JOSSIP IN-DEPTH — We pay a lot of lip service here to the idea that magazines and newspapers are a dying breed these days. But how can you not? It's no longer just a conceptual exercise, like "Oh, when the Internet really takes off and everyone buys a Kindle there will be no more need for paper journalism."
Since the stock markets have tanked, and as the automotive industry began stalling thanks to rising fuel prices and less discretionary income, meaning fewer big ad deals from GM and Chrysler, which means fewer ads in mags, yada yada yada, it's become increasingly apparent the push toward the future of magazines and papers wasn't going to be a technological development, but a financial one.
And no, it's not been great so far. Ad sales are down, overall readership is down, layoffs are up, and in some cases, publications are straight up folding. So goodbye, New York Sun, Radar, CosmoGIRL!, and 02138! Meanwhile, online news aggregators are popping up (Daily Beast!) and flourishing (Huffington Post!).
Nowadays, you'll have better luck starting a blog about the magazine industry's implosion than you would have trying to start up a title in today's climate.
So what are the glossies that are currently in danger? Here's our own suicide watch, and what drove these mags to the brink of extinction (besides the obvious lack of tasty ad dollars):
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Vincent Gallo is that weird little bug-eyed man who made one good movie (not Brown Bunny), convinced Chloë Sevigny to S his D on-camera, and then tried to sell his sperm online for a million dollars.
Oh, also the dude loves Ronald Reagan and George Bush. Ironically? Who knows.
So it's only natural that Gallo wants to be taken seriously as a professional and will flip out if you crack wise about his apparel choices:
Steve Garbarino is Maxim's new editor-at-large and, until one day earlier this week, he was the editor-in-chief of BlackBook. He's since left that position, but his words live on, including in a blog post published today, which might actually be the issue's editor's letter, about that Los Angeles institution for the famous people and their wranglers, André Balazs' Chateau Marmont, otherwise known as the closet where Lindsay Lohan stores her clothes. Including the sometimes stolen ones.
You see, this is where the famous come to eat, drink, sleep, sleep with each other, and generally be creative types. Celebrities like it because, supposedly, their names do not get leaked to gossipy tabloid outlets while they stay there. Except they do. But what's the real draw of this place, tucked away off Sunset Boulevard? CONTINUED »
It's an all-out regime change at Ari Horowitz and Bob Hoff's BlackBook.
Earlier this month, managing editor Una LaMarche and photo director Shannon Hall took off. Publisher Joe Landry followed them out the door, with a gig lined up at old haunts Out and The Advocate.
And now Steve Garbarino, the magazine's editor since April 2006, is gone, but not without first securing his next step: editor-at-large at Alpha Media's Maxim.
Replacing Garbarino will be old features editor Ray Rogers, seen here, on the right, with his predecessor. [BBM]
Naturally, our first instinct when witnessing a wave of top-level departures is to expect massive unrest and patent unhappiness. Who hated who? Who backstabbed who? Who didn't love a glossy book filled with pretty people enough to stay? Tell us.
The conveyor belt between Out/The Advocate and BlackBook continues this week, with the hipster photo-fashion glossy losing publisher Joe Landry to his old haunt at the gay rags, filling in for Out publisher Jay Adams, who was fired this week. [NYO] Landry left the PlanetOut magazines two years ago. But this isn't the only example of high-level shuffles between the two. Out's editor Aaron Hicklin was courted away from BlackBook in April 2006; he's since been named the company's editorial director. Landry's exit, meanwhile, comes on the heels of managing editor Una LaMarche and photo director Shannon Hall leaving the magazine, and editor Steve Garbarino, who took over in May 2006, in a bind.
Meanwhile, Landry's move represents more than your average publisher swap. Out and The Advocate have battled very public financial blows, with declining ad revenue and a parent company, PlanetOut, that has looked upon fiscal responsibility as a child's pastime. Last month, the company was sold to Regent Entertainment for a glorified ad deal worth $6 million, putting the pressure on Landry to move ad pages even more intense.
BlackBook founder Evanly Schindler, discontent with there being only 184 magazines that could be described as indie fashion, art, and lifestyle, is starting Tar, a magazine from his company Tar Art Media that's going to be a "high-concept publication" that's all about "art, aesthetics and social consciousness." And because Schindler is taking everything Al Gore says at face value, the pages of the mag will be printed on a combination of recycled and "eco" paper, whatever that is. We're guessing this means each issue of the magazine won't be identical to the next, just like those John Varvatos tees that claim the treatment of each shirt is unique, so don't expect one to look exactly like the other, which sounds more like an excuse to dismiss quality standards than offer customers soft, cherishable cotton.
God bless the New York Post's magazine round up, which, like Mediapost's Magazine Rack and Slate's Other Magazines, saves us from having to actually flip through the two dozen glossies that get messengered over every week. (But don't stop sending them! We read them for the … ads.)
And since we will only pick up Paper for the photos, it's great to know their current issue features "64 More Beautiful People," which is a follow up to every single issue they've ever published. Interview scores a Madonna interview, that barely passes journalistic muster, but, well, it is Interview. In Zink, the "embarrassingly bad design and poor production values" get in the way of the "decent fashion spreads in the back of the magazine, but they are so much better than the stuff in the front that they appear to be from another publication. Unfortunately, the stories aren't much better." And in BlackBook, "the photos of [Janet] Jackson trussed up in latex and headgear are supposed to be provocative, but the S&M spread comes across as silly playacting, and the interview with the pop star falls flat." Good to know. We'll wait for that Us Weekly.
Congratulations to BlackBook EIC Steve Garbarino and new wife Maddy Simpson. And all this time we thought your canoodling at the Beatrice Inn was just a fling.
Since another state isn't legalizing same-sex marriages, our quota on GLBT stories requires an update on outgoing Out publisher Joe Landry. Stolen from Out by BlackBook (only fair, since Out stole EIC Aaron Hicklin from BlackBook), Landry is set to leave in March. And while some are glad to see him go, one tattler says insists "Joe was 'fabulous,' to use one of his favorite words. Let's show him a little love."
And by love, we mean the memo to LPI Media staffers announcing Joe's exit, from president Bob Cohen, which includes the following newsworthy nugget:
This week, we will announce the selection of a new creative director for OUT and a design consultant for the redesign of The Advocate. Plus, we have already launched a wide recruiting effort to bring in a new group publisher for our print division. Stay tuned for further developments.
In the biggest staff shakeup since Aaron Hicklin took over Out – the gay magazine with straight people on the cover – exclusive word arrives from fagala cousin Queerty that publisher Joe Landry is out the door. And he's headed for BlackBook. You know, the magazine where Hicklin was just editor.
But from what we understand, his exit was a long time coming.
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• Good Morning America is once again biting at the heels of Today.
• After canceling the O.J. Simpson special, it doesn't make much sense for Fox to have reality programming chief Mike Darnell sit on a National Association of Television Programming Executives panel in January.
• Fox News bestows Keith Olbermann the high esteem of "Turkey of the Year." But we all know how Decemeber superlatives turn out.
• U.S. Supreme Court says NYT must hand over phone records of two reporters. Not so interested in their YouTube clip viewing data.
• The deets on MSNBC anchor Alison Stewart's wedding to the network's primetime programming VP Bill Wolff make no mention whether guest Tucker Carlson spent the night Dancing.
• First CNN Pipeline asks you to cough up the bucks for exclusive video. Now CNBC Plus wants to charge you a monthly fee to watch the network — right on your desktop!
• BlackBook editor Steve Gabarino is exactly what you'd expect when you hear the term "microeditor."
• BlackBook to go monthly. Steve Garbarino to cut cheques for unpaid writers. Quality over quantity. Clearly, this isn't the BlackBook we know and love. [Radar]
• It's probably not the first time Men's Health honcho Dave Zinczenko freaked out when he found a dead blonde on the floor. [P6]
• The Brad Pitt v. Vanity Fair saga is much ado about nothing. Except Brad Pitt's inability to control who puts his washboard abs on their magazine. [WWD]
• While more suitors have lined up for Time Inc.'s 18 title fire sale, the price tag may have dropped by a hundred mil. [Media Ink]
• Conde Nast shutters W Jewelry. Patek Philippe sings a sorrow song. [WWD]
For all its devotion to making readers feel like they're living in a world of indie glam, BlackBook isn't doing much to help its writers live that same dream. A bevy of BlackBook scribes are owed back payments on pieces written long ago — with some due payments in the four-figure range. No, these aren't Michael-Wolff-for-Vanity-Fair sums, but they are pay-Time-Warner-on-time-so-you-can-keep-a-blog-going fees. While we could laugh all afternoon at the excuses given for why checks weren't being sent – "we lost your contract" and "the check signer isn't here right now" – it's about time that the finger pointing begins, with current chief Steve Garbarino (perhaps rightly so) blaming past editors for stiffing the help, while Garbarino predecessor Aaron Hicklin (now EIC of Out) saying he fell into the problem when his tenure began. So who's to blame? The 8-ball signals Ari Horowitz and Eric Gertler, who took control of the magazine in 2005 from founder Evan Schindler. The twosome, who now own Vibe as of July, are said to be notorious for living the lifestyle in their glossy pages, but doing little to pay for the infrastructure. While it's clear we have the opportunity to make both Jewish and black jokes, we're not such an easy lay. Let's just attribute Ari and Eric's faults to being stingy and lazy.
TRENDY MAG STIFFS ITS WRITERS [Page Six]
Shortly after Aaron Hicklin left the top job at BlackBook for the gayer pastures at Out, the editor-in-chief position has been held by Steve Garbarino. And Steve's No. 2? That would be senior editor-cum-"acting editor" (for one issue: the 10th anniversary issue) Jordan Heller. But now, we hear, the staffing marathon at Radar – which is beginning to give Portfolio's Joanne Lipman some stiff competition in masthead manning – continues with Heller jumping ship and enlisting as online features editor for Maer Roshan's third stab. Heller begins slingin' slander with Chris Tennant, Aaron Gell, and Jeff Bercovici on October 16. Here's to hoping he knows how to use Google.
(Photo: Nikola Tamindzic/Gawker)
Jared Paul Stern is not giving up on the media industry quite yet — and it certainly isn't giving up on him. The former Page Six scribe who brought scandal to the page (and the world of gossip at large) was just brought on by BlackBook's Steve Garbarino to contribute to the Books section.
There are embers of life yet in the smoking ruin that is Jared Paul Stern's journalistic career. The alleged Page Six extortionist (and onetime Radar contributor) has been hired as books editor of BlackBook magazine.
Seems like a good fit for Stern, who edited the Books section at the New York Post and is a contributing editor at the similar fashion-y life style mag Zink. We asked JPS about his thoughts on joining one of favorite party scene pubs. Of course, he includes a promotional plug … but that's how we get people to talk to us.
Steve Garbarino, the new BB editor, is a brilliant editor and a true friend in this town full of men with big mouths and no guts…
I'm also working on my own book and skull & bones. and getting ready to sue me some billionaires. They should all be rounded up and shot.
And we just hope Stern isn't going to take it upon himself to conduct the execution! Honestly, we've never had such a justification for being broke.
Stern Finds Redemption [Jeff Bercovici, Radar, 2nd Item]
• The Haley Joel Osment headline we can't believe we didn't think of: "I see handcuffs." [AP]
• BlackBook welcomes James Frey with open arms. (We're also not convinced that BB fact-checks more than the NYT does.) [WWD]
• Is Suri is a runt baby? Is that what's wrong with her? We'll find out once VF runs their 21 hours of photography. [MollyGood]
• Roger Ebert writes a letter about his spit cancer. It's more information than you would ever want to know. [Roger Ebert]
• If the people making the cigarettes tell you not to smoke, will you listen? Probbly not. But we bet calling them "high cal" instead of "light" would do the trick. [Media Week]
Cut Keith Kelly some slack — like a smarty media type, he's been on holiday. So forgive him on being late to the Vibe sale – sure, the news of which broke at the end of last month – but at least he's got some new details. For starters, EIC Mimi Valdez is out as expected, replaced by Danyel Smith, who headed things up till '99. Meanwhile, just before the holiday, slashings on both the editorial and business side cut up the masthead. And Quincy Jones, who we loved through all of his Fresh Prince of Bel-Air cameos, is done with the magazine for good. All of these changes were handed down by new buyer Wicks Media, which also publishes BlackBook. Funny, 'cause now they actually publish the black book.
GOOD VIBE FOR MAG AS BUYER SIGNS ON [Keith Kelly, NYP]
Earlier: This 'Vibe' Too Vibealacious For Ya, Mimi
Editorial Director
