Gawker: richard stengel

Time Democrat Defector Was Not In The Tank, Says Other Time Democrat Defector

Hamilton Nolan — Tue, 16 Dec 2008 11:07:44 EST

Time's Washington bureau chief Jay Carney became Joe Biden's spokesman yesterday, but he's definitely not a biased liberal, according to Time editor Richard Stengel—an even bigger confirmed media liberal Democrat:

Stengel himself left journalism to go work on the presidential campaign of Bill Bradley—a liberal Democrat!—in 2000. Now he's back at the helm of a down-the-middle news magazine, naturally, because liberals run the media. With those credentials, it's impossible to doubt him when he says that Carney

“doesn’t have any kind of ideology.”

Really, no ideology at all? Was your Washington bureau chief a drooling child? Failure to embrace their own ideology is the single most annoying characteristic of media liberals. Own that shit!

Then again, Carney always had a reputation for being fair on the campaign trail, according to Politico's Michael Calderone, another member of the liberal media conspiracy.

Time Europe Layoffs: The Backlash Builds

Hamilton Nolan — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 14:01:05 EST

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]:

A tipster writes:

"The rumour is now that the Editor Stengel is going to leave and has completely turned his back on some of the magazine's most talented and loyal staff. He has made no effort to try and save some of the people who have spent years making the magazine the best at what it is some in very dangerous places. The whole thing is a complete mess. What everyone is wondering is who is doing the cuts and why. They make no sense.
The company is alienating some very good journalists and you know what journalists do when they get angry about something - they write."

The last bit is demonstrably true.

In addition to the aforementioned layoffs of editors William Green and James Graff, we hear editor Charlotte Greensit's job was eliminated, though she's expected to be kept on and relocated. Surviving senior editor Simon Robinson is expected to take the top spot in London.

'Time' Pretending Obama Won't Be Person of the Year

Pareene — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 10:33:53 EDT

Assuming Barack Obama pulls this thing off next week, we imagine we're due for a deluge of media gushing over our First Black President. No, seriously, it'll make the last two years look like a dress rehearsal. And it will all lead to a glorious crescendo of treacly nonsense by January, when Obama, secret socialist muslim god willing, is sworn in. So. That really makes it all the more ridiculous that Time editor Richard Stengel has taken to the YouTubes to ask "you" who should be named the Time Person of the Year. Every sitting President has received the dubious honor, with Bush II, Reagan, Carter, Clinton, and others all getting it the years of their elections. And they were all old white guys. So go ahead and email "NOBAMA" to Stengel and see how far it gets you if Barack wins Colorado and Nevada next week. A scant two years after naming YOU Person of the Year, Time is now just jerking YOUR chain.

Joel Stein Unclear About Why He Had A Hard Time Getting Laid As A Teen

abalk2 — Thu, 12 Apr 2007 13:17:20 EDT

The new issue of Time (the one that offsets the Imus Imus Imus coverage with a big "Black people: Why don't they play baseball anymore?" package) is probably worth your while—there's a really good James Poniewozik thinkpiece on, uh, Imus—but you will particularly enjoy the Joel Stein profile of Adam Brody, especially if you're one of those people in their twenties and thirties who think Joel Stein is "a god." (Richard Stengel, you so have your finger on the pulse!)

If Adam Brody had been around 20 years ago, I would have done a lot better with girls. Here's a guy doing the same nerdy, sarcastic, obscure-reference-laced Jewy thing, only instead of it just impressing friend's moms, as mine did, it puts him in PEOPLE magazine's Sexiest Man Alive issue and makes him the first boy ever on the cover of Elle Girl.

We're gonna go ahead and suggest that maybe it wasn't the lack of an Adam Brody type in the pop culture firmament that kept the girls away. Maybe it was more of that whole "I am such a self-centered prick that I cannot even start a story about a teen heartthrob without making it all about myself" thing. But that's just a guess. It could have been the revolting hair. —balk

[Image via]

Everything You Need To Know About 'Time'

abalk2 — Mon, 05 Mar 2007 11:35:05 EST

It's not just "Best of" week at New York. There's also a remarkably detailed report on Time magazine from Joe Hagan. If it's news to you that Time is in trouble you might want to read the whole thing; if not, we've distilled it to make note of the internecine power struggles and personal agendas that occasionally make a story like this worth reading. After the jump, your pre-chewed profile.

New managing editor Richard Stengel was brought into the Time family years ago by his predecessor, Jim Kelly. Jim Kelly can still remember when Time was relevant in the lives of the American people.
Lots of famous names got their start at Time: Walter Isaacson, Graydon Carter, Kurt Andersen, Maureen Dowd, Frank Rich, etc. Kelly, Stengel, and Isaacson had a beach house in the Hamptons way back then, and it was populated by up-and-comers like Michiko Kakutani and Alessandra Stanley! Also Larry O'Donnell! It was like some kind of print-age version of the Dave Zinczenko/Dan Abrams Pussy Palace.
When Kelly became managing editor he kind of stiffed Stengel, even though (or perhaps because) Time Inc. honcho John Huey was a fan.
John Huey likes bourbon, swearing, and firing top editors. As soon as he became Time Inc. editor-in-chief, he canned Kelly's ass. His list of potential successors included former Times ombudsman Daniel Okrent, columnist Joe Klein, Fortune's Eric Pooley, Newsweek's Jon Meacham, Slate's Jacob Weisberg, and Tina Brown, who, in our favorite "news nugget" in the piece, "volunteered herself for the job." Also, Joe Klein? Seriously?
Stengel auditioned for the gig with a three-item (this is what PowerPoint has done to the world) list that compared Time to other media. (Time's assets, unsurprisingly: knowledge, clarity, authority.) Stengel, having come up in the Time culture, proved to be the safe choice, and - bonus - a "fuck you" to Kelly.
When layoff time came, Time Inc. CEO Ann Moore held all the cards, since Huey had no natural allies left. He bent over and took it.
Ad sales started to die off when people realized that no one actually read the magazine. What could the organization do? Well, everyone was talking about this web thing, maybe they could do something with that!
Nobody knows what the fuck they're doing at Time. Stengel wants to be The Economist, but Huey doesn't; Huey wants to dumb down enough until readers will pick the book up again, Stengel is unsure. Apart from a redesign and amped-up web content there seems to be no strategy at all apart from "throw it up against the wall and see if it sticks."
Choosing YOU as Person of the Year was a remarkably stupid decision.
Hope that helped!

The Time of Their Lives [NYM]