It seems like only yesterday that I first set my alarm for the ungodly hour of 7am, spilled piping hot coffee all over my impractically thin sweater* and introduced myself as your brand new Jossip editor.
As expected, I was greeted by a predictable deluge of "Hello Newman" jokes, a litany of detractors and a relative minority of staunch supporters, whose generous praise – or at least intermittent approval – was only slightly undermined by their stubborn insistence on referring to me as "Corynne."
And while I had my share of missteps – an unnatural fixation on a picture of Hillary Clinton eating a sandwich, an ill-advised confrontation with a would-be heckler, and an overzealous response to a crazed Jared Leto fan – I prefer to focus instead on the brief, shining flashes of mediocrity. CONTINUED »
A Parting Gift For Nick Denton: "Whatever Gawker originally set out to do, it kind of did, and now it just feels over," departing editor Emily Gould tells WWD. "I would love it if it just fell off the face of the earth….I don't want to say the meanest thing or the most shocking thing possible anymore, because it gets so old and so soul-killing." And somewhere out there, a tiny man named Jimmy Kimmel is laughing uncontrollably.
Did you hear? Portfolio's senior editor, Dan Roth (whom EIC Joanne Lipman once poached from Fortune "with much fanfare") has now officially been poached by the Conde Nast mag's top in-house competitor, Wired magazine.
What's more, in the hours leading up to Roth's defection, Wired editor Chris Anderson (a.k.a. "the mean man who stole Roth away") had the audacity to show up to S.I. Newhouse Jr.'s annual holiday lunch and shove down food as though nothing had even happened.
Worse still? According to Matlock doppelganger (and fellow lunch attendee) Keith Kelly, Anderson "didn't even have that great a seat." Poor Joanne. When it rains, it pours. [NYP]
From the NYT:
"Gary Anthony Ramsay, a longtime reporter and a weekend anchor for NY1 News, left the station this week, days after calling in to one of the channel’s live shows under a false name and commenting on a news story, a lapse in judgment that Mr. Ramsay described as “a flash moment of frustration."
Strangely, Ramsay, who was not "fired" so much as he "voluntarily chose to leave immediately following the incident," was seemingly not given any props for having the amazing foresight to coin his Upper East Side alter ego "Dalton."
This just in, hot off the presses (or, at the very least, lukewarm): PageSix.com's newest hire is…none other than In Touch's articles director Kathy Campbell.
After the jump, Campbell's less-than-tearful internal farewell email to IT staffers. The best part: At then end, when she says "Please keep in touch!" Ha! Wait, is she kidding? You decide.
Chris Jones, the (now former) managing editor of Portfolio, joins his compatriots in running away from Joanne Lipman as fast as his little legs will carry him. Although Jones left voluntarily, his reasons for leaving are once more attributed to tension with the boss lady and the general feeling ill-at-ease that tends to accompany working on a sinking ship. Now, rumors persist Lipman may soon officially lose control of the magazine's website, a blow not wholly unexpected considering she's already unofficially lost control of the magazine's staffers.
If you work at BBC, there's a 1 in 9 chance you'll be unceremoniously fired today. Meanwhile, there's at least a 75% chance that you fell asleep watching the last four excruciatingly long documentaries you made about the Thames river. [Independent]
The exodus continues at Portfolio, this time with the news that contributing editor Michael Caruso's contract will not be expended past its 6-month expiration date.
Former Men's Journal and Details editor in chief Michael Caruso signed on last year as a contributing editor at large at Portfolio and came back as planned from a two-week vacation on Monday, but by the end of the day, staffers were told his contract hadn't been renewed.
Predictably, spokeswoman for the magazine was quick to chirp that the decision was mutual.* Either way, we're just glad Caruso got his paid vacation days in. Good news disguised as bad news is always so much easier to take when you're tan. Plus something tells us this time he's not gonna sue.
*(Which would actually make sense—seeing as EIC Joanne Lipman seems to like firing her most promising staffers and several other top-level writers and editors have already bolted for the door.
Breaking! Glamour's former fashion/style blogger once said something that was inadvertently offensive to black people. Naturally, the girl was promptly fired, a mere six weeks after the fact.
ALWAYS composed Cindi Leive - the Glamour editrix who presides over the American Society of Magazine Editors (ASME) - shocked staffers at a recent editorial meeting when she became "outraged" and "furious" at fashion editor Ashley Baker. Leive had just read a story in American Lawyer magazine, which reported that during a presentation in June to a group of women at a law firm, Baker had declared that "dreadlocks or Afros are a definite 'no.' "
As for us, we can't decide what's more shocking. The fact that Glamour magazine had a hidden follicle bigot in their midsts, or that editor-in-chief Cindi Leive is only "just" learning about all this now. Especially given that the story is six weeks old, and Baker blogged about the now infamous presentation the very same day it happened.
Former general manager of CBSNews.com Betsy Morgan will be announced today as The Huffington Post's new permanent CEO.
"Getting somebody like this to come to our site says a boatload about where the industry is going," said Kenneth Lerer, who has been acting as the chief executive of The Huffington Post and will move up to chairman.
And while Morgan's move arguably solidifies HuffPo's place in the blogosphere, it says even more about the direction CBS News is headed.
Actress/comedienne Maya Rudolph has dealt NBC a crippling blow by announcing that she will not be returning for another season of Saturday Night Live.
Rudolph, daughter of an African American singer and Jewish American composer, has long been one of SNL's most popular performers, and with Rudolph goes the show's entire ethnic presence (she is survived only by generic white girls Amy Poehler and Kristen Wiig)
Her exit will undoubtedly leave SNL scrambling to hire a more racially diverse cast find someone else who can singlehandedly impersonate Condoleezza Rice, Oprah Winfrey, Donatella Versace and Jennifer Lopez.
Exclusive:
After a year-long stint at Gatecrasher, gossip girl Laura Schreffler (right) is ditching the Daily Snooze in favor of a new gig as senior writer for OK! magazine, leaving the features managing editor (and intimidating Irishwoman) Orla Healy behind in favor of buxom Brit Sarah Ivens.
And with Schreffler originally slated to take a features position in the Daily News' Los Angeles bureau, some PR insiders are already whispering that some last minute "drama" and/or internal conflict was the cause for the split.
Schreffler is quick to dispel those rumors, however, insisting she left Orla and the Daily News on "great terms," and explaining "I just didn't feel that being a hard news reporter was the right move for me." (In which case, OK! magazine was definitely the way to go!)
Nobody at Bauer has any idea where those rumors about Life & Style shutting down entirely came from. But the Bauer dust has settled, leaving In Touch EIC Richard Spencer in charge of both celeb weeklies.
There's no plan to fire anyone at L&S, says a source there. That doesn't mean the climate won't change by next week, of course, but we're told both magazines will maintain separate news reporting staffs. Spencer has met with senior level L&S staffers already and, from what we understand, everyone is well-liked. At least enough to keep the friendly game of smiles going on in Englewood Cliffs. Staffers at L&S tell us they're "thrilled" and "so happy" to have new leadership.
Not making that list of well-liked, of course, is Mark Pasetsky, the now-former L&S chief who took the reigns in November to, um, our chagrin and delight. He was a "nightmare manager," says one knowledgeable source, "demanding to get stories that didn't exist." Well, yeah.
Senior writer Katrina Brooker ditches Portfolio after being offered a plum position that promises to advance her career and provides her with a lucrative salary boost her old job back.
Brooker, a friend of ousted deputy editor Jim impoco and former "star reporter" at Fortune, will be back at "her old stomping grounds" well before Portfolio's third issue hits the stands.
Still to come: an explanation from EIC Joanne Lipman on why exactly it is that "Portofolio" has already become inextricably linked with word "Exit." [WWD]
From CNN: "Aides: Craig was going to leave Senate, anyway." Of course he was! In fact, resigning in disgrace was already on Craig's "To-Do" list, just underneath "Get arrested for embarrassing bathroom sex romp."
President Bush on Monday said he reluctantly accepted the resignation of Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, whose "good name was dragged through the mud for political reasons," which is really just a diplomatic way of saying, "because Gonzales fired eight U.S. Attorneys and then lied about it…for political reasons."
Jeffrey Chu, senior associate editor at Conde Nast's Portfolio, is leaving the mag to join Fast Company. Chu's departure follows that of senior writer Kurt Eichenwald and deputy editor Jim Impoco, who recently left for various undisclosed reasons otherwise known as "Joanne Lipman."
From NYT: "Embattled Attorney General Resigns Gonzales Made Call to President Bush on Friday."
If true (and its already on Wikipedia so it just might be!) this means Gonzales will be joining the ranks of departing White House Press Secretary Tony Snow and the recently retired election winner/regime ruiner Karl Rove, a.k.a. co-founders of the "Let's get the hell out of here" club.
And while the official reason for Gonzalez's resignation is still unclear (unfortunately for Gonzales, Rove already invoked the "I'm leaving to spend more time with my son, and thereby ruin his freshman year of college" excuse) we're almost certain this has little or nothing at all to do with that whole "dismissal of U.S. attorneys" controversy Gonzales reportedly knows remembers nothing about.
One thing we do know? CNN is only just now picking up the story. Presumably from Wikipedia, who's had it up since approximately 8am.
Several weeks after sealing the deal to purchase Dow Jones Co. (and thus, The Wall Street Journal) billionaire Rupert Murdoch finally catches on that all his prized reporters are running for the exits. So Murdoch does what anyone planning to delegitimize a once-revered financial news entity and transform it into a mouthpiece for his partisan right-wing politics would do—he calls up three top reporters and politely "asks" them to stay. Needless to say, reactions were mixed, which is to say, "predictably split along party lines." Sez the LA Times:
Some journalists in the newsroom took the gesture as a sign of Murdoch's commitment to keep the staff's quality high. Others said it showed that Murdoch would take a hands-on approach in newsroom affairs despite a special committee established to keep him from interfering in coverage.
Personal politics aside, however, everyone at WSJ agreed the the "gesture" could be summed up in a single word: creepy.
Three years after Shelley Reinstein glamorously "dog-sat for Sean 'Diddy' Combs' dog after meeting him during the 'Vote or Die' campaign," the Us Weekly senior reporter (best known for her ability to get "close to" her subjects housebreak Bob Saget's pitbull) is leaving Wenner Media for a cushy PR job at MySpace, that may or may not involve a pooper-scooper.
Congratulations, Shelley! Communications is all about bullshitting anyway, so we're sure you'll do great.
Meanwhile, your timing couldn't be more fortuitous—we hear Pete Doherty's actually in desperate need of a cat-sitter.
*Featuring political "celebrities" such as Paris Hilton, who's (inexplicably!) still alive despite somehow "forgetting" to vote.
Editorial Director
