At right is an easy-to-read graph that shows the year-over-year change in newsstand sales for a half dozen celebrity tabloids. (Where, oh where, is Hip Hop Weekly?!) What you'll notice, in addition to OK!'s nearly 20 percent jump forward, is the decline of Englewood Cliffs-based Bauer's In Touch and Life & Style, which look to the newsstand for an enormous 90 percent of total sales (versus home subscriptions, for instance). It also explains why Bauer is being forced to lower its advertiser rate base, reports WSJ. Having missed its 1 million copy promise more than half of the year, according to ABC data, the new rate base will be 800,000; Life & Style missed its 550,000 rate base two out of every three issues, and will lower its guarantee to 400,000. Supposedly, the lowered forecasts are evidence that even with the doom-and-gloom economy, Americans are not turning to escapist fare like tabloids. More accurately, however, we would surmise circulation numbers across the weeklies are so over inflated, this is just some correction setting. Or maybe it's just a result of shitty (now fired) marketers?
For the third (fourth?) time, Michael Phelps, the Greatest Olympian of All Time Forever and Ever From Here To Eternity, hits the cover of Sports Illustrated, mimicking Mark Spitz's 1972 pose. Except Spitz's medals were draped with gold chains — Phelp's gold is draped with ribbons, given him an unfortunate hoochie top/teddy look. But hey, it's stuff like this that gets all the women watching the Olympics, isn't it?
ESPN The Magazine, aka that sports magazine launched by that sports channel, is getting its own site. ESPNthemag.com had a soft launch on Friday.
The magazine’s executive of multimedia, Robbyn Footlick, described the site like a TV network, with “lunchtime programming.” That’s all well and good, but it wouldn't have been cheaper for ESPN The Magazine to just siphon off of ESPN’s actual lunchtime programming?
Even Sports Illustrated’s website is part of the CNN network. This means that ESPN either made a very costly mistake of splitting up their brands, or they have the ridunklous money and patience to wait for ESPN The Magazine to come into its own.
Rick Reilly was making crazy money at Sports Illustrated, but when ESPN offered him money that was, in his words, "ridunklous" he left.
And because of a non-compete clause, Reilly is just hanging out until June 1, getting paid by ESPN for just being him. And what has he been up to? Living the life:
"I just got back from three weeks in Argentina," Reilly says, "and I'm fixing to go to Tahiti, Thailand, New Zealand, Cabo, Europe. I'm going to drink coffee, play the piano, get up, have breakfast, go back to bed and read, and forget the job. They call it a no-compete clause. I call it bliss."
… Reilly is "reading all the books I ditched out on in high school — like Nabokov, who I'd never read before" and adding to his frequent-flier miles. He'll continue doing so for the better part of four months, all the while collecting a massive salary simply for being him.
The jocks win again.
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We at Jossip don't really care about sports, but we do think ESPN is doing awesome things for sports journalists. We talked to Rob King, the editor-in-chief of ESPN.com to talk about investing in writing, fan expectation and how his son wants an elevator for his birthday.
ESPN seems to be aggressive in pursuing top-notch journalists over the past few months. So what's up with that?
It's something that has been going on for a long time. If you look at some of the people who make decisions here, they come from newspapers, magazines like Rolling Stone, Sports Illustrated. Vince Doria, who oversees our news coverage, is a longtime newspaper man. … It seems to be happening a condensed burst. Rick Reilly is a big enough name that it has generated more attention to what we're doing. But the truth of the matter is that we've long been involved with trying to find the best sports journalists we can. I'm happy recipient of that kind of attention myself. I was in newspapers for more than 20 years. I was working at the Philadelphia Inquirer when ESPN came and made me an offer I couldn't refuse. CONTINUED »
BREAKING Famous male athletes enjoy sleeping with attractive women: Andy Roddick is dating Sports Illustrated model, Brooklyn Decker. [The Big Lead]
Rick Reilly Is Really Rich Rumors that Rick Reilly will be making $2 mil at ESPN were apparently low. Not relative to our salary, but to his. New sources have him at $17 million over the next five years, or $3.4 million a year. Cha-ching! [Silicon Alley Insider]
Sometimes I just have to say, “what the fuck?” "awesome" and the royal we doesn’t work as well. These are my thoughts—raronauer
I find a lot objectionable about the business of America media today. There’s no money for serious journalism, and there’s no interest in it either. While reporting from the Middle East continues to be flawed and inaccurate, sports journalism is still taking itself seriously. And ESPN is leading the way. CONTINUED »
First it was Rick Reilly of Sports Illustrated. Then it was Mark Fainaru-Wada of the San Francisco Chronicle. Now ESPN has added T.J. Quinn of the Daily News to its inflated payroll. Quinn’s reasoning for leaving the news business:
There is a world of difference between what TV pays you and what newspapers pay you. You hate that to be a deciding factor, but I have three kids. That alone isn't enough, but it pushes you in that direction.
On the plus side, the overpriced burgers at the ESPN Zone are ultimately funding award winning sports journalism.
If the steroids were baseball’s Watergate, then Mark Fainaru-Wada is Bob Woodward. Along with Lance Williams, Fainaru-Wada broke the Balco steroid scandal for the San Francisco Chronicle. Sadly, the public is more forgiving of lies when homeruns are attached.
Now Fainaru-Wada is taking his scoops to ESPN, ESPN.com and ESPN the magazine. He joins Rick Reilly who left Sports Illustrated last month for a $10 million deal.
ESPN’s recently launched the newsmagazine show E-60, which is sort of like HBO’s Real Sports, but not as good. Still, with this hire, ESPN seems posed is overtake SI for serious sports journalism. Apparently that shouldn’t be so hard.
From hiring Dan Patrick to its investigative pieces to its covers to its Web site, Sports Illustrated is not such a great magazine these days. Competing with ESPN and the rest of the Internet has led Sports Illustrated to abandon its original mission of curious, informed sports reporting on a range of subjects. Also, they passed over Roger Federer for Sportsman of the Year. The indignity! [Slate]
Rick Reilly, allegedly the highest paid writer in history of Time Inc., is set to make even more at ESPN. Once the proud signer of a five-year, $5 million contract, he’s now doubling that at ESPN with a $10 million over five years deal.
Reilly will stay on at Sports Illustrated until December 1. Time Inc. is enforcing its revenge non-competition rule, so Reilly won’t start at ESPN until June 1.
On the deal, Reilly said, "It's tough leaving SI after 23 years, but I just had this itch I had to scratch," referring to working on TV.
Now he can scratch that metaphorical itch with a figurative diamond encrusted backscratcher.
Last week, Dan Patrick signed with Sports Illustrated, presumably for more money than ESPN was offering him. This week, Rick Reilly, longtime SI columnist, made the opposite move, also presumably for more money.
Patrick and Reilly have played ESPN and SI against each other for their financial gain. But the network and magazine are stupid to engage in these lateral trades. Anyone who cares about following the work of Dan Patrick and Rick Reilly already watches ESPN and subscribes to Sports Illustrated. To the rest of us, all white guys reporting on sports look the same.
UPDATE: Rick Reilly confirmed the pay increase, saying "the money [at ESPN] is ridonkulous."
Time Inc. has lured SportsCenter mainstay Dan Patrick away from ESPN The Magazine and his ESPN radio show and convinced him to totally switch directions. In a stunning turnaround, Patrick will henceforth be a senior writer at Sports Illustrated magazine and will host a radio show for Sports Illustrated's website.
Yeah, we're still trying to wrap our heads around it, too. But as far as we can tell, the name of the game is still synergy—meaning the only that's really changed here is the brand. And, presumably, the number of zeros on those paychecks Patrick's cashing.
[Folio]
At Time Inc., every day's a holiday! (Especially for the many, many former Time Inc. staffers currently laid off). So maybe that explains why higher-ups are seeking to eliminate unnecessary vacation time, such as Easter and Labor Day?
In the newest chapter of Time Inc. v. Guild, still-employed staffers aren't taking too kindly to initiatives that will force them to actually labor on Labor Day. One tipster refers to the working holiday as "Time Inc.'s relentless drive to take away virtually everything of value in the Guild's Contract,"
The first publication to lose the "Easter" egg hunt? That would be Sports Illustrated, who's reportedly been disputing their right to bear Cadbury Bunnies for nearly thirty years.
Sniffs a source:
"The dispute over SI holidays is decades old. One 'On Time' from the 1980s was titled "Easter Thursday." Now the company has gone further – no Easter at all is its solution to the vexing problem of a magazine that must close by Monday night.
Librarians are in somewhat of an uproar after a spokesman for Sports Illustrated confirmed that copies of the swimsuit edition were withheld from schools, libraries this year.
"In the past, we have gotten lots of feedback from parents, teachers and librarians about the content possibly not being appropriate for children," spokesman Rick McCabe said.
Only problem is, now, instead of being besieged by complaints about the scantily clad models, the magazine has been widely denigrated by schools and libraries for "violating an intellectual freedom" and denying them the right to choose whether to read/receive the issue.
We then asked ourselves whether the issue is actually more trouble than it's worth, to which every single heterosexual male in the country simultaneously replied with an emphatic "are you fucking kidding me?"
• A bunch of athletes and movies stars banged some models at the Sports Illustrated party, and all they got was Hepatitis?
• YouTube crushes dreams of everyone left wanting more after Sunday night's four hour long awards show snoozefest.
• Martha Stewart considers expansion into Asia to determine whether Chinese women are as boring as American women.
• Marty Peretz to remain New Republic's editor-in-share despite not having anything invested in it.
• NBC is wrong to ban Britney, Anna Nicole, says someone familiar with the term "ratings."
The "real winners" of the Academy Awards were the screenwriters. And Helen Mirren's cleavage.
Yes, we're a little late to Tyra Banks' on-air celebration of Black History Month. But why let an easy punchline pass us by?
Tyra decided the best way for her to ring in BHM – also known as the shortest month of the year, and few academics will let you think it's a coincidence – was to acknowledge where she was 10 years ago: on the cover of the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue, as the first black woman to grace its front. Sure, Beyonce may be on there this month, but Tyra set the new standard.
The "Photoshop every iota of fat from the hips, inner thighs, shoulders, chin, and wrists" standard.
Congratulations, Ty Ty.
• Money Honey cheated on her high school boyfriend with a whiny loser! Fortunately for her, the lucky "other man" is still bragging about rounding second base with her a mere twenty years later.
• Radar rounds up all of YouTube's greatest accidental talents, and reminds us why they're hilarious pitiable.
• Cartoon Network looks for new chief who will focus on multiplatform initiatives, not getting fined $2 million for "fake" terrorist attack.
• With a little help from Slate, even the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit issue can be boring!
• We all know Anna liked yogurt, SlimFast and Worcestershire sauce, but what's in CNN's fridge? Expired milk and a Victoria's Secret bag.
• If The 1/2 Hour News Hour loses the laugh track, will anyone still be laughing? (Answer: No, no they will not).
Jennifer Hudson may have Vogue, but Beyonce is fighting back where it really counts: pure objectification. The pop star will be the covergirl for this year's Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue — where photo editors have even more liberty to Photoshop out any sign of cellulite, double chins, and hips.
Editorial Director
