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field guide
Victoria Floethe, the New Media Ingénue
A staff writer at Michael Wolff's Newser, Victoria Floethe, is rumored to be having an affair with her boss. Who knew there were any media jobs still worth sleeping your way into? More »
20,048
By Owen ThomasComment by FormerEnglishMajor: Hmmm. So her means of support is sleeping with older men. That would make her... ? 7 Responses | Other threads
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gossip roundup
Michael Phelps Could Face Criminal Charges
Rest assured, America: Lawless hippie dope fiend Michael Phelps will not get a pass from the brave sheriff of Richland County, South Carolina. Nor will A-Rod assert independence from Madonna without consequence. More »
7,393
By Ryan TateComment by Colander: I used to think it was so annoyed that I couldn't smoke teh pots, for fear of a drug test,... 10 Responses | Other threads
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magazines
Sun Setting on Conde Nast's Fancy Culture
Conde Nast, magazine publisher of the gods, is in trouble. Many of its most famous magazines are losing critical amounts of advertising. How bad are things? So bad that Conde is actually making some changes!
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18,480
Comment by Colonel Mustard: Since nobody at Conde Nast eats anything other than celery anyway, they could probably eliminate the cafeteria all together and... 4 Responses | Other threads
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media barons
How Long Can the Great Media Families Last?
With the steady crumbling of Conde Nast, you have to wonder how long their chairman, Si Newhouse, can hang tough. Great media baron families like his are a dying breed. More » -
vogue
Team Wintour Hits Back
For weeks, the Anna Wintour rumors coming out of Condé Nast concerned the Vogue queen's failures and purportedly impending departure. Now someone is spreading word about the Dear Editor's glorious success. Hmm. More »
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By Ryan TateComment by FlipTurn: In this, the winter of our discontent, nothing -- NOTHING -- about Vogue or Anna seems important. At. All. To... 1 Responses | Other threads
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conde nast
Si Newhouse Poo-Poos Wintour Retirement Rumor
Conde Nast boss Si Newhouse will have you know that that rumor going around about him going to Europe to work out the details of replacingVogue editor Anna Wintour with her French counterpart is utter hogwash! "This is the silliest rumor I ever heard," Condé Nast's Si Newhouse told us via flack (first quoted in the Wall Street Journal). "There is no truth to it." Si finally sent in his denial from Europe, where he is, ah, not talking to anybody about any magazine jobs. [Pic: NYO]
1,891
Comment by Wrapitup: I don't know why but the thought of Anna Wintour getting kicked out of Vogue was just so wonderful. I... 3 Responses | Other threads
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anna wintour
Anna Wintour Said Replaced By French Counterpart
The Waverly Inn was crawling with Condé Nast insiders earlier tonight, some of whom had been waiting as long as 20 years for the appetizer: The hot, delicious rumor that Si Newhouse was meeting in Paris with Carine Roitfeld to work out the final details of the French Vogue editor's move to New York, where she is expected to take over flagship Vogue from Anna Wintour immediately after New Year's. It did not go unnoticed when Condé Nast overlord Newhouse departed early for his annual three-week December vacation in Vienna; it turns out he needed time for his meeting with uptight Wintour's chic Parisian counterpart.
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23,924
By Ryan TateComment by Steverino Begins: Jacqueline Follet? Wintour is frantically ordering the DWP DVD to find out how to solve this. 9 Responses | Other threads
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anna wintour
Is Anna Wintour Ready to Retire?
Before Devil Wears Prada was filmed, before Project Runway made its reality television debut, before fashion grew beyond even the prominent role she had envisioned for it, Anna Wintour was compared in the Times to George W. Bush. It was one of Maureen Dowd's absurdly tortured analogies, but one of the rare ones that today sounds less ridiculous: If Page Six's source is to be believed, the Vogue editor is, like Bush, about to step away from the monster she's created, leaving to a more glamorous successor the job of revival. There is plenty to be done:
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11,525
By Ryan TateComment by YasmineHarpie: They desperately need fresh blood at Vogue. My copies just sit there in a pile while I devour the British... 6 Responses | Other threads
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great magazine die-off
Fear Comes to 4 Times Square
With media companies announcing layoffs in recent weeks that have amounted to anywhere from 100% to 6%, the news of a 5% budget trim at Conde Nast seems fairly mild by comparison. But Conde Nast has always been seen as the media's promised land: a mythical place where Uncle Si's benevolent rule doesn't follow the laws of economics and the one place where a person who types for a living might make enough money to be able to afford (or get a friendly publicist to "loan") some of the accoutrements proffered in the glossy pages of Vanity Fair, Vogue and GQ. Working for Conde Nast isn't just a job, it's an aspirational lifestyle. More »
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Comment by katastic: Oh no! How will they be able to afford to not eat?!! 5 Responses | Other threads
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anna wintour
Anna Wintour's Borders Infringed By Russian Editor
In July, Aliona Doletskaya looked like just one in a series of baby Vogue editors who might someday replace Anna Wintour atop the American flagship. Then came a buzzy appearance at New York Fashion Week, a writeup in the Times, a Forbes takedown on Wintour, and, now, an embarrassing Wintour loss to Elle. Hachette's fashion title, a longtime also-ran to Vogue, surpassed its rival in October ad pages, Page Six reports. Wintour boss Si Newhouse is supposedly pissed. And Doletskaya was reportedly introduced at a Condé Nast magazine confab in Moscow as "the next editor of American Vogue" — a bit of tongue-in-cheek flattery that now threatens to become a self-fulfilling prophesy. Attached, excerpts from a May Russia Today profile of the telegenic Doletskaya. Click the video icon to watch. More »
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By Ryan TateComment by Private Hangnail: Much like Rasputin or a starfish, the more you hurt Anna the stronger she becomes. She will dance on Doletskaya's... 4 Responses | Other threads
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revivals
Tina Brown To Release The Beast
Tina Brown has worked in the US for more than two decades, since taking the helm of Vanity Fair in 1984; and she's now attempting to reinvent herself for the internet. But Lady Evans, as the 55-year-old former magazine editor is also entitled to call herself, remains at heart a Brit of an earlier generation, pickled in ink and arch wit. Her forthcoming news site, backed by old patron Barry Diller of IAC, is to be dubbed The Daily Beast, after the shameless tabloid of Evelyn Waugh's 1938 novel Scoop. The Digg kiddies will be so confused.
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By Nick DentonComment by krismry: We used to have periods at the ends of sentences but the smart set knows where they ought to go!... more » | Other threads
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si newhouse
How Long Will Si Newhouse Support Portfolio's Editor?
A long Times profile yesterday of Conde Nast chairman Si Newhouse describes him as a shy, unassuming man who putters around the office quietly in an old sweatshirt. This can lead to a pleasant work environment, but also some surprises: "Despite the influence he wields, Mr. Newhouse so defers to his editors and dislikes confrontation that a number of them have said over the years that their first indication of trouble came when he fired them." Notably, the piece gives no indication at all that Conde Nast is nervous about the struggles of its $100 million business magazine, Portfolio. But does that mean its editor, Joanne Lipman, is really safe? More »
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Comment by HOPSCOTCH: You have SI's 100% support until the moment you don't. more » | Other threads
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si newhouse
Condé Nast Succession Story In Sunday Times
"The feeling at 4 Times Square is that [Si] Newhouse isn't retiring anytime soon... But those close to Newhouse have heard of a possible succession plan that involves the creation of a committee of several top Newhouse family members." [WWD] -
anna wintour
Wintour's Alleged Tryst With Conde Nast Boss
It's Anna Wintour's 20th anniversary as editor of Vogue, and the be-bobbed one has certainly earned her title as one of the most feared figures in fashion. But it's worth remembering that she hasn't had a smooth ride. In fact, Wintour was beset by a salacious—and probably false—sex scandal rumor as soon as she took her job. Here, from the pages of Jerry Oppenheimer's biography Front Row, is the story of the alleged Wintour love connection with her boss, Si Newhouse—and how Wintour's reaction became a rare and fleeting moment of feminist pride inside Conde Nast:
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Comment by lizzybennet: @bytememehard: "Devil With The Blue Dress " has new, horrific meaning for me now. more » | Other threads
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vogue's king kong cover
Anna Wintour, Pitiable Monster
Today's Observer contains a smart, if depressing, package of stories on the fading glories of the magazine industry, but the weekly saved its cruelest cut for the front page, where appeared the parody at left of Vogue's infamous LeBron James cover (click for larger version). The message: if anyone deserves to be compared to a crazed monster it is the notoriously demanding Wintour, with her ostensible boss Si Newhouse along for the ride. The illustration, by Victor Juhasz, capped a rough few months for Wintour, who was publicly dissed by fashion's priesthood during a recent trip to Europe, then faced uproar over her recent weight-loss outreach to two female designers and is now grappling with fallout from the James cover. After the jump, a large version of the parody cover, and the object of said parody. More »
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By Ryan TateComment by Tattertotter: Yet another example of the Aryan goddess dominating the giant Mandingo apeman. AND she got to fuck Tom Brady! Bitch! more » | Other threads
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portfolio
It's Always The Cover-Up That Gets You
Portfolio editor Joanne Lipman should learn rule number 63 or web publishing: by deleting a blog post, one only draws greater attention to it. On Friday, the Conde Nast magazine's media industry terrier, Jeff Bercovici, wrote a typically niggling piece for Portfolio's website about best-selling fabulist, Malcolm Gladwell (displayed after the jump). According to Bercovici, the Tipping Point author is the bane of the fact-checking department at his day job, as a writer for the New Yorker, another title owned by Conde Nast boss Si Newhouse. There was nothing that controversial about Bercovici's item: Gladwell has himself drawn attention to his mockery of orthodox journalistic practice. But the post disappeared from Bercovici's Portfolio blog over the weekend.
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By Nick DentonComment by rosaluxembourgeoise: @rosaluxembourgeoise: "contact him for comment". more » | Other threads
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from the mailbag
Portfolio Editor Taken To Point Of Ecstasy By Boss
An online staffer has written in with a fairly lengthy account of the continuing discontent inside Condé Nast business magazine Portfolio. The anonymous tipster said that "every last person at the magazine" except new managing editor Jacob Lewis is lined up against editor Joanna Lipman, deputy editor Amy Stevens and senior editor Kyle Pope. (And the ungrateful hacks wonder why they are being pushed out the door!) But the anger may only be strengthening Lipman's position. Condé Nast patriarch Si Newhouse has a big fan in Lipman, who recently told staff her initial meeting with the Advance Publications CEO left her "so happy she could have been hit by a truck." Now Newhouse is said to have embattled Lipman's back. Email from the Portfolio.com insider after the jump. More »
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By Ryan TateComment by onetimeagain: I also am one of the many who left. I have no animosity toward anyone there and hope that Joanne... more » | Other threads
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old school odes
To The Golden Age Of The Press
So we were a tad scatterbrained on Friday and forgot entirely to post the second weekly installment of Old School Odes, in which we (and you!) remember The Press The Way It Was. We apologize heartily for neglecting our elders. Last week our inbox was flooded with the smells, sights and sounds of journalism's Golden Age. We've never seen the word 'fedora' quite so many times. We also got a good serving of cranky Si Newhouse stories and heard some whacked-out altweekly shit from the 1970s for which we have zero proof, but it involved crack cocaine and who can resist a good crack-cocaine-in-the-newsroom story. After the jump, our favorites from your nostalgia. Thanks to all who wrote in—keep them coming! More »
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By MaggieComment by IBentMyWookie: yeah well, if you want to get buzzed in the newsroom nowadays you just have to inhale deeply when Tommy... more » | Other threads
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eulogies
Deceased Conde Nastie Steve Florio Is Spun In the Grave
Ex-Conde Nast president and recently deceased Steve Florio didn't always really get on with one-time GQ publisher and model for Mr. Big model Ron Galotti, a fact which would have come to light in Florio's tell-all memoir had it not been squashed by more prudent minds. But athis funeralover the phone with Observer's John Koblin on Monday, Mr. Galotti said, "A lot is always written about myself and the Steve Florios. But I would hope you understand that when you get older, you forget the bad. You just do. You really try to focus on the good. And my memories of Steve Florio are all good. And I'm lucky to have had him as a friend." The Steve Florios, may they rest in peace. More »
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By Joshua SteinComment by Fritzpeterson: Having met Ron Galotti several times over the course of my career in the ad game, I can say that... more » | Other threads
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rip it up and start again
Keith Kelly: "CONDÉ Nast Chairman S.I. Newhouse Jr. sat down Wednesday with Portfolio Editor-in-Chief Joanne Lipman to take a very serious look at every page in the upcoming November issue of Portfolio, his $100 million pet project. When the meeting was over, a flurry of Newhouse-dictated changes ensued, and that had some staffers concluding that Si was not happy with the original incarnation of Portfolio issue No. 4." Shockingly, Condé spokesfolk deny it. [NYP] -
bellport
Si Newhouse's Lawn
Advance Publications chairman S.I. Newhouse—Conde Nast's big honcho—and his wife live on three adjacent lots in Bellport, Long Island, on South Howell's Point Road. The lawn proper is guarded by a little wooden gate at the road. As we unlatched it the other day, we pondered the legality of our actions—but we were accompanied by Eddie Hayes, the New York lawyer who's defended Jon Gotti, the mafia cops and Andy Warhol's legacy, so we thought we'd be okay. It turns out that Si Newhouse's grass is short, lush and well-kept. Surprised?
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By Joshua SteinComment by Freddie Freelance: C'mon, no one's gonna point out that Si has a Copper-Clad Erection? Scandalous! more » | Other threads
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vacations
Wired's editor has a most analog holiday
A specter is haunting Chris Anderson — the specter of leisure. On his blog, Wired's editor complains of having suffered countless indignities on his most recent family vacation to England and France. Catching Lyme disease right before he left was bad luck, of course. The freak rainy season? Blame it on climate change, which Anderson's magazine has at least been trying to address. But everything else? Anderson's fault. Here's why. More »
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By Owen ThomasComment by Blackjack: It's not a long tail, it's a shared toothbrush. Some people get the minty bristles, while everyone else gets to... more » | Other threads
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the only restaurant that matters
Inside The Waverly Inn
At 9 p.m. last night, Bank Street was humming with black Mercedeses, all idling for the air conditioning. "It's gotta be cold when my client comes out," said one driver. A bright red motorcycle with Diplomat plates screeched to a halt and an olive-skinned man bounded off into the most literarily significant inn since the Tabard. As prescribed by the Post's Mandy Stadtmiller, we had made reservations through Jon Kelly, Graydon Carter's assistant. More » -
portfolio
Eventually All We Will Be Writing About Is 'Portfolio'
As you might have heard, Conde Nast's Portfolio launches today. The most important business magazine of its generation, Portfolio starts life with 185 ad pages in a 332-page issue. Cond chair Si Newhouse says the book was "inspired by a positive response to business articles in Vanity Fair and The New Yorker, although he could not recall precisely which ones." (We have the same problem!) Conde 's willing to dump around $125 million into making the mag a success, but some see the publication as a shot across Time Inc.'s bow. In any event, it's the little things that make the difference. Like the pillows in the "idea lab." More » -
media
Media Bubble: All in the Family
- The Chandler family, former owners of the Los Angeles Times, are unhappy with the way Tribune is selling itself off. [NYT] More »
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conde nast
Conde Christmas: Who Sat Next To Si?
It's that time of year again: Bleary-eyed Conde Nast editors turn out for the annual Christmas luncheon, and, middle-school style, determine their status by their closeness to (or distance from) Chairman Si. Conde Kremlinologist Keith Kelly gives you the scoop, but here are a couple of highlights: More » -
james truman
Vanity of Vanities, Saith James Truman, All is Vanity
There's an interesting moment in this Daily Intelligencer interview with James Truman concerning his former employers. Truman, who resigned from LTB media yesterday to cast his bread upon the waters of the media industry, is asked to compare his most recent employment to his time at Cond Nast, and replies: "How does Ecclesiastes compare with the Bhagavad Gita? One, it's shorter ..." More » -
malcolm gladwell
Malcolm Gladwell Thanking His Lucky Stars He Passed On The Garlic Dip
While scouring the web to search for an appropriate image to accompany our earlier item on Conde Nast chairman Si Newhouse we came across this photo of Si with loveable New Yorker scribe Malcolm Gladwell. We find the Blink author's expression priceless, if somewhat inscrutable. Any guesses as to what's going through his mind?
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By abalk2Comment by Nick Douglas: Another day, another outsourced punchline. more » | Other threads
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conde nast
Conde Nast Without End, Amen
There has been a succession of CEOs since time immemorial.
Conde Nast's chairman Si Newhouse, on Conde's relatively new president and CEO, Charles Townsend, successor to the "legendary and flamboyant" Steve Florio. Much like the recent trope categorizing the blogosphere as the Wild West — and just in time for "Talk Like a Pirate Day" — Florio is described as a "pirate captain" who ran Conde Nast as "a very swashbuckling sort of an organization." Arrr! Of course, others say he ran the company like "a high school"; Townsend diplomatically calls that era a "very emotionally charged environment." Just like high school! Or a pirate ship. No matter your metaphor, remember that Si Newhouse endures, always waiting, seeing all who have been and all who are still to come. More »
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By Chris MohneyComment by josh speed: OMG that guy looks like half Jerry Orbach, half Jar-Jar Binks. meesa no likey. more » | Other threads
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si newhouse
When He Buys Your Condo, He'll Put His Hands Where He Damn Well Pleases
There are many things we love here around Gawker HQ, but none make us feel quite so full of joy as do accounts of New York's media elite behaving like dirty little children. Today comes one such item from one of our most beloved venues in all of Manhattan, the Conde Nast cafeteria: More » -
media bubble
Media Bubble: Si Newhouse Loves All His Children Equally
• As Fairchild is integrated into Conde Nast, portraits of the Fairchilds go, a fancy cafeteria arrives, and garlic is banned. [NYO] More » -
fairchild publications
When Fairchild Says No, Conde Says Yes
About a month ago, Fairchild Publications — the Newhouse publishing division behind W, WWD, Jane, Details, and all your favorite rag-trade trade pubs — sent a company-wide email reminding staffers of its prohibition on holiday-time gifts from "clients and contacts." But Fairchild is being merged into Newhouse's glitzy and glossy Conde Nast umbrella, and that's creating an interestingly dichotomous Christmas season. Emails a Fairchild friend: More »
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By JesseComment by SecureLocation: If fashion editors stop getting swag at Christmas all the fun will go out of being a fashion editor. more » | Other threads
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money
41 Media Moguls Make Forbes 400; Denton Not Among Them
The new Forbes 400 list is out — ranking the 400 richest Americans — is out, and the Forbes people tell us there are 41 media moguls on it. It's a lot of family money: There are five or six Hearsts, a Disney, an Annenberg, two Coxes. But what we're finding is making us surprisingly happy — maybe because we're interpreting as a victory for New York, or for magazines, or for people who aren't rightwing ideologues — is that Si Newhouse comes in above Rupert Murdoch. More » -
si newhouse
Si Demands Anorexic Babies
With the usual disclaimers that we have no idea whether this actually true or not, we present an email that recently arrived in our inbox. It's Si Newhouse's take on the forthcoming premiere issue of Cookie, the who-knew-we-needed-such-a-thing shopping-for-babies mag headed soon to a newsstand near you. All we can say is that the source is impeccable, the chain of custody intact, and the plausibility factor high: More »
si newhouse
New York, 7:27 PM
Fri Jul 10
53 posts in the last 24 hours
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