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Jann Wenner
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Politics
journalismism
Does Us Weekly Have A Secret Radical Leftist Agenda?
Is Us Weekly biased? That's what Fox News has been saying all morning in light of that "Sarah Palin, Governor of the Rhythm Method State" cover. But (in stark contrast to so many of the other things we hear on Fox News) we did not want to believe Us Weekly had a political agenda, mainly because, as with Fox News, we like to forget that whoever Us Weekly is targeting at is actually allowed to vote. But in the face of mounting evidence that the network might be on to something we gave the issue a thorough examination, and it pains me to report that Us Weekly is biased. So biased. You could be forgiven for wondering if the whole rag wasn't being bankrolled by a big gay homofag! (If not Hamas!!!) Here readers, the evidence: More »
celebrity-industrial complex
OK! Trying To Make Baby Pics Finally Pay
Kent Brownridge, former deputy to magazine mogul Jann Wenner and recent overlord to Maxim and Blender, is now general manager of the U.S. edition of free-spending celebrity weekly OK!. It seems that between billionaire owner Richard Desmond supplying famous-baby-photo cash and editors Sarah Ivens and the creepy Rob Shuter keeping sources fluffed, OK! needed someone to, like, sell some ads or something. Brownridge apparently didn't compile a stellar track record doing that for Maxim and company, which earlier this month squeezed him from his job, but as Shuter knows, OK! is fast becoming a miraculous land of second media-industry chances. [Post]
magazines
Rolling Stone's Size Issues
Rolling Stone publisher Jann Wenner just confirmed to the Times that he's shrinking the once-groundbreaking magazine to a distinctly ordinary format. And already, in that same story, the magazine mogul has allowed himself to sound insecure about the change. “I myself was kind of torn about it,” Wenner said. He's right to be worried. Rolling Stone's large format stirred a certain nostalgia. And not just among readers, as the Times noted, but also among a more important group: The celebrities who still trip over themselves to appear on the magazine's iconic cover, despite the fairly humdrum content within. That magnetic draw will surely be diminished now that the publication looks so thoroughly contemporary, and 1967 so very far in the past. After the jump, Wenner pulls off a similarly-self-defeating trick in a year-old Charlie Rose interview by saying the key difference between rollingstone.com and Facebook is that the latter is "kind of a teen thing." More »
magazines
Jann Wenner's Missing Accent
An associate of Jann Wenner says the Us Weekly owner—rumored to be ready to sell the title to a magazine group such as Condé Nast—isn't so attached to the celebrity weekly. It's vastly profitable but doesn't really understand the modern pop culture from which Us Weekly plucks its stars. The source tells today's WWD: "It's not really his world, not like Rolling Stone, a world he instinctually understands." But just how clueless is the 62-year-old former hippie, who founded Rolling Stone at the age of 21 after dropping out of Berkeley? His minions joke that Wenner's musical evolution ground to a halt some two decades ago. He's never quite figured out that Us Weekly staple Beyoncé has one of those accents at the end of her name. Wenner refers to her as be-yons, much to colleagues' amusement. One hopes he doesn't refer to his hoped-for buyer as "cond-nast".
magazines
Will Wenner Sell Us Weekly?
Last week Charlie Rose wondered if Conde Nast was trying to buy Rolling Stone. Now Keith Kelly reports that they're actually trying to buy Us Weekly, Jann Wenner's other, more valuable but less cherished property. The "price tag could hit $750 million," according to the Post. Which would give Wenner enough cash to continue running Rolling Stone into the ground for decades to come. Us does seem like a more likely target for Conde Nast, but the high price and the overall print market these days are cause for skepticism. And though Charlie Rose may have gotten it wrong on that particular issue, that interview's main benefit stands: it is still accurate to call Graydon Carter a "self-described pussy." [NYP, Previously]
rumormonger
Is Conde Nast Trying To Buy Rolling Stone?
FOLIO magazine spotted a juicy bit at the very end of a Charlie Rose interview earlier this week with Vanity Fair chief Graydon Carter and Rolling Stone editor Jann Wenner. Rose casually asks, "What's this story that Conde Nast wants to buy Rolling Stone?" That triggers a look of sheer terror on Graydon Carter's face, and a great deal of forced laughter and jabbering between the guests. We think we can hear Graydon saying, "We'll see." What it does not trigger is a denial. RS would certainly be a decent pickup for Conde Nast, but what the hell would Jann Wenner do with himself if he sold out? (Then again, Jeff Bercovici thinks Wenner's company is in a permanent decline, and he should cash out). Click to watch the clip, and parse the reactions carefully. [If you have any further info, email us.]
creative underclass
Rolling Stone Copying Perez Hilton?
We're hearing something fairly horrifying — that Rolling Stone senior editor Austin Scaggs is starting a "Perez Hilton-esque" music blog for the magazine next month. It's not clear how, exactly, this new creation would ape Hilton's crude celebrity gossip site, but the initiative is said to be an outgrowth of Scaggs' own infrequent Smoking Section music news blog. Jann Wenner has approved the project, but the magazine mogul hasn't provided any budget, so "Scaggs is hiring six unpaid interns to staff the whole thing—and they have to work 8 a.m. to 7 p.m., Monday through Friday" said our tipster. NB to desperate young intern candidates: Just launch your own music news site. You won't get to say you write for Rolling Stone, but you'll have no trouble reaching Perez Hilton quality levels, and at least you'll retain ownership in exchange for all your free labor.
series of tubes
Jann Wenner Invented the Hyperlink, the Remix
Oh god, Choire actually read the Vanity Fair "oral history of the internet." Why? Why did Vanity Fair take it upon themselves to do this? Mostly so that they could interview self-aggrandizing fools, apparently. DID YOU KNOW that Jann Wenner saw the world's very first "hyper-link"? Seriously, this is what he claims! More »
Us Weekly Bleeding Staff?
"Sources inside Wenner Media, which publishes Us Weekly, said owner Jann Wenner 'is going nuts on the budgets' - prompting some longtime staffers to look for jobs elsewhere." [Post]
party report
Arianna Huffington's new book — Right Is Wrong — is as partisan a piece of political writing as any during this political season. The subtitle says it all: "How the Lunatic Fringe Hijacked America, Shredded the Constitution, and Made Us All Less Safe." At Friday night's book party at the Chambers hotel in Midtown however, the divide between the guests was anything but political. The Greek-born polemicist has herself made a mockery of political convictions by switching so effortlessly from conservative wife-of-convenience to liberal power woman. To be sure, the tycoons she had assembled — Mort Zuckerman of Boston Properties and the New York Daily News; Les Moonves of CBS; former Viacom boss Tom Freston; and Jann Wenner of Rolling Stone and US Weekly — were quintessential rich liberals. But any Marxist observer at the party would note that the guests true loyalty was less to a political ideology than to their class.
More »
Limo Liberals Worship Before Their Nemesis
Arianna Huffington's new book — Right Is Wrong — is as partisan a piece of political writing as any during this political season. The subtitle says it all: "How the Lunatic Fringe Hijacked America, Shredded the Constitution, and Made Us All Less Safe." At Friday night's book party at the Chambers hotel in Midtown however, the divide between the guests was anything but political. The Greek-born polemicist has herself made a mockery of political convictions by switching so effortlessly from conservative wife-of-convenience to liberal power woman. To be sure, the tycoons she had assembled — Mort Zuckerman of Boston Properties and the New York Daily News; Les Moonves of CBS; former Viacom boss Tom Freston; and Jann Wenner of Rolling Stone and US Weekly — were quintessential rich liberals. But any Marxist observer at the party would note that the guests true loyalty was less to a political ideology than to their class.
More »
the gays
Gay Magazine Editor Not Completely Gay, Shockingly
Gay magazine editor Neal Boulton keeps pissing off certain gays who think he's just not gay enough, and now they've worked themselves up into a lather over Boulton's latest and possibly worst-ever attack on the gay community, which is that he's moved back in with his wife and the mother of his child. Also, he's taking his wife on dates, and might be hooking up with other women to boot, allegedly including the one at left. Boulton insisted he was "quite gay" in November after he was spotted spending the weekend at his wife's place and emphasized that she was "the mother of my children." But of course Boulton is shamefully not gay at all, as proven conclusively by an anonymous email to the website Queerty, excerpted after the jump. More »
makeovers
Jann Wenner Escapes New York To Play With Cows And Babies Upstate
Aw, Jann Wenner's all growed up and seemingly responsible and stuff! The Rolling Stone publisher magnate wrapped up a deal in December to purchase a Hudson river estate in Tivoli, NY. At the moment, Wenner's on paternity leave while he and his partner adjust to the arrival of their baby twins via surrogate. We're picturing Baby Boom-inspired scenes of Wenner skittering across the frozen tundra to make his burping shift, and the image pleases us immensely. But with this new upstate-refuge-plus-suckling-infants makeover Wenner's got going on, wherever will we go for our dose of raging grandiose megalomaniacal assholery? Oh, erm. For a second we forgot where we lived. Never mind, Jann, nest away. You know, until you think people have forgotten about you, when we're sure you'll execute a perfectly graceful re-entry into Manhattan's orbit.
thanksgiving
A Gawker Thanksgiving
Every year Gawker commenter and ad sales guy (and the best argument for abolishing the divide between editorial and advertising) LolCait has a super special Thanksgiving in his mind. There all of his and your favorite characters meet and dreams come true. This year Laurel Touby hosts. More »
media megalomaniacs
Jann Wenner Is Preggers! Jann Wenner Says He Is An Extraordinarily Talented, Prescient Individual!
Rolling Stone and Us Weekly owner Jann Wenner and his partner, Matt Nye, (for whom he dropped his wife, Jane) are expecting twins in January, according to Business Week's Jon Fine. The newest little Wenners will join his current army of four. But this party is just beginning—the interview transcript is something to behold. Some highlights! More »
gossip roundup
Britney Spears Will End Up Poor And Alone
gossip roundup
Britney Spears And Her Children Have A Nasty, Oozing Infection
Will no one step forward to edit Wenner Media's Men's Journal? The gig pays $300,000, but, of course, it also includes dealing with Jann Wenner. "The problem with the job," a source tells Keith Kelly, "is that you are taking it for the severance package." [NYP]
