Our lighthearted conjectures notwithstanding, it seems the Grey Lady is not, in fact, running for cover after Post editor Col Allan threw down the gauntlet yesterday by announcing that the New York Times is in Page Six Magazine's "gun sights."
Apparently, this all has to do with a sort-of boring fight about luxury advertising sales. And since boring is what the NYT does best, they were not about to be outdone. Quoth NYT Magazine's associate managing editor, Gerry Marzorati:
Publishing magazines that people — women in particular — want to read is not an easy thing when you've never done it before…So if, you know, I am in Mr. Allan's sights, I am not exactly running for cover.
Which is pretty much the Times' prim way of saying "Note to Col: Just because you happen to frequent the seedy underbelly of New York strip clubs doesn't mean you know anything about what women readers actually want."
Page Six magazine will debut re-debut next week, in an purported effort to compete with low and highbrow culture.
Says optimistic Post editor Col Allan: "The New York Times is as much in our gun sights as the Daily News."
When reached for comment, Times' disheartened Sunday op-ed columnists Thomas L. Friedman and Frank Rich promptly conceded defeat by immediately bursting into tears, burying their heads in their hands and quietly sobbing, "We're finished."
The conflict of interests in Lloyd Groves's profile of Col Allan extends even further. A tipster writes in,
The New York Post editor has many MANY (I mean like 10-15) emails from Lloyd Grove begging for a job here after he was fired from Daily News.
Apparently, Grove's emails went unanswered, and he had to settle for writing at a magazine whose demographic reads the Times.
New York is a small town, and the media industry is even smaller. Need proof? This week, New York Magazine has a profile of a New York Post editor written by a former writer from the New York Daily News.
Let’s get all the conflicts of interests straight in this profile of Col Allan:
• Lloyd Grove, who wrote the piece, used to work for the New York Daily News.
• At the Daily News, Grove’s assistant was Hudson Morgan.
• After Page Six writer Chris Wilson was ejected from the Republican Convention for spitting on whiskey on Morgan, Col Allan asked, “Why didn’t you punch him?”
Grove doesn’t waste too much time defending his former assistant (and current New York Observer scribe) in the pages of New York Magazine. Instead, Grove lets Allan disparage his former employer at length. In between, Grove writes the quintessential profile of anyone connected with the New York Post.
CONTINUED »
Note to strip club aficionado/sometimes editor Col Allan: It's never a particularly good thing when the best compliment Graydon Carter can bestow upon you is that you can "drink just about anybody I know, with the exception of Christopher Hitchens, under many tables." [NYMag]
And speaking of blind items,* we're kinda stuck on this one:
Which network executive tries too hard to prove he’s straight? He makes a show of chasing skirts in the United States, but when he goes to Europe, his preferences are decidedly more masculine.
Damn. Until we saw the words "network executive" we were convinced the Posties were finally breaking their code of silence about alchy Aussie Col Allan, or—as he's known in some exclusive (stripper) circles—"Mr. Front Row."
*Which we were, like, an hour ago
• Remember that time after Lindsay Lohan's second (or third?) DUI arrest, when a tearful Lindsay Lohan assured us that wasn't her coke sticking out of her pants pocket and, come to think of it, those weren't even her pants? Well, apparently some court actually bought it.
• Political consultant Roger Stone is axed by state Senate Republicans for ringing up 83-year old Bernard Spitzer and politely suggesting that his son is a "phony, psycho piece of shit."
• Feeling overworked and underpaid recently? Then, you'll be disgusted to learn that the dumb one from The Hills is banking somewhere between $10K and $20K a week. Even worse? Wounded Iraq vets are pulling in approximately $460. A month.
• When he lived above the CNN center in Atlanta, Ted Turner reportedly used to parade around the newsroom in his special post-coital bathrobe. Sexy time!
You know what's weird? When someone you know very well (he might even be your boss!) does something that becomes an international scandal (like, say, drag the future Aussie head of state to a sleazy topless bar, for instance) and yet, inexplicably, you refuse to publish even one word about it, or even acknowledge—on any level—that it ever happened. Like, at all.
Bizarre!
[Slate]
This morning was shaping up to be one of those days. You know, the kind where you oversleep, miss the bus, forgot your umbrella on what looks to be the rainiest day of the year and spilled piping hot coffee all over ourselves. [Ed: We think they're called "Mondays."]
So we were actually feeling pretty crabby until we picked up this morning's New York Daily News and saw that (a) they'd written about their arch-nemesis (and favorite pet topic!) the New York Post, and (b) they'd managed to simultaneously discredit Post editor Col Allan professionally and work the word "portly" into the article's opening lines.
• A-Listers and power-players converged at the Beverly Hilton yesterday evening. Their agenda? $2300 for one night with Barack Obama. Sexy-time!
• Scooter Libby trial moves into closing argument phase; Jossip moves into "we're already over it" phase.
• Deborah Norville signs enormous multiyear deal that prevents her from going "outside" Inside Edition.
• New York Post's top editor is suddenly reluctant to speak badly of their arch-nemesis, the New York Daily News.
• Fortunately for all, Post columnist Keith Kelly has no squeamishness whatsoever.
• Months after sustaining a head injury from an insurgent attack in Iraq, former World News Tonight anchor Bob Woodruff is still recovering. Which is almost as sad as ABC's decision to post X-rays of his skull.
• Sean Williams Scott walks into a gay bar … that's it. [Gays of Our Lives]
• You know Imogen Thomas from Big Brother 7? Yeah, us neither. But, this may or may not be her in a porno. [Fleshbot]
• The old (as in former) Fitness EIC jumps to Prevention. And in about three years, she'll move over to More. And after that, she'll take over Cindy Adams' column. [Ad Age]
• World News is no longer holding on to the Tonight portion of its program. [TV Newser]
• It seems that Bravo originally wanted the New York Post staffers to star in its Tabloid Wars. But Col Allan thought the Post had already had enough things on tape for one year. [HuffPo]
• Conde Nast Traveler forgot to read the news before sending over their "we're having a fab summer" memo. [FBNY]
• Do you have a huge crush on a media hottie? Can you even think of a media hottie? If so, you should totally nominate him for Cosmo's Media Man contest. (And then tell him about it, so that if he wins, he'll take you to Desert Springs.) [Cosmo]
• Soho House got exciting again, in only for a brief moment. The members-only clubhouse played home to the New York Post's editor Col Allan breaking up a fight between his managing editor Colin Myler and an unnamed Australian journo. Someone must've mentioned the New York Daily News got So Duku.
• It's only been out for three weeks, but the buzz behind Men's Vogue is loud enough that Conde Nast is already looking for a full-time publisher. Not that they've even given the mag a full production schedule thumbs up just yet.
• Between America's Next Top Model and Everybody Hates Chris, UPN might be ready to take on NBC. The Peacock lost the ratings race to Chris Rock's new comedy, which trumped stumbling Joey.
• Martha Stewart threw two screening parties for her Apprentice and, like a good host, attended the shittier (staff) one so daughter Alexis and MSLO CEO Charles Koppelman could attend the luxe Bryant Park display.
• Yahoo continues bolstering its journalist staff, adding full-time financial scribes just after announcing it'd pay Kevin Sites to blog from war zones. And you thought Google was a big media company player.
• As Disney says goodbye to its chief of two decades Michael Eisner, staffers might not even notice unless they read the company newsletter.
• Rick Kaplan may have problems with his male staffers, but at least his female anchors are getting raves. Joe Pantoliano has fallen for Natalie Morales and proclaims "the girls are better on MSNBC," compared to FNC's blonde army.
• Vanity Fair's Michael Wolff asks whether the days of the broadsheet newspaper are numbered, which begs the question: Are the days of Paris Hilton magazine covers numbered?
• And don't forget folks, it's Ad Week here in NYC, which means gift bags will be padded with small tschotkes, not stainless steel grills.
Editorial Director
