Brazilian newspaper O Globo: What is it even talking about? The paper says "It's war!" because the New Yorker published an article this week about Rio's hellacious favela violence—right when the city's trying to get the Olympics. Conspiracy, clearly! Hey O Globo, the whole "It's war!" thing is what they were talking about. Duh.


We missed this yesterday: Mediabistro millionairess Laurel Touby's exit interview. "Exit" meaning, "She's taking a grand worldwide vacation for a few months, whatever, she's already rich." Laurel sez, "People are constantly asking me for personal advice or one-on-one help, and I've thought for a long time that if I just write it in a book it will be very helpful for entrepreneurs." Just don't take advice about email from her.


Yesterday was the NYT's annual "State of the Times" thing where the big execs stand up and tell the staff what the hell's going on and answer some questions. We hear it was boring. No final decisions yet on how the paper will go forward with its inevitable paid online content move. But Pinch Sulzberger did, allegedly, get off one funny line. Yea, video or it didn't happen.



Rachel Sklar is all mad because stupid Capitol File magazine headlined a story about Diane Sawyer, "Woman on Top."
Women. Geez.

A tipster tells us that there have been "dozens" of layoffs at Reader's Digest yesterday and today (and maybe for the past couple of weeks too, we hear now), possibly involving the outsourcing of the mag's web department. [Related: The company's bankrupt, and looking to move to cheaper headquarters.] Know more? Email us.
UPDATE: One of the laid off staffers tells us, "Everyone is basically gone. The top web person resigned yesterday...the other was laid off." The employee says there are as few as three people left running the RD website now.
UPDATE 2: We got this email from William Adler, VP of communications at Reader's Digest:

Reader's Digest recently (not this week; a few weeks ago) ADDED about a dozen staffers in digital at readersdigest.com... did not "lose" any; it's the exact opposite of what you wrote...

and there was / is no outsourcing... readersdigest.com is staffing up, and is going great guns with traffic, advertising, etc.

The digital staffers came to RD as part of a realignment of the CORPORATE digital group... as responsibilities for branded websites have been moving into the businesses. Highest profile among those who transferred from corporate to Reader's Digest was Jonathan Hills, who was promoted to General Manager, readersdigest.com — which we announced a couple of weeks back. Some digital staff also moved into Food & Entertaining, specifically to work in Taste of Home and our digital advertising group.

The corporate Web team is focusing on driving RDA's digital Center of Excellence and applying technology to build audience, profits and revenues. The corporate web team had a small number of layoffs at the time that staff transferred into the business divisions (not this week), effectively reducing its total size. The corporate team continues to be very important to the company's growth strategy and now reports directly to Amy Radin, our Chief Marketing Officer, and they are part of her global plan. Key Web heads in the business units have a dotted line report to Radin.

There are about 20 people on the corporate digital team now.

How soon will the layoffs be coming at Conde Nast? Maybe next week at some magazines, maybe weeks or months down the road at other magazines, according to John Koblin. So you really don't know when you might go! Always fear, Nasties.


The Village Voice has a long cover story this week about the newspaper industry in New York City, which we'll sum up as: It still exists. But it's getting smaller.


Another perspective, from the NY Post, a newspaper: The newspaper industry is back! Gannett's earnings are higher than expected, so investors are piling in to newspaper stocks. Upside: They're cheap! Downside: They will get cheaper. Just you wait. Just you wait.

[Additional reporting by Hunter Walker!]

Reader's Digest announced today that it's planning to file for bankruptcy and give its lenders control of the company. Being America's best magazine is worthless these days.


Ted Nugent has been fired as a columnist for the Waco Tribune-Herald after refusing to bow the the demands of The Man and refusing to "only write nice things about people." After standing up for his First Amendment rights, Ted will stand up for his Second Amendment rights, by taking his well-regulated militia to the offices of the Waco Tribune-Herald and killing everyone, with gunfire.


CBS execs make the point: Dan Rather is kind of making himself look obsessive and nuts with his relentless legal hounding of CBS. But, counterpoint: At least he is keeping busy!


So anyhow enough with that, how is Mediaite.com doing? "1.2 million page views and about 300,000 unique visits during its first month," according to managing editor Colby Hall.

The image associated with this post is best viewed using a browser.A journalist who wrote a "glowing" profile of the Milwaukee police chief also had an affair with the police chief around the same time. "Perceived you instantly - knew you were a good person who does things for the right reason...As a result, I began to struggle with the story - having to give time to vitriolic baseless attacks," she wrote to him, about the story. The reporter, Jessica McBride, also teaches journalism ethics to college kids.

The image associated with this post is best viewed using a browser.Boston Herald reporter O'Ryan Johnson has bee charged with "kicking a 74-year-old man with emphysema in the chest at a laundromat." And here is his actual Facebook photo which clearly shows him punching somebody, establishing his innocence.

The image associated with this post is best viewed using a browser.The hottest magazine company today: Meredith. Fitness, Family Circle, Ladies Home Journal, and More all posted big ad page gains in July, bucking the industry trend. Meredith: the hot magazine publisher. Not Conde Nast. Not Time Inc. Meredith. Glamorousness!

The image associated with this post is best viewed using a browser.Reader's Digest is remaking itself by becoming more conservative, if you can imagine such a thing. Rather than fill the magazine with content "considered cool by the often elitist and self-absorbed standards of New York media," they will fill it with more worthless crap.

MediaWorks: Why not try to turn RollingStone.com into something that has a much larger reach online that reaches tons of people who don't touch the print edition?
Jann Wenner: Why undercut the print edition? You're just going to undercut the print edition. There's a finite audience for reading about music. And they like the print edition. They find it valuable and on and on and on.

Wenner is, once again, not even pretending that the Rolling Stone brand is intended to appeal to young people, who tend to do their reading online. This is like that time he called Facebook "kind of a teen thing" — unlike RollingStone.com.

But presumably his strategy is based on a careful study of revenue flows, demographic surveys, competitors that sort of thing. Right?

MediaWorks: No favorite blogs or other sources of news?
Jann Wenner: You know what the problem is? Finding enough time to read and raise children is just like, whoof.
...MediaWorks: How much of Wenner Media's ad revenue comes from digital operations?
Jann Wenner: Honestly, I don't know.

Jann Wenner should be fired. Too bad there's no one who can actually do that.

...thousands of once illiterate detainees have learned how to read and write. Hundreds more are now studying math, science, geography, civics, Arabic, and English and learning carpentry, bricklaying, and other skills that may enable them to feed their families after their release. They play soccer and Ping-Pong, visit their families, pray, and debate how to accurately interpret the Koran they can now read for themselves.

...after monitoring and assessing the detainees, his team began separating the hard-core Al Qaeda and other militants from the 80 percent or more who had joined the insurgency simply to feed their families or because they had been threatened into cooperating.

The story is built around quotes from the major-general in charge of the prison, his friend/subordinate, a military flack and the major-general's superior officer. Arthur Sulzberger must be so proud of how Miller has bounced back!

[Reader's Digest via Huffington Post]

1. Greed: GIST all who followed the herd on Wall Street into the sub-prime mess. We could start with Stanley O'Neal of Merrill Lynch who walked away with over $160 million of investors' money after tossing Merrill to the wolves. And Charles Prince of Citigroup, whose chairman, Bob Rubin, had to go hat-in-hand to Dubai to get some oil money to bail out Citi after they nearly went bankrupt, got over $30 million to say "sayonara." Citigroup will lay off 24,000, increasing the government's unemployment insurance pay-outs and reducing the taxes collected from those individuals. GIST should include the golden parachute payouts, the houses, the cars, the boats, the Rolex watches, and the titanium finished Sub-zero refrigerators of all CEO's who played in the sub-prime sandbox.

2. Gluttony: Making Medicare or Medicaid pay for your diabetes because you overeat.

6. Sloth: Living at home with your parents after age 23.

7. Pride: Taking steroids so that your biceps would look like Sammy Sosa's. The steroid scandal is costing the U.S. mega dollars — hearings, special prosecutors endless discovery and testimony. And, of course, the rise of the role model as "cheater."

Stupid and Sinful: How America Can be Number One Again [Huffington Post]

As a former RD contributor back when they had a tech page — typical article: How to shop for a photo scanner so you don't have to fight over Grandma's scrapbook — I know what you're thinking: No one reads Reader's Digest. You'd know better if you had checked Wikipedia first:

The Audit Bureau of Circulation says Reader's Digest is still the best-selling consumer magazine in the United States, with a circulation of over 10 million copies in the United States, and a readership of 38 million as measured by Mediamark Research (MRI). According to MRI, Reader's Digest reaches more readers with household incomes of $100,000+ than Fortune, The Wall Street Journal, Business Week and Inc. combined. Global editions of Reader's Digest reach an additional 40 million people in more than 70 countries, with 50 editions in 21 languages including a Spanish language edition called Selecciones.

It's News to Me

Let's face it, the news can be dull. That's where fark.com comes in. They give you the real story, with their own twisted take.

"Study shows three out of four women would rather get a plasma TV than a diamond necklace." In other news, only one if four women can keep her husband from signing her name on surveys.

"Hundred-year-old who entered college in 1925 gets degree." Claims he had to graduate now because his dad was tired of paying tuition.

"IRS commissioner to head Red Cross." Says getting blood from people should be no problem.