Gawker

Posts Tagged “

Barry Diller

”
Revivals

Tina Brown Launches Daily Beast

Tina Brown unveiled this morning her new internet venture, the Daily Beast. The Post's Keith Kelly said the website, a revival of the fictional paper in Evelyn Waugh's Scoop, is in the "soft launch phase," meaning apparently that it's devoid of advertisers, and that it "sees itself as a must-read for hipsters in news, politics and pop culture." Ahem. From our quick look — it temporarily went password protected as we were reading — the site seemed more noteworthy for its slavish devotion to internet publishing memes than for any particular innovation. Some traffic-baiting Apple coverage? Yes, there's a column by former Think Secret publisher Nicholas Ciarelli. Celebrity contributors? Sure, if you count the likes of Bill Clinton, who mails in book recommendations, and Project Runway alumna Laura Bennett, who posted a column. There's counterintuitive, Slate-like material such as "Why I Call My Wall Street Patients Pussies," by an ostensibly caring psychiatrist. And, as if to prove she is now truly blogger, Brown concludes her debut column with the one-word sentence, "Heh." Soon she'll emailing Digg requests to her old publishing friends and trying to get to 10,000 friends on Facebook, and we'll all find it hard to imagine she ever edited the New Yorker.

7:50 AM on Mon Oct 6 2008
By Ryan Tate
1,734 views, 37 comments

Latest by BrunoNanobug: Ah, the "I Don't Like Mondays" memories! Why aren't there more claps in pop music these days? more »

Listicle

The Many (Rumored) Loves of Anderson Cooper

Dreamy Silver Fox Anderson Cooper may have a new boyfriend. Village Voice gossip Michael Musto is doing some whispering about a strapping young lad named Jonathan Chase who may or may not be canoodling with the esteemed CNN anchor. Cute! We care not because we're pointing fingers at a gay person, but because it's as newsworthy (or, at least, gossipworthy) as who Kate Hudson or Leonardo DiCaprio is dating. We're, um, orientation blind. After the jump, we've provided a small listicle (because why the hell not) detailing some of the Coop's previous romantic dalliances. More »

2:19 PM on Thu Sep 18 2008
By Richard
55,871 views, 72 comments

Latest by bewareofzealots: LOL. Proof? Naaahhh! more »

celebrity science

Rupert Murdoch's Genetic Destiny Revealed

Sure, you knew Anderson Cooper was the adorable unicorn of TV news anchors, but did you know he is so incredibly magical he can roll his tongue into a "really complicated four-leaf clover?" He can! Tongue-rolling is a genetic trait, but one can't help wonder if Cooper has had some practice. He apparently shows his skills only to certain, uh, special friends, like fellow closeted media personality Barry Diller, who, no joke, compared tongue technique with Cooper at a special retreat in Idaho. Some Google people were there, and the next thing you know, the tonguing had resulted in a big genetic-testing soiree in New York! Here's what Ivanka Trump and Rupert Murdoch said about their DNA at the party: More »

11:22 PM on Sun Sep 14 2008
By Ryan Tate
5,113 views, 38 comments

Latest by bettedaviseyz: all i know is i'm going to be in sun valley next year pitching my idea for a website that more »

the internet

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 »

11:36 AM on Fri Sep 12 2008
By Ryan Tate
2,136 views, 15 comments

Latest by krismry: @Saxon 212: That's what I always think too, olds should get out of the way and give some new people more »

jobs

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]

6:54 AM on Mon Aug 18 2008
By Ryan Tate
299 views, 6 comments

Latest by dotorg greg: what about that Cronkite fellow? Isn't he still alive too? [wikipedia says: yes!] more »

huffington clones

Every Print Diva Must Have A Website

You know how you are always saying to yourself "What the world needs now is a website… that would devote itself to chronicling the entertainment industry"? Well, another half million venture capital dollars has found a home trying to do that under the great helmsladyship of ex-New York Times Hollywood reporter Sharon Waxman. So now it's a trend, this "internet as representing some sort of future for the media" thing! Because Tina Brown told us last week her plans for internet moguldum involve a new website called the Daily Beast, and Bonnie Fuller confirmed she was starting her own new website a few weeks before that, and while Waxman is not, like the two other media divas, internet retarded — she has a blog! — she is a lady, and as with the other two we hope her venture, The Wrap LLC fails because we're sick of having new sites we're supposed to check on the internet. More »

1:15 PM on Mon Aug 11 2008
By Moe
9,275 views, 259 comments

Latest by LipstickLibrarian: @I.Can. Haz.Black.Editors?: This flood of comments may be overwhelming, but I'm sure you'll be used to the flow in no more »

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. More »

11:28 AM on Thu Aug 7 2008
By Nick Denton
14,085 views, 27 comments

Latest by krismry: We used to have periods at the ends of sentences but the smart set knows where they ought to go! more »

Television

MTV Buys College Humor Show

MTV has bought the pilot for a TV show from the gentlemen behind CollegeHumor.com. The deal is for six episodes, scheduled to air this fall, we hear. No word yet on exactly what the content will be, how much MTV paid, or what role supermogul and College Humor owner Barry Diller may have played in making the deal happen. But needless to say, it will add a much-needed dose of humorous frat-boy hijinks to MTV's current schedule of sober public affairs programming. [UPDATE: We hear the show will consist of comedy shorts, wrapped in a storyline, set in the CH office]. (Pictured: CH co-founder Ricky Van Veen)

2:52 PM on Mon Jul 21 2008
By Hamilton Nolan
2,577 views, 24 comments

Latest by Supercharo: @Bellyboop: Thank you! my thought exactly. more »

the olds

A Guide To The Media Methuselahs

"I don't want to die. I love what I'm doing," said Viacom chief Sumner Redstone on CNBC yesterday. My, what a positive and also extremely sad quote! Coming from an old, old man like Redstone, it's more of a last-ditch prayer to Father Time than a peppy statement of on-the-job satisfaction. After the jump, a complete guide to the top five elderly figures in media moguldom. They're a cast that could end up having spent decades in power—probably because the younger counterparts who should be overtaking them decided to go into the tech industry on the West Coast instead (except Nick Denton). May these old men all live, um, a lot longer: More »

10:29 AM on Tue Jul 8 2008
By Hamilton Nolan
3,766 views, 15 comments

Latest by Tattertotter: Diller still looks good because he continues to receive life-prolonging loads of 100% pure Aryan sperm squirted up his butthole more »

kevin rose

Digg Founder Says Rupert Murdoch Is An Old, Barry Diller Is Savvy


The founder of Digg.com talks about sitting down with the heads of News Corp. and IAC in an interview on Big Think. "When I sat down with [Murdoch] it was a hand-holding process," says Kevin Rose, whose site is reportedly now being courted by Google. "When I sat down with Barry Diller, he was telling me about my business...it blew my mind." Rose is also amazed by Al Gore. More »

3:03 PM on Mon Jun 30 2008
By Nick Douglas
2,446 views, 7 comments

Latest by Nick Douglas: I'm just mentally switching the words "Digg" and "Gawker" in all the comments. more »