Gawker: TV Guide

Layoffs At Forbes, TV Guide

Hamilton Nolan — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 15:31:13 EST

Not surprisingly at all, there are serious media layoffs today. TV Guide is laying off "up to 33 people," or 3% of its total staff. Also, Forbes—which cut chunks of its online staff last week—is laying off dozens of staffers as it merges its print and online operations into one. Read the full memo at Valleywag.

TV Guide Would Like Some Good News

Hamilton Nolan — Mon, 19 May 2008 12:47:35 EDT

One more thing that the good people who run TV Guide have to worry about: Henry Yuen, the company's former CEO, is now officially a fugitive. He was charged with obstruction of justice last week for destroying documents that the SEC requested (in relation to an earlier conviction for securities fraud, natch), but he failed to turn himself in. New owner Macrovision is already preoccupied with trying to sell the print magazine to rescue the entire enterprise from death, so they certainly could do without the headache of answering new questions about Yuen, who was fired in 2002. Luckily for them, this story is far too esoteric for TV outlets to cover. [Mediapost via Jossip]

Can We Interest You In A TV Guide?

Hamilton Nolan — Thu, 08 May 2008 10:34:45 EDT

TV Guide, one of America's biggest magazines, was sold a few days ago. Now it's for sale again! Well, not the parts of the brand that have some actual value (the website and the cable program guides and on-demand technology). Rather, new owner Macrovision is looking for a sharp business entity that would like to take the print magazine off of its hands. Cheaply, no doubt! And to the skeptics who might say that buying the money-losing print version of TV Guide without the accompanying web brand would be like buying a cow without milk, consider this: the new editor is looking to achieve "topicality and newsiness, urgency." By doing things like reviewing YouTube videos!

"There's more of a need for this magazine than ever, given the explosion in the number of TV channels," said Debra Birnbaum, a TV Guide editor who was promoted to editor in chief on Tuesday.

[STIFLED LAUGHTER]

The new TV Guide editor, Ms. Birnbaum, 37, has been a top editor of TV Guide, the celebrity magazine Life & Style and Inside TV, a short-lived spinoff of TV Guide. She said her mission was to continue TV Guide's transition to being an entertainment magazine and a critical filter for viewers overwhelmed by choices. And she said she wanted to include Web sites like YouTube.

Yes: because when savvy online users want to know what to watch on YouTube, they turn to TV Guide's print version. Not to TVGuide.com, which will be owned by another company.

Interested buyers contact Macrovision now!

The Death Agony Of America's Biggest Magazine

Nick Denton — Thu, 01 May 2008 16:14:48 EDT

The death of the quintessential TV listings magazine is a shabby affair. The rumor we floated yesterday—that editor-in-chief Ian Birch and other staff are being laid off—appears indeed to be true. The new owners, Macrovision, is thought only interested in the TV Guide's online and electronic program guides; the print edition is loss-making and may be shut down if a buyer can't be found, according to Deadline Hollywood. The magazine—which could not cope with the proliferation of programming in the 1980s and 1990s and further lost relevance when viewers began to use the program guides supplied by their cable provider—will not be mourned. But let's at least pay some respect to its history.

The title was an instant success when it launched in 1953 and at its peak in 1970, with almost 20m readers, its circulation was by some margin the largest of any magazine. In 1988, the parent company went for an astonishing $3bn to Rupert Murdoch's News America—one of the Australian media mogul's most disastrous deals, as it later become evident. The electronic operations and the brand may retain some value; but the print title is essentially worthless except as an object lesson for a publishing industry under assault by technological change.

TV Guide

Nick Denton — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 12:51:26 EDT

Anyone have news on the bloodshed at TV Guide in the wake of the merger of its parent company? We're hearing editor-in-chief Ian Birch, executive editor Steve Sonsky and managing editor Lois Draegin have all been dismissed from the TV listings magazine, but no confirmation. Email tips.

Media Bubble: Even Without Trains, There Is Still Media

Jesse — Tue, 20 Dec 2005 14:20:22 EST

• Bush summoned Sulzberger and Keller to Washington earlier this month in a last-ditch attempt to get them not to run the domestic-spying story, reports Jon Alter. [Newsweek]
• And, says Greg Mitchell, as the Times's handling of the domestic-spying story increasingly seems to be another major management fuckup at the paper, George W. Bush proves he is the true Teflon president. [E&P]
• Bigtime journalists aren't paid enough, argues Slate's Daniel Gross, who, charmingly, hasn't yet realized that of course we'll never make enough to live like real human beings anywhere in New York City. [Slate]
• Redesigned TV Guide, which now looks basically nothing like TV Guide, is doing great numbers. But they may not be great enough. [WWD]
• Carl Icahn, who hasn't been happy with Time Warner management in a while, ain't at all happy with the proposed TW-Google deal. [NYP]
• Radar published what might have been the best sentence of magazine writing this year: "In 2004, a man playing Pluto was run over and killed by a 'princess float' in the Share a Dream Come True parade at Disney World's Magic Kingdom." Plus Peter Carlson's other "wild and wacky" magazine moments from 2005. [WP]

TV Guide Conveniently Hands Out Pink Slips

Jessica — Thu, 17 Nov 2005 16:45:07 EST

On Tuesday, it was reported that girly celeb-ish television rag Inside TV was folding so that its publisher, Gemstar, could focus on the company's "considerable core assets." Gemstar also publishes TV Guide, but apparently that mag isn't included in the core assets: we hear that the company cut 6 staffers (running the gamut in position) from the struggling television bible on the same day as the Inside TV bloodbath.

Included in the TV Guide cuts was one longtime senior editor (for whom one of us has done freelance work) who just happened to be taking a six-week personal leave, starting next week, to care for her ailing father. Timely downsizing, that.

Earlier: Inside TV, Out

'Inside TV,' Out

Jesse — Tue, 15 Nov 2005 10:36:25 EST

TV Guide, as we all know, is dying. No on needs a weekly magazine of TV listings any longer. Solution? As of April, it was: Launch Inside TV, a woman-oriented celebrity-ish mag.

As of today, it's: Close Inside TV and instead focus on the company's "considerable core assets."

The final issue will be published Thursday, and we're hearing about 40 staffers will be out of work.

UPDATE: Gemstar confirms that the magazine's staff is being let go.

Gemstar to Stop Publishing Inside TV [BizWeek]

Media Bubble: Please Go Away, Maureen

Jesse — Wed, 09 Nov 2005 15:04:02 EST

• Are Men Necessary? is "a very odd, occasionally entertaining mish-mash of politics and sex, biology and Cosmopolitan-ology, gravity and wit, insight and carelessness." We don't care what it is; we'd just like to stop hearing about it. [NYO]
• And Maureen should go away for a while, too. [MW]
• Republican senators want another investigation of a leak to reporters. You know, because the last one worked out so well for their party. [WP]
• Anna Wintour may or may not be out to kill The Devil Wears Prada film. [Radar]
• Teen People lands racist teenie-boppers Prussian Blue, who apprently think — wrongly — they'll be getting editorial control. Isn't it fun to pull one over on Nazis? [NYP]
• Memogate producer Mary Mapes was right and everyone else was wrong, insists Memogate producer Mary Mapes. [WP]
• Less demand than expected for lunch with Rupert Murdoch. Which is fine news indeed. [Guardian]
• HBO documentary chief likes both highbrow and porn, and, likely, she'll soon snag Ted Koppel. [NYP]
• Apparently, Esquire had cool covers in the sixties. [MB]
• Meet Judy Miller without traveling to Sag Harbor — only $375! [HuffPost]
• As a kid, New Yorker essayist Adam Gopnik used to sneak out after bedtime — to read. Which is somehow unsurprising. [S.F. Chronicle]
• 135K paid users have signed up for TimesSelect. As if you can't get more than enough Maureen for free these days. [E&P]
• Anderson Cooper does the self-deprecating shtick well, too. [Philadelphia Inquirer]
• Prediction: New ABC anchors will be Elizabeth Vargas and Bob Woodruff. Peter, however, would have wanted Charlie Gibson. [Newsday]
• Because one is never enough, negotiations continue at the Times continue over another fired reporter. [Media Mob/NYO]
• No one wants to read TV Guide offshoot Inside TV. [WWD]

Media Bubble: It's Better to Live in the City Where You're Editing the Editorial Page. Who Knew?

Jesse — Tue, 26 Jul 2005 12:51:03 EDT

• Michael Kinsley likely to stop running Los Angeles Times editorial page. Displaying his legendarily razor-sharp analytic skills, Kinsley says: "This living in Seattle and editing the editorial page is not an ideal arrangement." [NYT]
• TV Guide to slash rate base, pull back on listings, increase lifestyle and entertainment coverage — that is to say, to become like every other magazine. [AP via Newsday]
• In terms of prison fabulosity, Judy Miller's no Martha Stewart. [Newsday]
• Two Source execs charged with attempted murder. Oy. [Vibe]