"They didn't speak to anyone in the Legislature, they didn't speak to anyone in the business community," said Lyda Green, the State Senate president, who lives in Wasilla, where Palin served as mayor.

Representative Gail Phillips, a Republican and former speaker of the State House, said the widespread surprise in Alaska when Palin was named to the ticket made her wonder how intensively the McCain campaign had vetted her.

"I started calling around and asking, and I have not been able to find one person that was called," Phillips said. "I called 30 to 40 people...

The current mayor of Wasilla, Dianne Keller, said she had not heard of any efforts to look into Palin's background. And Randy Ruedrich, the state Republican Party chairman, said he knew nothing of any vetting that had been conducted.

Also, McCain's people won't say specifically when or how they found out about the pregnancy of Palin's 17-year-old daughter. Maybe because they didn't really know in advance!

They probably should have just called any random house in Wasilla, population 10,000, because the love child was an "open secret" there, according to the Daily News.

The National Enquirer was chasing the story hard 36 hours before McCain addressed the situation, Radar reported.

And maybe Time knew, too, because just last week, before Palin was officially nominated but while she was being vetted, it asked McCain this question:

...And the question I got in the e-mail was: What does John McCain think of premarital sex? What do you think about that? What are your thoughts?

I don't have any response to that type of question. I'm running for President of the United States; write what you want.

McCain was smart enough not to fall into that little trap.

He was also lucky enough that the Palin news broke right when everyone was distracted by Hurricane Gustav in Florida and early enough in his presidential campaign that it's likely to be a non-issue by the time of the election. Some observers think it might even end up being a net positive for McCain.

Meanwhile, the hugely unpopular president's scheduled speech at McCain's coronation has been swept aside by the hurricane. And the candidate gets to go down to Louisiana and maybe make people forget about the big birthday party he had the last time New Orleans was hit by a hurricane.

Now all McCain has to do is convince everyone Palin isn't a secessionist and make them forget she helped start a group hilariously titled "Ted Stevens Excellence In Public Service Inc.," after the Alaskan who became "the first sitting U.S. senator to face criminal charges in 15 years." Should be a fun convention!

On one side of host Rick Stengel was John McCain, the Republican nominee; the Australian media mogul was on his other side; and Murdoch's New York rival, Mort Zuckerman of the Daily News was in the rafters. And the Observer's John Koblin passes on a rumor that McCain was hoping to bend the newspaper proprietor's ear at the Time party.

Murdoch is accustomed to pandering from politicians like the UK's Gordon Brown, but he's had surprisingly little influence in the US. A regular at 10 Downing Street in London, Murdoch has—astonishingly—never been invited to the White House, and only recently met George Bush. So much for the vast right-wing conspiracy of the liberal imagination—of which Murdoch is assumed to be such an integral part. (One assumes Karl Rove and other Bush aides must have dealt with News Corporation's Fox News through Roger Ailes, Murdoch's Jabba-like lieutenant.)

Here's the irony: it's only now with the acquisition of the Wall Street Journal that the 77-year-old media mogul is accumulating the influence in the US that he's always coveted and that liberals have long feared—just as he enters his cuddly dotage.

Everything is pulled from Twitter, specifically from the accounts of Brian Stelter, of the Times and its TV Decoder blog, and from MediaBistro's FishbowlNY.

Requisite "Celebrity X shorter than I thought" observation, let's get it out of the way (it is, after all, our mission!):

Smack talking!

More smack talking!

Your fearless future White House press corps:

McCain toasts Clinton and Obama? Civility is the new black??

I don't know what this even means, but it sounds interesting:

Schadenfreude...

...followed by defeated sigh:

Alright, so most of the smack talking was joshy intra-insider stuff, but it sounds like a reasonably interesting night. If Time is going to go to the trouble of staging this event, the magazine should Webcast at least some of it. The speeches, at least.

{Twitter/brianstelter, Twitter/FishbowlNY]

"Boo Japan"

"Fishing Fills The Hole In My Heart"

"The Evergreen Blooms"

"Six Is The Perfect Number To Express This Trend"

"Print Will Never, Ever Die"

"Cocktails: You're Doing It Rong"

"Not A Conflict Of Interest"

Hey, Time, were we feeling a little sheepish after last year's softie copout? Ooh, let's kick Brian William's suggestion of Mamasita Earth to the curb and get back to putting someone serious and newsy on the cover! How about a former KGB agent! Serious. Boring! But newsy.

The rest of Time's 2007 list feels a little more familiar: J.K. Rowling, Don Imus, The Jena 6, Radiohead, Britney Spears—Hannah Montana, for God's sakes. And of course, let's not forget Al Gore, who'll probably put on at least ten pounds this month just dealing with the fact that once again, he's runner-up. Always a bridesmaid, Albert, never the bride.

Time: Person Of The Year
Earlier: 'Time' Person Of The Year: Might Be Less Sucky Than Last Year?

From: [Rick Stengel]
Date: Fri, 7 Dec 2007 10:16:21 -0500
To: +TI-TM-ALL_TIME_EDIT
Conversation: Staff Announcement
Subject: Staff Announcement

December 7, 2007

To: TIME Staff
From: Rick Stengel

I'm pleased to announce that Michael Scherer is joining TIME as a political correspondent. He'll be reporting and producing videos for TIME.com, as well as writing for the magazine. He's done terrific work in his current role at Salon.com and he's certain to take those talents to even greater heights here. Michael represents the new TIME correspondent: adept on-line, on-air and in print.

Prior to joining Salon in 2005, Michael wrote investigative pieces for Mother Jones magazine. He's a graduate of Columbia Journalism School, a California native and another great addition to the best political team in journalism. He'll be based in the DC bureau, starting in two weeks.

Please join me in welcoming Michael to TIME.Earlier: The New Model

Now, in our defense, we recycle, we turn off lights, we don't even litter, which basically qualifies us as saints in this city. We have been known to, upon occasion, not completely tune out Al Gore.

Still... a Time rendition of Vanity Fair's "Green Issue" leaves us cold.

Former senator George Allen, who's been stumping so long he can put an audience into a trance faster than most, suggested General Petraeus "and the troops." Of course, of course, the troops too!

Ali seemed to be the only one who didn't make up her answer in the elevator; she chose French prez Nicholas Sarkozy. Hammy Brian Williams had some mic trouble; "No thanks, Whoops," he answered when the "View" host offered him hers. Is it just us, or are Williams' much-written about secret comedy chops on their way to being overexposed?

Still! We do give him props for verbally smacking the 41-year-old MySpace guy (whose alternate suggestion—surprise!&mdash was his new boss, Rupert Murdoch) when he tried to sound 15-years-old by saying he wasn't exactly sure what this General Petraeus guy was all about. (And he isn't even the MySpace founder who lies about his age!)

The real message in the news, "whatever that message may be," gets lost for young people, he thinks. Honey. AARP's got you on deck; you sound silly.

"My wife and I thank you," an almost misty-eyed George Allen said to a horrified Whoopi Goldberg, thanking her for "Ghost." WTMI, Senator, seriously.

And a slightly scary Post grande dame Liz Smith scolded the panel for being too upbeat, and TV chat-host Joe Scarborough, who is awfully tall, suggested George W. Bush. That did it for Whoopi, who then kicked everyone out. We thus leave it to you, dear readers, because other than maybe that "your mom" should be Time's Person Of The Year, we got nothing.

Date: Oct 16, 2007 3:25 PM Subject: To: Redacted To: TIME Staff From: Rick Stengel

After twenty magnificent years at TIME, Priscilla Painton has decided
to leave us before the end of the year. Priscilla recently came to me
and said she wanted to figure out "Act Two" of her career, and try
something new and completely different.

Before I say how much we will miss her, let me talk a little about her
"Act One." Priscilla has two qualities that are unmatched: her
unrelenting passion for our mission as journalists and the
intellectual rigor with which she approaches everything that we do.
When I worked with her in Nation, there was no one who could inspire
you so much to go out and find a great story—and no one who would
bounce it back so quickly when it didn't meet her standards. She cares
deeply about every aspect of the stories that we do—from the reporting
to the headline to the picture captions. There's no way to quantify
how much her passion and her standards have contributed to the
unmatched quality of TIME over the last two decades, except to say
that we wouldn't be who we are without Priscilla Painton. It will be
hard to match those qualities in the years to come, but her legacy is
that she's taught us all how to do so.

We will have a terrific celebration before she goes, and I promise,
the champagne will be good, and it will be French.

R.S.

Chicago Tribune: FEMA hid warnings on trailer dangers
Times Picayune: FEMA ducked trailer problems
Seattle Times: FEMA knew about toxic trailers
Los Angeles Times: FEMA suppressed health warnings
Fort Worth Star Telegram: FEMA blasted over trailer hazard
New York Times: FEMA Faulted on Response to Risks in Trailers
Jackson Clarion Ledger: Legislators say FEMA ignored travel trailer chemical woes
CBS News: House Panel Probes Toxic FEMA Trailers
Washington Post: FEMA Slow to Safety Test Toxic Trailers
Time: Did FEMA Ignore Toxic Trailers?

Oh, CBS. Missing the trees for the forest or something, really. But! Congratulations to the folks at Time, who don't know when to not headline with a dumb question—and to the clearly insane copy desk of the Washington Post, for whom the government can obviously do no wrong. Better luck tomorrow!

Time is going global. And metric. Starting with the next issue, we will provide both imperial and metric equivalents for distance, weight, volume and temperature. (We've been doing this for some time in our graphics. Now we'll extend this to the general text as well.) This will help ensure that one text works for all of our international editions.

In most cases, we'll use the imperial measure first and then show the metric equivalent in parentheses: five ft. (1.5 m); 170 lbs. (77 kg); 5 gallons (19 liters); 98.6 degrees F (37 degrees Celsius).

As always, editors should use their judgment. There's no need to convert every reference, particularly regarding sports (a 10-yard touchdown run need not be translated into a 9.14-m scamper).

Good luck (Bonne chance)!

The really big breakthrough is that editorial drank the Kool-Aid. The editors of Time Inc. really don't fear the Web anymore. The people who are leading the charge are the writers. When you realized that you could write online, and you would get thousands of readers responding, disagreeing, arguing, it was really great.

To: TIME Edit Staff

From: Rick Stengel

It's been a little more than four months since TIME.com re-launched with a new look and purpose. By any metric the re-launch has been a success. Page-views are up about 70% over last year, time spent on the site is up 50% and I think we can all agree that TIME.com not only looks better but reads smarter. We're doing well.

But not well enough. As good as TIME.com is, it still needs to be better. And it still needs more content, much more. A number of our best journalists are writing stories and covering their beats for TIME.com and the magazine simultaneously, and it gives me pleasure to single some of them out by name: Joe Klein, Jim Poniewozik, Karen Tumulty, Simon Elegant, Richard Corliss, Alex Perry, Bryan Walsh, Sean Gregory, Bobby Ghosh, Massimo Calabresi, Tim McGirk and Bruce Crumley. As you can see, this list includes many of our best traditional magazine journalists, and that's no accident; if you cover a beat or territory with passion and expertise, you can and should cover it any medium.

That list needs to grow. I sent out a memo last week about evaluations. Let me make this explicit: evaluations of every Time writer, correspondent, and reporter will be based on the quality and quantity of the contributions each of you makes to both the magazine and to TIME.com. TIME.com is a daily responsibility; Time magazine is a weekly responsibility. TIME is made up of both.

I suspect that some of you regard writing for TIME.com as an obligation, and not what you came to TIME to do. But times have changed, and we have to change with them. If you care about what you do - and I know you do - then you need to display your talent, your expertise, and your dedication online as well as in the magazine. That goes for editors as well as writers. Everyone should now have beats and areas of responsibility (Ratu has the list), and you should talk to Josh as well as your editors about what your contribution to TIME.com should be.

All of this will only make you better at what you do - and make TIME stronger. It will serve you and serve our readers, who can and should expect the same devotion to great writing and reporting online as in print. We are now both a 24/7 news organization online and the indispensable weekly magazine that we have always been, and always will be. We don't own our readers or their time - we have to earn their attention and loyalty every week, every day and every hour in a media landscape that is only getting more competitive. Let's go to work.

Thanks, Rick

The End of Time? [WSJ]

I'm a wire photographer and I was shooting at a red carpet. The publicists were on the phone with someone's assistant. The publicists were telling us to stay promising that a big, big celebrity was coming; we should stick around. Finally the ginormously tall John Mayer shows up, obviously stoned, surrounded by little, thin, blonde publicists in high heels. He wants to walk through the red carpet but he must not be photographed he says. The publicists all came towards us and started pushing the photographers into the bathroom as they held their hands up as he passed.

Once upstairs, and past a third red carpet—one which featured Joel Stein, grasping a Time 100 microphone, interviewing luminaries (including his boss, Time managing editor Rick Stengel, who had Cate Blanchett on his arm) for the Time website (for the young people!)—one entered the main room. Someone told a story about Matt Lauer—who was there with his once-rumored-to-be-estranged wife—making a beeline for Craigslist's Craig Newmark, who seemed confused that he was worthy of Matt Lauer's attention. Queen Rania of Jordan posed gamely for the cameras, and was saved by Mayor Bloomberg. Arianna Huffington told us that the Huffington Post's new comedy website, 23/6, was "going into beta" in the next couple of weeks.

We cornered Mr. Stengel and asked him about the quote he gave New York Magazine about Joel Stein, in which he referred to Mr. Stein as a "god to people in their 20s and 30s."

"People love him," Mr. Stengel assured us. "They search for him. He's his own brand!" Mr. Stein wrote a piece called the "Alt-Time 100" for the issue, in which he brought together Xzibit; Hugh Hefner girlfriend Bridget Marquardt; Ultimate Fighting Championship fighter Eddie Sanchez; krumper Tommy the Clown; Shear Genius contestant Dr. Boogie; "spray tanner" Jimmy Jimmy Coco; and party planner Glenda Borden for a lunch, and asked them who the people that mattered over the past year were. Later, Mr. Stein told us that he had asked 60 to 70 people to lunch, and these seven were the only ones who could make it.

Bill Belichick, the coach of the New England Patriots, told us he was not granting interviews. We heard that Julia Allison approached Martha Stewart and told her, "You've always been one of my role models." Mr. Newmark's girlfriend, who works in design for Banana Republic, told us that her dress was a sample.

At dinner, we were seated way up in the third tier, at Table 35 (out of 36), along with a producer from CNN, a Canadian gossip columnist, an American gossip columnist (ah, "media reporter"), a TimeWarner lawyer, and, in perhaps the most surprising turn of events of the evening, the director Whit Stillman. We pressed him for information about what had become of the actors from his 1990 film Metropolitan. The last he had heard of one, he told us sorrowfully, was that he had ended up giving guided tours of Toronto. As we ate the lobster tail appetizer, Mr. Stillman told us about his upcoming projects: a film set in early 1960s Jamaica, and an adaptation of the Christopher Buckley novel Little Green Men.

Mr. Stengel stood up to welcome the crowd, and said, "Is there a better place to be tonight? I don't think so!" As Youssou N'Dour sang, a video of images of Africa played on the large screens set up around the room. (Africa: Still hot.) Mr. Stengel said that the magazine had many discussions about "who is going to write about who." "Whom," hissed Mr. Stillman. "Who is going to write about whom."—Doree

Time 100 Gallery

Anatomy of a Washington 'Catfight' [NYO]
Eric Alterman Catfights With Ana Marie Cox
The 'Catfights' Of Gawker's Imagination [HuffPo]

Well, People, for one. The magazine won the "Outstanding Story" award for "Coming Home: A Love Story," which was, according to the internal email by John Huey to the staff, "a harrowing and ultimately uplifting account of a disfigured Iraq veteran and his hometown girl friend who remained committed to him under almost unimaginable circumstances." Mmm, Lifetime original movie time!

People also won a Deadline award for "Band of Brothers," the story of the men trapped in a coal mine in Sago, West Virginia. (The magazine's Angelina Jolie reporting did not pick up any awards.)

The Wal-Mart-only magazine All You was a finalist in the Personal Service category for "Look and Feel Your Best": "This four-part challenge to "Make 2006 Your Get Healthy Year," included simple weight-loss and fitness steps supported by encouragement and advice from women readers." Wow, what a novel idea! One that has been done monthly by every women's magazine ever in existence!

Time won cover of the year for a July cover: "'The End of Cowboy Diplomacy' cover makes its point clearly without ever identifying that little fella under the 100-gallon hat." Oh tee hee hee!

The dearly departed Life was a finalist in this category for its Heidi Klum cover, but even the judges don't sound so convinced of its newsworthiness: "The cover featured the face of the famous German super-model known as 'the body,' Heidi Klum. And in black and white, to boot. She was making news at the time—Project Runway was hot, and she was pregnant for the second time in 12 months." Heidi Klum is constantly pregnant! Project Runway is always hot! No wonder this thing folded.

Also, Entertainment Weekly won magazine of the year. —Doree

There was a 10 am meeting. On the bar where the food is sometimes served there was a whole pile of weird looking rock things. We all ignored them and went about our boring business. Then later someone discovered it was manure. Somebody had dumped manure in the conference room. But nobody even noticed. That's how dedicated we are to being boring.

Take my "prestigious" Time Asia editorial internship. This was during the summer of 2001, and I only got the job because my dad works there. Now if a summer in Hong Kong sounds appealing to you, think again. I was living on a houseboat during typhoon season, and the only way I could afford to eat was by running up my dad's tab at the yacht club on shore.

Looks like nepotism's privileges only go so far, eh James?

(New York, August 17, 2006) - TIME will shift its on-sale date to Friday as part of a larger plan to reformulate the magazine and TIME.com, effective January 2007, it was announced today by Richard Stengel, TIME Managing Editor and Ed McCarrick, TIME President and Worldwide Publisher.

Affecting all editions of TIME and TIME International, the move from the current Monday on-sale date is a return to the magazine's original Friday on-sale date established by founding editor Henry Luce in 1923.

Along with this change, TIME is launching a broader effort to redefine the relationship between the reader, the magazine and TIME.com as a continuous 24/7 experience. TIME will announce future changes in coming months.

Ed, what's the reason for the switch? "The new Friday on-sale date gives advertisers a tremendous opportunity to convey their messages to TIME's 27 million readers before the weekend, when consumers do the large majority of purchasing. And the fact that we expect readers to spend more time with the magazine and TIME.com is an obvious plus as well."

Well, knowing how long old people tend to spend on the toilet, this strikes us as an eminently sensible move.

Our congratulations go out to Ana. We can't wait for the inevitable "women in prison" spread.

ANA MARIE COX NAMED WASHINGTON EDITOR, TIME.COM [Time News Release, via Romenesko]

^* We're not going to bother with the whole disclosure thing. If you're that curious, try google.

If you read Romenesko, you may have heard about Jon Friedman, the Marketwatch columnist who dispenses conventional wisdom like a child molester dispenses candy.

Today, those two worlds collide.

Friedman turns his eye to Time (we can imagine him pitching it to his long-suffering editor: "Think about it. Newsweeklies. How can they compete with all this new technology? I bet no one's covered that!"). While paying it the compliment of calling it "America's most influential magazine" (which is no doubt true among those whose other reading experiences involve the back of a Metamucil bottle) Friedman notes that Time needs to shake things up, get dangerous, go where the kids are. You know: The Web.

Friedman, whose column photo contains a shit-eating grin that seems to be saying, "Can you believe I'm getting paid for this crap?" goes on to dole out advice that is so 1994 it should come with an accompanying Stone Temple Pilots soundtrack: "It would be so simple for news organizations to provide exclusive content geared only to online readers."

But there's more! As journalist Seth Mnookin notes:

"The American media are missing a good bet to attract greater numbers of readers" by "provid[ing] exclusive content geared only to online readers," he says. What an awesome idea! You mean like having Joe Klein write web-only columns? Or hiring Ana Marie Cox to do the same thing? Or maybe putting Andrew Sullivan's blog online? Oh, wait: time.com already does all of that. To be fair, all of those columns are buried on the upper right-hand side of the magazine's homepage.

Shh, Seth! Next week's column is about how websites need to be easier to navigate if magazines want to pull in older readers.

How Time magazine can stand apart [Marketwatch]
Amazingly, there are some j-school grads who don't have jobs [Seth Mnookin]

(Worth noting: Women's Wear's Sara James had it first, even before the announcement.)

Full release after the jump.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
June 23, 2006
PRESS CONTACT:
Perri Dorset: 212.286.XXXX/917.544.XXXX

MATT COOPER NAMED WASHINGTON EDITOR
OF CONDE NAST PORTFOLIO

Matt Cooper has been named Washington Editor of Conde Nast Portfolio, it was announced today by Joanne Lipman, Editor-in-Chief of the magazine. His appointment is effective in September.

"Matt is one of the most brilliant political minds in the business," Ms. Lipman said. "He has also been an inspiration to journalists everywhere and we are delighted to have him as part of our team."

"TIME is a great American institution and Time.com, where I've worked the last few months, a great site and I know they'll get stronger under my friend, Rick Stengel," Mr. Cooper said. "The company also stood by me, personally and financially, during the Plame case and I'll always be grateful for that. But startups are rare and the chance to be present at the creation of something new was impossible to resist."

Mr. Cooper joins Conde Nast Portfolio from TIME where, since April, he was the Political Editor for TIME.com. In 2003 he was named White House Correspondent for the magazine after serving as the Deputy Washington Bureau Chief. Prior to joining TIME, Mr. Cooper served as Washington Correspondent for Newsweek from 1996-1999. In addition, he wrote the "White House Watch" column for The New Republic, was Atlanta Bureau Chief for U.S. News & World Report, and was an Editor at The Washington Monthly. Mr. Cooper moonlights as a stand-up comedian and was named "Washington's Funniest Celebrity" in 1998.

Mr. Cooper holds a bachelor's degree from Columbia University. He lives in Washington DC with his wife Mandy Grunwald and their son.

...and Newsweek's Mark Whitaker couldn't be happier.

• Kit Seelye in the Times: Rick Stengel says the newsmags' battle with online news sources is like Henry Luce's original battle with newspapers. John Huey says he started looking for a Jim Kelly replacement in November and since then met several with Stengel to have "lengthy, Socratic discussions about the news and the magazine." The Time staff reacted very happily when Stengel entered the room and they discovered he'd be the new editor — so happily that Huey decided not to give his speech. "I thought, Why mess this up?" he said. "I'll quit while I'm ahead."

• Keith Kelly in the Post: Some staffers worry that Stengel — a longtime Time vet who has spent the last few years running the National Constitution Center — isn't enough of an outsider to bring the changes the magazine needs. "Stengel's an outsider, but he's only been outside for a cigarette break and a walk around," says one. That said, he's hinting at changing the mag's management structure.

• Jeff Bercovici in WWD: Stengel and Kelly had a celebratory lunch at Michael's yesterday, where lots of people sent them celebratory champagne.

• Howie Kurtz in The Washington Post: Stengel wants the magazine to have more star writers like Joe Klein and stronger opinions on things it's writing about.

[Time-Life Photo via Getty Images. Click on it to enlarge.]

Earlier: BREAKING: New 'Time' M.E. Is Rick Stengel

Can't wait to see HBO's historical docu in six months.

CNN [CNN.com]
Earlier: Team Party Crash: 'Time' 100 Party

Incidentally, Rick and Jim Kelly are the oldest of friends. They first met in John McPhee's writing class at Princeton.

Of course they did. How cute that you women and Jews* and gays in the running ever thought you had a chance.

Full memo after the jump.

* Yes, we know Henry Grunwald was Jewish. But, you know, one of those WASPy Jews.

* OK. We're told Stengel is Jewish, too. But, you know, one of those Princeton Jews. You know what we mean, right? No? Oh, fine. Never mind the Jew part.

May 17, 2006
To: Time Inc. Staff
From: John Huey
Re: Staff Announcement

Searching for a new Managing Editor of Time is a daunting task, especially when trying to find a successor to one as able and successful as Jim Kelly has been.

Well, the search has ended, and I am pleased to announce the appointment of Richard Stengel, President and CEO of the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia, as the new Managing Editor of Time, succeeding Jim.

Rick, of course, is familiar to most everyone on the Time staff, of which he has been a part on three different occasions. He was first hired in 1981, and has served as Nation Editor, Culture Editor, and Editor of Time.com. As a senior writer, he covered both the 1988 and 1996 presidential campaigns. Rick has also written for The New Yorker, The New Republic, and The New York Times.

I find him an especially exciting new M.E. because he has both the outsider's perspective and the insider's appreciation and knowledge of who and what makes Time tick. His intellectual depth and breadth are long established, as are his leadership qualities and competitive spirit. But in his stint as head of the Constitution Center he has gained a new appreciation for the skills and strategy required to harness the energy of an organization like Time and drive it into the future.

His resume is rich and varied. A 1977 magna cum laude graduate from Princeton University, Rick played on its 1975 NIT winning basketball team. As a Rhodes Scholar he studied English and history at Christ Church College, Oxford. The author of several books, he collaborated with Nelson Mandela on the South African's bestselling autobiography "Long Walk to Freedom", and also helped produce the 1996 Oscar nominated documentary, "Mandela." And he has been a frequent television commentator on CNN and MSNBC.

Rick once taught a course at Princeton called "Politics and the Press" then moved into the political arena himself as senior advisor and chief speechwriter for presidential candidate Bill Bradley.

Rick is a true multi-media editor who is approaching this daunting new assignment with tons of ideas, energy, and just the right amount of confidence. It should be an exciting period for Time, which is in the middle of a great run right now, having just won two national magazine awards, one for general excellence, and one for its 52-page special report on Hurricane Katrina.

A native New Yorker, Rick is married to Mary Pfaff, who is from South Africa, and they have two young sons.

Incidentally, Rick and Jim Kelly are the oldest of friends. They first met in John McPhee's writing class at Princeton.

Let's all welcome Rick back to Time Inc. once again and wish him the best in his new job.

J. H.

The full release is after the jump.

RICHARD STENGEL NAMED MANAGING EDITOR OF TIME

(New York, May 17, 2006) - Richard (Rick) Stengel has been named Managing Editor of Time it was announced today by John Huey, Editor-in-Chief of Time Inc. Stengel succeeds Jim Kelly who was promoted to Managing Editor of Time Inc. yesterday. The appointment is effective June 15, 2006 though he will work alongside Kelly during a transition period prior to that.

Stengel (51) will be the 16th Managing Editor in the history of Time since its founding in 1923 by Henry R. Luce and Briton Hadden. As Managing Editor he will oversee one of the world's largest magazines, with nearly 29 million readers worldwide and Time.com which draws over 3 million unique visitors a month and is growing over 40% this year.

"Rick is a true multi-media editor who is approaching this new assignment with tons of ideas, energy, and just the right amount of confidence," Huey said. "I find him an especially exciting new Managing Editor because he has both the outsider's perspective and the insider's appreciation and knowledge of who and what makes Time tick. His intellectual depth and breadth are long established, as are his leadership qualities and competitive spirit. But in his stint as head of Constitution Center he has gained a new appreciation for the skills and strategy required to harness the energy of an organization like Time. Under Rick, I expect Time will be as relevant in the 21st century as it was in the 20th century."

"TIME has a great mission: to explain the world to people," Stengel said. "We've been doing that for more than 80 years and that job is as important now as any time in our history. I am honored to lead TIME into the future, in whatever form we deliver it, and I believe we can take our mission to still greater heights."

Stengel has a long history with Time and has served at different times as both its national and culture editor as well as the editor of Time.com. As a senior writer and essayist he covered both the 1996 and 1988 Presidential campaigns. Stengel has also written for The New Yorker, The New Republic and The New York Times. He's been a frequent television commentator on CNN and MSNBC. In 1998 he taught a course at Princeton called "Politics and the Press" before moving to a very different political arena in 1999 as a senior advisor and chief speechwriter for presidential candidate Bill Bradley. Since 2004 he has been the President and CEO of the National Constitution Center, which is a museum, education center and think tank on Independence Mall in Philadelphia dedicated to teaching the importance of the Constitution and civic engagement. It's non-partisan and a non-profit chartered by the federal government, with a million visitors a year, a third of whom are students. The Center is dedicated to finding common ground among all Americans on the most important issues of the day, and it offer debates and conversations and dialogues that bring light to the most important constitutional issues that America faces.

In addition to his work in journalism and politics, Stengel has written several books including "January Sun: One Day, Three Lives, A South African Town" and "You're too Kind: A Brief History of Flattery." Additionally in 1993 he collaborated with Nelson Mandela on Mandela's bestselling autobiography "Long Walk to Freedom" and later served as co-producer of the 1996 Oscar nominated documentary Mandela.

Stengel graduated magna cum laude from Princeton University in 1977 and played on its 1975 NIT winning basketball team. As a Rhodes Scholar he studied English and History at Christ Church College, Oxford. A native New Yorker, Stengel is married to Mary Pfaff who is originally from South Africa, and they have two younger sons.

Time Inc. is the world's leading magazine publisher, with more than 150 titles that are read more than 300 million times worldwide on a monthly basis and account for nearly a quarter of the total advertising revenues of U.S. consumer magazines.

Time Inc. is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Time Warner Inc., a leading media and entertainment company, whose businesses include interactive services, cable systems, filmed entertainment, television networks and publishing.

Today's Observer says that news will come this morning; Women's Wear specifies it'll come at Time's 10 a.m. meeting, starting momentarily. So, who?

Mediaweek's Stephanie Smith and Lisa Granatstein said yesterday that the likely inside candidate is Priscilla Painton, currently an executive editor at the mag. But the Observer throws water on that pick:

Ms. Painton would, however, be a surprising choice in her own right: In a 2002 profile of Mr. Huey for GQ, writer Maximillian Potter reported that a Bronxville feud between Mr. Huey's wife and Ms. Painton—"over child-rearing techniques"—had ended with the Huey family relocating to South Carolina and Mr. Huey commuting home from New York on weekends.

Indeed, the pink paper's sources suspect think it'll be a splashy outsider. "I think they want big pop," a "Time Inc. insider" tells Tom Scocca.

In WWD, Jeff Bercovici and Sara James cover all the corners. Possibilities include, they say:

Time's own Stephen Koepp, Priscilla Painton and Michael Duffy; Kurt Andersen; Richard Stengel; Eric Pooley; Rick Tetzeli; Terry McDonell; Adam Moss; Jon Meacham; Jacob Weisberg; Michael Kinsley; Tina Brown and, perhaps most implausibly, former executive editor of The New York Times Howell Raines.

But they also quote Kelly narrowing that field:

Time is a mass magazine, and its primary audience is not New York," he said. "It has to be seen as a magazine that isn't unduly partisan in either direction. There are candidates that have made their reputations on being either highly New York-centric or politically plugged into one or the other party. With that in mind, it narrows the field somewhat."

So that would seem to knock out, say, Kurt Andersen, Adam Moss, Jake Weisberg, and Mike Kinsley. (Not that we'd expect any of those were serious candidates anyway, for a variety reasons.) Who's left? We'll find out momentarily.

Memo Pad [WWD]
Off the Record [NYO]
Time's Kelly Upped to Corp. ME

May 10, 2006
To: Time Inc. Staff
From: John Huey
Re: BIG DAY FOR TIME INC.!

WELL, JIM KELLY AND TEAM HAVE DONE IT! THEY'VE BROUGHT HOME THE FIRST ASME GENERAL EXCELLENCE AWARD FOR TIME IN 21 YEARS.

OF COURSE, WE'VE ALL KNOWN THAT TIME HAS BEEN GENERALLY EXCELLENT FOR A LONG TIME, BUT IT WAS SPECTACULAR TO SEE JIM UP THERE ON THE STAGE HOLDING THE PROOF IN HIS HANDS.

IT IS A FITTING TRIBUTE TO A MAN WHO WAS SITTING IN THE PILOT'S SEAT AT TIME ON THE MORNING OF 9/11/01, AND HASN'T MADE A MISSTEP SINCE. AND, AS HE NOTED IN HIS ELOQUENT AND MOVING ACCEPTANCE