Miley Cyrus has taken a break from leaking scandalous photos to talk to Seventeen magazine about her former secret relationship with Nick Jonas. Keep in mind the two are 15 years old as you listen to Miley rehash the greatest romance of our time:
Ann Shoket is not on the good side of Gossip Girl Blake Lively. The blonde starlet — tragically seen in the sequel to The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants — pops up on Vanity Fair and Cosmopolitan this month, but her cover role on Shoket's Seventeen has her pissed. Even her rep says she's not happy about it!
Except, well, this isn't the worst cover we've ever seen Lively on. In fact, we have three candidates that are at least equally terrible. CONTINUED »
It turns out Marie Claire's Joanna Coles isn't the only Hearst-y who's pulling double duty pushing real estate. Last month we followed the bizarre set of puzzle pieces that went like so: Coles put Tina Fey on the cover of Marie Claire to promote the actress' movie Baby Mama; the movie filmed outside 210 Riverside Drive, where Coles lives; an apartment listing for 210 Riverside mentions that Baby Mama filmed there; the listing is posted by Coles' own real estate agent (Hearst spokeswoman Jessica Pollack says "Joanna has no relationship and has never used Victoria Matus as her broker.").
And now a few other recognizable faces at Hearst are jumping on the trend, whether they volunteered to or not. CONTINUED »
Because attaching themselves to Web 2.0 is the only way to guarantee their survival, magazines near and far are securing partnerships with sites like YouTube. Haven't you heard? Web video is in in with the kids.
New at bat? Hearst, which joins TVGuide and the Tribune Co. as a publisher who considers crappy quality video their best means at brand extension. They're setting up "dedicated video channels" – a glorified way of saying "user account" – for a slew of their magazines. They've already got accounts set up for Good Housekeeping, Marie Claire, and Seventeen.
So just how well are they faring? Well, Ann Shoket's clips for Seventeen, which range from backstage fashion show footage to something called "Guys Talk: The last time they cried," have racked up tens of tens of views!
"Beauty Sale" has been seen 200 times! Coverage of the "hair" at Victoria's Secret's fashion show has a knockout 476 views! The biggest standout thus far? A nine-second clip from Gossip Girl's Chace Crawford telling you what time and day his show is on; almost 12,000 views.
Brilliant!
After the jump, Seventeen beauty editor Desi Gallegos goes backstage at the Victoria's Secret fashion show to talk about … eyelashes. How does this not have success written all over it?
Although we can’t always shake the nasty habit of writing in the royal we, occasionally one of our editors decides to shake off the cloak of anonymity to write a short, pithy statement long, rambling diatribe about a topic of their choice. Today, Debbie Newman is that editor.
If you're anything like us, then you most likely did not spend the bulk of your Sunday afternoon reading Page Six magazine and pouring over an interview with Seventeen EIC-turned-entrepreneur Atoosa Rubenstein.
Fortunately, Portfolio blogger Jeff Bercovici is a bird of a different feather. And thanks to his helpful/informative recap, we've learned that, in addition to biting the hand that feeds—er, fed her, Atoosa has also finally come to the realization that she is, in fact, a freakshow.
Having forgotten that college freshmen are over seventeen and using Facebook, Seventeen and MySpace are launching Freshman 15, a Web-based reality show. The show will follow the freshman years of 15 girls as they adjust to college life and presumably try not to gain the freshman 15.
Kids are growing up so fast these days: back when we were gaining the freshman 15, women magazines would hold off on projecting eating disorders until their readers graduated to Cosmopolitan.
While Conde Nast mourns the loss of Jane and Bauer buries the fetus of Cocktail Weekly, Hearst is stumbling through some problems of its own.
Atoosa Rubenstein's replacement at Seventeen may not be faring too well, indicates a well-placed Hearst source. Since Ann Shoket took over in January, as we first reported, she's watched as editor after editor has walked out the door while, as one tattler notes, she's "turned Seventeen into CosmoGIRL! Lite, packed with celebs, cartoonish layouts and fluff."
You can see where this is headed. CONTINUED »
• Seventeen launches a new online game called "Editor's Assistant," based on EIC Ann Shoket's real-life assistant. The game, unofficially dubbed "The Devil Wears Unlaced Converse Sneakers," is available here.
• Newspapers continue to slash classical music critics in favor of hiring multiple Paris Hilton vaginaphiles instead.
• YouTube continues to piss off greedy Hollywood types by airing copyrighted material on their site without having the decency to charge an overinflated premium.
• Interview lauded for being 1.5 decades behind the times.
• "If the internet is killing newspapers, why are they doing so well?" wonders the Guardian. Related: Crazy near-death Guardian reporters clearly in denial.
Last night was a pretty busy night for us. Instead of the usual blank social calendar, we had two separate and very different engagements!
Our first stop was Fresco on the Go, to celebrate 40 years of Fox Five at 10pm. (We wanted to make an obligatory "it's 10pm, do you know where your children are?" joke, but the festivities actually started at 6 o'clock. Bummer)
Anyway, all our favorite local newsmen (and women) were on hand, including Rosanna Scotto, Inside Edition host Deborah Norville and the bright-eyed and bushy-tailed co-anchors of Good Day New York. Also there toasting Fox's success was Fox News Channel chairman Roger Ailes, NYC Police commissioner, Ray Kelly, and former mayor, David Dinkins, who is best remembered as the mayor who didn't marry his second cousin or choose his own sprawling Park Avenue apartment over Gracie Mansion.
CONTINUED »
With a new editor in chief at the helm of Seventeen magazine, you're probably on the edge of your seats wondering what direction will newbie Ann Shoket will take? Well thanks to WWD, we have our answer:
"Imagine if you had four Red Bulls and a bag of Oreos and stayed up all night. That's the type of fun, caffeinated hyper energy that I want the magazine to have," said Shoket.
Which totally explains everything!
Naturally, despite not quite understanding Shoket's business model, the EIC of CosmoGIRL! was quick to respond that her magazine plans to revamp its spunk by throwing itself an uppers party, featuring "enough adderall for everyone!" followed by an invigorating round of Pink vodka.
Meet Ann Shoket. She's Atoosa's replacement at Seventeen magazine, and she's doing her best to win over the support of the tween population. And we think she's already well on her way, as evidenced by her cleverly orchestrated letter from the editor.
Indeed, in her inaugural introduction, Shoket compares starting out at Seventeen to her very first day at a new high school (which, by the way, is exactly like a cushy and extremely lucrative editor in chief gig!) And in the process, she manages to come off as fun and relatable, all while sneaking in a veiled snipe at her predecessor:
All I wanted was to fast-forward past all that uncomfortable weirdness to the point where my jeans were cool-girl sanctioned, my hair stopped frizzing, and I got invited to the good parties.
Eventually, however, Ann figured it all out. It was her frizzy hair that was holding her back! So, natch, she got her hair straightened, started hanging out with the Cool Girls and before she knew it, was heading up Seventeen! Now, if only a certain frizzy-haired former editor had done the same, she might still be partying with the media elite instead of holed up in her messy apartment, blogging about her traumatized youth and preparing to unveil her psychotic psychedelic new look…
A bit of good news for whoever is replacing Atoosa Rubenstein at Hearst's Seventeen: Readers are rich! With an average income of $60,975, Seventeen's little girls live in households where dad is more often a doctor and mom is more likely to have been smart enough not to invest in Enron, as compared to rivals like Teen Vogue and CosmoGIRL, which the 'Toos once edited. Now it's time to cue the rebuttals, with Seventeen's competitors saying household income isn't as important as how much time readers spend with the magazine. Boo hoo — we'll tell you when advertisers stop caring about dollar signs.
But the more interesting bit of info coming out of Mediamark Research Inc.’s annual TeenMark study is the average age of readers:
Readers of Hearst Magazines’ Seventeen also were slightly older than the two other top teen magazines by circulation, with a median age of 16.3 vs. 16 for Condé Nast’s Teen Vogue and 16.1 for Hearst’s CosmoGirl.
That is, Seventeen's readers are actually almost .. 17, not 12 and 13 we imagined. Hell, Seventeen's readers could very well be 19, if it weren't for the two-year-old readers who use the magazine as food and waste clean up who keep skewing the median.
• Annie Leibovitz shows us a side of her we never actually wanted to see.
• Yes, Bill O'Reilly gets invited to parties. If not many, at least the Fox parties.
• We find out just how sneaky Diane Sawyer can really be.
• Glamour makes it really, really hard to leave the house.
• Despite her visit to Africa, Madonna did not actually go there to adopt a baby. You'd think she would ever follow a trend she didn't actually start?
• We've had many heroes in our lifetime: Maggie Gyllenhaal, Strawberry Shortcake, Matt Drudge … yet, none of them quite compare to Shanna Moakler. She is definitely our number one right now.
• Us Weekly breaks up Jennifer Aniston and Vince Vaughn. Since nobody was really buying the whole engagement thing. Except Ken Baker of course. Yeah, literally.
• Who is this Little Miss Seventeen who thinks she has a chance in hell of both trying to sue Atoosa Rubenstein and getting a job in the media industry ever again.
• Jay McInerney officially retires Elaine's and Michael's.
• Betsy Burton jumps New York's ship for the new stellar start-up team of Time.
• The New York Times' Joe Sharkey goes through the hellish experience of being in a plane crash he may or may not have caused. And lives to tell us about it.
Oh, the internal conflicts in regards to commenting on this Page Six scoop. Among other things, Jossip is admittedly a friend of Atoosa Rubenstein's. And we think she's super nice. This fact, however, doesn't totally save her from our watchful eyes — especially when there are rumors of PR people "planting stories about her in gossip columns." (We really hope this wasn't an example of that. 'Toos, get a new publicist!)
Today the Post reports that staffers are leaving because 'Toos is a terrible, evil, person. (Not like any magazine EIC would completely side-step that description.) Oh, and, (did you know this?) she really, really, wants to be famous. And this desire for fame is a colossal secret.
One former staffer, who worked with her when she edited CosmoGirl, recalled one particularly odd editorial meeting.
"We were all sitting around, and Atoosa was doing a weird bonding thing where
she wanted everyone to disclose their deepest wish 'even if it was embarrassing.' " Rubenstein took the lead, saying, "I'll go first: I've always wanted to be famous!"
While are going to go out on a limb and say that this editorial meeting did very likely take place, we also speculate that the staffer who's dishing to the Post is obviously a bit disgruntled. Why is she so angry, we wonder?
Oooh, here's a guess. Maybe her big secret was "I've always wanted to be Atoosa!" and now she's an assistant editor at Weight Watchers magazine.
BLOODBATH AT TEEN MAGAZINE [Page Six]
Yesterday we told you how Atoosa Rubenstein was expanding the boundaries of Seventeen magazine by putting musician/teen crush Teddy Geiger on the cover of November's issue.
Now Seventeen is going back on the air, with the 'Toos taking a role as a judge on cult TV show, America's Next Top Model and offering up Seventeen magazine as a partner. This was a space once filled by edgy Elle Girl, but … well, obviously they weren't a viable option this time around. And while the show may well be a favorite of Seventeen readers, Atoosa herself was not so enthralled.
But the TV-happy Rubinstein was only more than willing, though she cannot claim to be a loyal fan of the show. "I'm not going to lie and say I was a big viewer," she admitted, adding, "What's really important to me has been how we can take Seventeen off the page."
Off the page? That could be, like, new slang. As in, "this new Cocaine drink is off the page." In all seriousness, though, this is one role for her you really can't afford to miss out on. Especially when she picks one girl to be the orchid among the vast sea of carnations that get paraded in front of her.
Not to mention the Tyra Banks/Atoosa combo — priceless.
Atoosa Inc. [Irin Carmon, WWD]
Seventeen magazine is reaching back into their bag full of surprises. After the disappointing move of asking Hilary Duff to guest edit the magazine (of course putting herself on the cover, and her single on Seventeen's MySpace page) Atoosa Rubenstein is pulling out another stop.
This one, however, doesn't seem quite as obnoxious. For the November issue, for the first time in more than half a decade, a (really, really, cute) boy will grace the cover of the mag. And which guy did they choose? Teen heartthrob and decent musician Teddy Geiger.
“It’s his first cover,” Rubenstein said. “I think it’s a little surreal for him.”
It probably really is really surreal for him. We doubt that while growing up, dreaming of being a famous musician, his dream was to appear on the cover of a magazine filled with hot green nail polish and advice about how to cure a yeast infection.
But now Teddy Geiger's non-dream is a total reality. We're sure his publicist couldn't be happier.
Cover Boy [Sarah Horne, Fashion Week Daily]
What's going on over at Seventeen magazine? First comes the news that Atoosa Rubenstein's tight staffer, fashion director Beau Quillian, has left the 'Toos' side. He hasn't lined up a new position yet, which makes us think this was a pretty hasty move … but the orchid of an EIC isn't giving anything away.
“We’re looking forward to figuring out who is the best fit for us full time,” she said. “Beau is my dear friend and was a critical part of creating the ‘new’ Seventeen. I’m looking forward to continuing our working relationship in its new incarnation.”
Meanwhile, we also hear that the mag's executive editor Leslie Heilbrunn – an import from CosmoGIRL, a la Atoosa – also left, to pursue her dreams of becoming a chef. Her replacement: Jillian MacKenzie from Allure. The reason for all the moving around? Hello, September is "promotions month," claims a Seventeen insider. Looks like it might also be, "take your former staffers off your Top 8" month as well.
Seventeen Minus One [Fashion Week Daily]
Earlier: Packing & Partying With Atoosa Rubenstein
While Atoosa Rubenstein's dip into reality TV yielded only one season of MTV's Miss Seventeen, the girl bible editrix is using the programming format to make another stab at boosting circ. We hear Atoosa has inked a deal with Tyra Banks' America's Next Top Model to slap the show's winner on Seventeen's February 2007 issue — the same issue, circa this year, that featured Miss Seventeen winner Jen. Normally in a case like this, we'd insist that February is your reality TV cover month — but Maxim already bucked the trend, proving any month is fit for a 13-minute celeb.
• Katie Holmes, once again, without child. [Mollygood]
• Amazingly enough, Dylan Stableford managed to catch something more boring than Lloyd Grove drunkenly blabbering away: Ian Spiegelman drunkenly blabbering away. [FBNY]
• What in god's name is Atoosa Rubenstein thinking? Hilary Duff guest editing Seventeen? We hope staffers aren't forced to come into contact with her and her massive bodyguard at the office. [TMZ]
• Yes, CBS is that desperate for you to watch their network. [NYT]
• Actual events worth writing about are still going on over at Vibe. It's no South Beach club brawl, but when 20 staffers get fired you definitely have potential for another magazine reality TV show on your hands. [Eat the Press]
The MySpace Seventeen merger is now complete. (As an aside, if one more thing that has already been announced becomes officially official, we are going to scream.) So, as part of their official announcement, Atoosa Rubenstein (aka "Big Momma") explains why it is so very crucial for her teen glossy to be part of the MySpace culture.
"MySpace represents a cultural shift in the way girls are communicating with each other," Ms. Rubenstein told Advertising Age last month before an official relationship was struck between Seventeen and MySpace.
"It's an important part of their lives so it has to be important to us," she added at the time.
So true. Back when we were reading Seventeen, girls only communicated through IM, three way calling, and shared stories of how they wanted to be anorexic and waxy like the girls in the magazines.
'Seventeen' Gets Its Own MySpace Page [Gavin O'Mally, Ad Age]
Atoosa's MySpace Profile
Editorial Director
