The Associated Press has been getting a lot of press of its own lately.
Along with its expanded Britney Spears and Heath Ledger coverage, the AP released a new pricing model that its claims will make its services cheaper for newspapers. Editors have a different read on the plan, and have protested the rate adjustments, which are set for 2009.
In a seemingly separate move, the New York Daily News decided over a year ago, before the new pricing model was announced, that it will cancel its AP service. Why? It’s in protest over AP’s two-year termination policy.
But the Daily News, which just made public its decision, isn’t exactly cutting off all ties with the AP. They’re still going to use the service’s election coverage. And Ed Fay, VP of editorial administration, says, "We hope that over the next several months we can negotiate to maintain our relationship."
More than anything, canceling their plan with the AP a year ago gives the Daily News the ability to actually do so a year from now. And with the new pricing plan, the Daily News might be happy with that option.
Never one to boast, the ever-modest New York Daily News has issued an understated response to the latest circ figures which (according to the DN, who fails to provide the actual figures) conclusively demonstrate that the Mort Zuckerman owned tabloid has "strengthened its position as the true voice of New York." And that's not all!
For the stunning 16th year, the Daily News reigns as the largest circulated daily newspaper in the New York metropolitan area, in figures published by the Audit Bureau of Circulations (ABC).
Proving that quality journalism will always win, the Daily News reclaimed its position as the fifth-largest newspaper in the country - reaffirming our belief that we provide the BEST local coverage of the world's greatest city.
And we couldn't agree more with their mode reasoning. If, however, the above writing is any indication of the quality journalism we can expect from the 16th annual circ leader, we'll be picking up the New York Post the next time we've got half hour to kill on public transportation.
Let’s take a trip in the way back machine: In August, Keith Kelly reported that David Bianculli, The Daily News TV critic, would not have his contract renewed after 14 years with the paper.
At the time, a source “familiar with the situation” told Kelly, "I assume it is a money thing. They'll probably replace him with some blogger who sits around in his pajamas."
In Bianculli’s farewell column today, he announced that he will become one of those bloggers who sits around in his pajamas. He is launching tvworthwatching.com, a TV blog.
Not having his contract renewed must have been rough. But on the plus side, now that Bianculli is reporting on TV for his own blog, he will have no reason to put on real pants ever again.
Breaking: The evil Mort Zuckerman has just fired the highest ranking minority at the New York Daily News, reports unbiased third-party, the New York Post.
Well, technically, the man in question (Guy Holliday, the News' former head of ad sales) left to pursue other interests and made a point of saying "Mort [has] been really good to me."
But still! Clearly there's elitism and possibly racism afoot! And who better to point that out than the newspaper run by man of the people, Rupert Murdoch.
The emphasis? That's all ours. The phrase "Ben Affleck [saw/watched] his beloved Red Sox lose to the Cleveland Indians?" That would be courtesy of a certain two-timing publicist—and a demonstrable lack of effort on the part of two of the country's premiere gossip columns.
From the NYDN:
First-time director Affleck ducks out of his movie's premiere. Ben's nerves? 'Gone.' Gone Baby Gone" could have described first-time director Ben Affleck, who ducked out of the film premiere Tuesday to watch his beloved Red Sox lose to the Cleveland Indians. (Boo-hoo, right?)
From the NYP:
SECONDS before the lights dimmed at the Cinema Society's screening of "Gone Baby Gone," the director, Ben Affleck, was, well, gone. "I'm going to go watch the game," we heard him whisper just before he slipped out of the packed IFC Center to see his beloved Red Sox lose to the Cleveland Indians.
Looks like the Red Sox aren't the only ones having a crappy week.
The next time the Daily News feels like running a "blind" item about a female tennis player, they might consider latching onto a less readily identifiable trait. [Mollygood]
As if the inevitability of overhearing someone else’s cell phone conversation on the way to work wasn’t exciting enough, soon commuters will have to pay more to do so.
Outside of the MTA, the upcoming 2008 fair hike doesn’t have many fans. Considering another hike is slated for 2010, isn’t a quarter a bit steep? MTA spokesman Jeremy Soffin explains why the fare isn’t going up a dime:
The limitations of technology would make a $2.10 fare extremely costly to implement and would provide a much poorer quality of service
Translation: Giving ninety cents in change would be too costly for the MTA, so New Yorkers have to pay an extra 15 cents a ride. The guy at our bodega uses the same excuse for charging $2 for a bottle of water.
[Daily News via Second Ave. Sagas]
From our mailbag:
Has the kow-towing already begun at the Wall Street Journal? Rupert Murdoch hasn’t officially taken over the WSJ yet, but some of the paper’s staffers seem to be falling into line. On page A6 of today’s WSJ, a story about the “ire” over Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s visit to New York, says the New York Post told him in a headline to “go to hell.” Actually, it was Thursday’s page 1 in the in the New York DAILY NEWS. As I recall, the post front–page was a self-promotion for the new page 6 mag and an a-jad story headlined “zero tolerance.”
Naturally, we're convinced this was all just an innocent mistake. Surely, the WSJ wouldn't have intentionally credited the Post with a Daily News headline! After all, that would be an extremely bizarre (and easily traceable) breach of journalism ethics. Plus which the Post's own "Zero Tolerance" headline was clearly much, much zippier.
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!)
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."
From the mailbag: "The Post has put a billboard outside the windows of the NYDN features department on the corner of 10th ave and W 33rd. It says 'Six Appeal' and shows the new P6 mag peaking about of the paper with the Page Six logo on the bottom right hand corner of the billboard."
When you think about it, it's not particularly surprising that acquitted murderer O.J. Simpson would decide to circumvent the not-so-infallible legal system and opt instead for the less conventional "robbing someone at gunpoint" route to recover some modestly priced sports memorabilia (a.k.a. "worthless crap") that he claims is rightfully his.
What's more astonishing, however, is that this time, Simpson didn't ditch the would-be murder weapon, hop the red-eye to Chicago, burn all the evidence of his crime in a giant burlap sack and vow to catch the real killer armed robber so much as allow the entire crime to be tape-recorded for posterity…and posted on TMZ.
Daily News tv scribe David Bianculli evaluates the merit (or lack thereof) in TMZ on TV:
[It's] all attitude, all the time, from Harvey Levin's hyperkinetic staff meetings - some self-aware stage business that serves as a teasing table of contents - to the stories themselves, which are paced and edited so briskly that some seem almost subliminal…And next to worthless.
And that would be different than Tabloid Wars, how?
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 »
Today's Rush & Molloy column proves the Daily News can't resist an opportunity to stick in a dig at the Post's (and Rupert Murdoch's) expense, even if that means stooping to defend divalicious jetsetter Maria Bartiromo in the process.
Fortunately, we love a good catfight! And there's nothing we enjoy more than watching two money-hemorrhaging tabloids duke it out over the arbitrary title of "Who Sold More Papers For Less Money This Year." [NYDN]
For the second time this year, a man living in SoHo discovered his roommate’s dead body.
In June, the man, whose name has not been disclosed, found his roommate dead in the apartment of a narcotics overdose.
But what’s one death for a two-bedroom apartment on Crosby Street?
The man found a new roommate, and this week, discovered her dead as well. She had been stabbed three times in the heart; her boyfriend is the suspected culprit.
Maybe it’s time for this guy to move into a studio.
[NYDN]
Okay, we take back what we said about the Daily News's Fashion Dish blog: "Perfect for gossipy tidbits that everyone else is reading about on other sites." This post makes it clear that Jo Piazza and Laura Schreffler aren't simply phoning it in. They're Twittring it in. And them girls are cat-ty.
Remember the other day when we told you how Whoopi Goldberg spent her first day on The View defending Michael Vick and casually brushing off his puppy-murdering tendencies as merely a "Southern" thing? Well, surprisingly, after the show, a couple reporters had a few questions for Whoopi, who explains she was just trying to bring everyone a "different perspective."
"Just so he's not this monster," Goldberg said. "He's a wonderful guy who was involved in something terrible. I'm not excusing it, I'm just saying, listen, I believe his apology … and maybe this will be a huge wakeup call to a lot of people doing this."
She's right, this could totally be a huge wakeup call! Especially for all those crazy Southern dogfighters who never miss an episode of The View. And, of course, for those plucky headline writers over at the New York Daily News.
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.
Editorial Director
