Gawker
Interviews
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Media
Reports: HuffPo Maybe, Coulda Raised $15 Million
According to some reports, the Huffington Post has raised $15 million in a new round of investment. But nobody really knows for sure whether that's true, yet! Let us say right up front that if it is true—and the Times UK says it is—this will be the coup of the media meltdown. Raising cash like that in this economic environment is impressive, and we would have to tip our hats to HuffPo, and acknowledge that we have wildly underestimated them. Here are all of the details from various reports on Arianna's maybe-triumph: More » -
Artists
Poster Boy, Live In Action
Anonymous subway-based ad remix artist and minor obsession of ours Poster Boy has been caught on film! All we had before to identify him was this photo(shop). Animal NY's vandal-in-chief Bucky Turco spent a nice evening with PB in a Brooklyn subway station, just cold maxing and relaxing and shooting the breeze while carving up ads with an X-acto knife and attacking trains. We now have a definitive description of Poster Boy: a male wearing a hat, doing art. If you see anyone matching that description, call police immediately. (Not really, snitches!). Watch the full clip below: More » -
Recessionomics
Your Predictions For The New York Times Co.
When the NYT Company slashed its dividend and announced ominous October revenues yesterday, we asked you, our kindly readers: Might this company go into bankruptcy? If so, when? And if not, what should they do? Many of you answered! And virtually every viable option for the company was suggested at least once. The Sulzberger family should just read the following list of your responses and pick one, depending on how optimistic they're feeling today: More » -
Internal memos
People Editor Calls Times Allegations 'Totally Bogus'
High profile press fight! People magazine editor Larry Hackett just sent out an internal memo blasting the page one New York Times story today about People's alleged shady dealings with Angelina Jolie. Specifically, the Times cited two anonymous sources "with knowledge of the bidding" for the photos of Jolie and Brad Pitt's most recent newborns—which cost People $14 million—who said that there was an formal agreement that "obliged" the magazine to offer only positive coverage. Of course, as Hackett acknowledges, their coverage was positive; but he strongly asserts that the magazine would never "purposely slant coverage as condition for acquiring pictures." And indeed, the Times may have oversold that angle in their story. There's certainly a difference between what Jolie asks for, and what a magazine would explicitly "promise" to do. Read his full memo below: More » -
Public relations
Populist GM Executives Will Muddle Through With Only Three Jets
General Motors caught a leeetle bit of flack this week for flying its executives to Washington on a private jet in order to beg for a taxpayer bailout. "Hey," said politicians, the media, and the general public, "you have less than zero money. Should you really have spent thousands on a private jet?" We would also add, "Shouldn't you have driven a car?" Later GM and its fellow broke automakers left Washington with no money, making this one of the colossal PR fuckups of 2008, and possibly of the preceding decade as well. But everything is different now, because GM is going to have somewhat fewer private jets. So please give them some multiple of billions of dollars okay? More » -
Comedy
Saturday Night Live May Hire Jordan Carlos For Obama Gig!
Big news on the Saturday Night Live Obama comedy crisis front: the show is auditioning several comedians who may take the Obama impersonation role from the workmanlike but not-so-funny Fred Armisen. And these new comedians are black, like Obama himself, coincidentally! And even more importantly, one of the contenders is reportedly our close personal friend Jordan Carlos, who already made his case for the role directly to Gawker readers! Three others are also in the running. But we really hope Jordan Carlos gets it, because then we are totally going to demand some free tickets for ourselves! And, of course, for you as well. We totally called it. Maybe. [Daily Beast] -
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Newspapers
Rupert Murdoch's Two-Way Assault On The NYT
The financial reports of the New York Times Co. yesterday were predictably awful. Print ad revenue was cratering even before the stock market collapsed, so it's hard to see any turnaround in the near future. And as if the economy itself isn't giving the Times enough problems, they're also dealing with Rupert Murdoch trying to crush them, advertising-wise, in a pincer grip; the Wall Street Journal is falling on their head, and the New York Post is coming right up their ass. More » -
Magazines
Does New York Have A Problem?
Yesterday New York magazine laid off Gael Greene, a food critic there for the past 40 years. Apparently the recession is hurting New York like everyone else—not as drastically as everyone else, of course, but enough to have to pare down their fat roster of restaurant reviewers. So is this just a longtime employee being pushed out, or a sign of something worse under the surface? More » -
Field guide
How To Make Fun Of College Kids
As I was journalistically perusing the internet last night, I came upon an entry in a web log ("blog") that tickled my ol' funny bone. It seems that well-off Ivy League students at Princeton University are participating in short role-playing games in order to "experience the virtual realities of poverty." "Quite unlikely!" I scoffed. Do I detect a prime opportunity to make fun of college kids? Why, this one is straight from the textbook!: More » -
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Media
Fancy Conde Nast Not So Fancy Any More
Prepare to die, entitled Conde Nasties! Conde has always had a well-deserved reputation as the most opulent and self-important of all magazine publishing companies. Those days are coming to an end. The (gender-neutral!) diva culture that spawned The Devil Wears Prada and a million young aspiring media people who thought that a magazine employee could live the lifestyle of an investment banker—it's all on the way out. We come to bury you, Conde Nast culture, not to mourn you. Contemplate this, special ones: you may soon be forced to travel in (and pay for) common taxi cabs, like the poors! And it gets worse: More » -
People Magazine
Neel Kashkari: Officially Sexy
Hey ladies: how'd you like to meet a guy with $700 billion in his pocket, a gleaming bald pate, and a memory full of Bernie Kosar quotes? Sexy is spelled N-E-E-L! Last name Kashkari! Our favorite steely-eyed Treasury Dept. appointee and Congressional chew toy is on People's list of Sexiest Men Alive—actually he's on the backup list, "Sexy A-Z." Even People couldn't get anything other than the same fucking straight-ahead staring pose that he's been using forever. Neel, how about frolicking merrily on a pile of $100 bills instead? Is our Republican financial overlord really as sexy as dance studio owner Maksim Chmerkovskiy? Click through for Neel's close-up and decide for yourself! More » -
Layoffs
Angry Alumni Add To Time Inc.'s Bad PR
Former Time Inc. drones tired of their company's massive layoffs are fighting back. In email form! Susan Haynes, a former editor at Coastal Living, struck back at the parent company for slashing jobs at all of the titles in its Southern Progress division (which sounds like the name some 1965 white civil rights group, but that is not pertinent). We're willing to bet Haynes' "scathing memo" was laughed off by the bosses, right up until it landed in the New York Post this morning [UPDATE: the full emails are now pasted below]: More » -
Great magazine die-off
Conde Nast Folds DNR
Conde Nast is folding DNR, the men's fashion trade magazine. It's also shuttering its website, DNRNews.com. The feeble spin is that WWD will pick up the slack by launching "comprehensive, round-the-clock men’s fashion and retail coverage." [#2 of the four ways to kill a magazine, for those keeping track]. Points to the PR department for attempting to create an upside. But it's clear that this is evidence of weakness in the fashion category specifically, and more momentum for the scary Great Magazine Die-off in general. The company hasn't announced how many layoffs will go along with DNR's death, but departing staffers with more details can email us. -
Media
New York Times Earnings News Is Nothing But Bad News
The Dow Jones Industrial Average hit a five-year low today, closing down nearly 450 points. And the New York Times Co. had an even worse day. The company's stock dove almost 10%, lower than it's been in decades. And just after the close of the markets came the payoff: the company is cutting its dividend to six cents per share, down from 23 cents last quarter. How bad is it? Very bad. How long can the company last before calling bankruptcy if things keep going like this? We're putting the question to you.
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Publisher Poops On Pensions
The bad news: Random House has frozen its pensions for current employees and eliminated pensions for new employees. The good news: Nobody else has pensions either! [NYT]
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Etiquette
What American Business Needs Is More Shame
In Japan, CEOs take shame seriously. They're expected to work late, dedicate their entire lives to the good of a company, and try to ensure that they don't work their employees to the point of suicide. And when Japanese CEOs make mistakes, they're expected to make a big show of tearily flogging themselves in public (figuratively). But here in America? CEOs get to screw up as bad as they want and walk away with millions, with nary a tear nor a nice tip to the bellhop on the way out the door. Stan O'Neal! Bob Nardelli! Dennis Kozlowski! CEOS in the USA need to STFU and get way better at public humiliation. More » -
Mysteries
Ashley Dupre Hacks Time.com
Is there any particular reason that Time magazine has a story (?) on its website right now with the byline "By Ashley Alexandra Dupre"? The entire content of the story is a big picture of Ashley Alexandra Dupre, and the words "I'm sorry for your pain." Either the Spitzer hooker has been hired on to write Zen koans, or something seriously strange is going on in Time's internet department. (Now Time tells us this was supposed to be a "Quote of the Day" that was accidentally converted into an article page. Crazy!) Click through for a big picture of the screen, in case it gets pulled. [Time] More » -
Layoffs
Time Europe Layoffs: The Backlash Builds
More on yesterday's gutting of Time's European bureau: threats are involved! We hear that Time Inc. stuffed suits told the Time London office "that if news and details of the layoffs were leaked, they might have their severance reduced." Whoever made that threat is an asshole, and one whose threat failed to accomplish its purpose. So there. We also hear the company is "axing the London art, imaging, and copy-editing departments," and firing two staffers in the photo department. And all of this is causing staffers to be pissed—predictably—at Time editor Richard Stengel [UPDATE: and more clarity on the layoffs below]: More » -
Exclusive
AP: 10% Staff Cut In 2009?
We're hearing from a good source that Tom Curley, the head of the Associated Press, just held a town hall meeting to tell employees that the AP "will lose 10% of its staff next year." At a current headcount of over 4,000 employees, that would translate to at least 400 jobs lost, which could theoretically come through either layoffs or voluntary buyouts. Several cash-strapped newspapers—including the entire Tribune Co.—have recently announced plans to drop their AP subscriptions. Still, this would be a massive cut for what has always been one of the steadiest possible realms of journalism. AP employees with more details on this, email us. UPDATE: The AP has sent us a statement, which doesn't contain any numbers but acknowledges that cuts may be coming—though mostly through attrition, they hope: More » -
Advertising
Could Fewer McDonald's Ads Make Kids Eat Less McDonald's?
This past summer, the Evil Food Conglomerates of America agreed to "limit" advertising that "targeted children," though their definition of that is loose enough to keep selling a lot of Pop-Tarts to 13-year-olds. They did this to try to preclude some kind of rule that would outlaw their advertising to children altogether. Unfortunately for the Hamburglar, a new study is out that has people actually talking about banning youth-targeted fast food ads, which would really be an incredible thing. "No fatties," the study proclaims: More » -
Press Release Of The Day
"Would you like to live naked, warm, safe and whole, any time of year?" YES. "Please visit cambiumbene.com to find out more. You can acquire a substantial plot of land for less than the price of a car, where you can build your own eco-friendly lodge in this beautiful protected domain, where the wearing of clothes is not required, all year round." OKAY.
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Bad Ideas
Ashley Dupre, Your MySpace Friends Will Lead You To Ruin
After we went to all the trouble of offering Spitzer hooker Ashley Dupre seven—seven!—different career choices yesterday, what does she do? She goes and tells Diane Sawyer, "I want to go after my music and do what I love. And not lose track of who I am on the way. I'm trying to pursue my music. I'm still living for it. I'm not gonna give up my dream. I'm not going to change. I'm not going to let this change who I am. And what I love." All of those short declarative sentences do not change the fact that your song "All We Want" is just the sort of generic R&B bullshit blathering that has already largely destroyed our nation's airwaves. We say this as a friend! Regrettably, Ashley is listening to her other friends: her MySpace friends. Like Whitney Houston, and "Fin" from Williamsburg: More » -
VH1 Layoff Prep?
The latest rumor is that MTV is planning a round of layoffs for early December. Now a tipster tells us that fellow Viacom property VH1 is holding a big HR meeting for department heads tomorrow. To sharpen the hatchet? Email us details. UPDATE: MTV layoffs are tentatively set for December 3 or 4, according to another tipster.
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