One hundred five. That's the number of new magazines announced this year, says the Magazine Publishers of America. It's a four percent increase, if you're interested in that kind of thing. But more interesting is what types of magazines are on the horizon.
We'll give you a hint: CRAP! CONTINUED »
• Elizabeth Spiers discusses what she would do as acting president of Time Inc. Better still, it's not part of her infamous stand-up comedy routine!
• Time Warner president may be in trouble for quietly covering up HBO prez's habit of accidentally choking the women he's screwing.
• Ron Burkle is now in another bidding war. For Stuff magazine. Seriously.
• Calling CollegeHumor "sophomoric" is like calling McDonald's "greasy." You know, because both are so delicious—in a low-brow, cheap thrills kinda way.
• Don Imus is just itching to jump back in the insult-radio saddle.
• Greta Van Susteren follows Rudy G.'s lead, challenges the Dems to debate on the fair and unbiased Fox network.
Lori Majewski has a new playmate! Or boss! Those Time Inc. mastheads are so confusing!
Time Inc. chief John Huey just sent staffers a welcome memo for Henry Goldblatt, Entertainment Weekly's newest deputy managing editor, Chelsea resident, and all-around-gay. Not that that's important.
He'll report, of course, to Rick Tetzeli, which he's been doing as one of the mag's three exec editors. He's been at the pub for four years, "[running] EW's lively TV coverage," overseeing News & Notes, and other things we're assured are important to the magazine.
John's full memo, post-jump.
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We interrupt our foray into an evening without you mensches to update you on one serious development, and a forgettable one.
First, MSNBC is dropping its Don Imus simulcast, reports TVNewser, validating the argument we made only to ourselves that even Steve Capus can't rationalize racist ad dollars.
And second, TeenPeople.com is folding, reports MediaWeek. It'll merge with papa People.com by the end of the month. Supposedly the brand is healthy – if it weren't, "we wouldn’t continue to use the brand" – so much so that Time Inc. can't support a print or online edition.
• Dave Zinczenko and Kate White swap spit in Men's Health and Cosmopolitan, leading to all sorts of fun body image issues.
• NYT's new newsroom violates Jeff Jarvis' prophecy. (The company's tech support and payroll will still be handled in Norfolk.)
• Why won't anyone pay attention to the nasty legal wrangling going on at Dealbreaker.com?
• Atoosa Rubenstein: Still a media darling.
• Lorne Michaels is the last to know what NBC is doing with his SNL.
• Who cares about ratings with those blue eyes of his? Not CNN, who's said to be re-upping him for $50m over 5 years.
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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.
The Guild's memos almost make us feel like we're right there, in on the action between them and Time Inc. Today, we're witness to the morning after of the twosome's contract expiration — as of 12am last night, everyone's technically a free agent.
But it's play-by-play like this that's actually making the humdrum affair of negotiating contracts worth paying attention to. And shutting your office door so you can be alone.
The latest drama after the jump.
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The battle wages on between Time Inc. and the Newspaper Guild – that pesky institution that's not so much responsible for negotiating those buyout packages as it is reporting on them – with no resolution in sight.
At least that's how the Guild feels, after four days of "crunch negotiations" with the publishing giant to reach amicable new terms for its contract. But after hitting an impasse – where the Guild says Time's "take no prisoners" approach and a "blanket, sweeping no" to its proposals – this feuding twosome isn't any closer to finalizing an agreement. Luckily, there's another meeting today, and the Guild is rallying the troops for support.
With a memo!
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After all furor over the Time Inc. cafeteria's continued run of health code violations, we figured we might as well find out what was being served to the workforce.
An insider tells us that yesterday, the menu called for "Eggplant Rollatini and Old-Fashioned Meatloaf with Gravy," while today's course is "Sofrito Grilled Pork Chops and a Broiled Seafood Platter … Plus, a St. Patrick's Day Celebration."
You hear that, Inc.-ers? There's plenty of green dye to go around to cover up the moldy bread and brown lettuce. And as a special bonus, today's mice in the kitchen will be wearing shamrock pins.
St. P's Day Bonus: Comments revisited, after the jump.
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The Time Inc. cafeteria's current health violations are not, as you might imagine, sitting well with staffers. An insider reports that the cafeteria is open today, but yesterday was still sitting with all the violations. "The staff must have cleaned it all up," we're told. Good thing, as "there have definitely been cases of people feeling ill after eating at the salad bar."
Perhaps that's God's way of telling you to eat something with actual calories.
You thought that Taco Bell/KFC rat nightmare was bad? Tell it to the kids at Time Inc., whose cafeteria received 13 violation points (still a passing grade) from the Health Department's February review. Sure, those inspectors are on a rampage after local news outlets camped out on Sixth Avenue to document the well-fed rodents crawling about the Burrito Supremes, but this review came before that press orgy.
Though, to be fair, the cafeteria is coming off a previous inspection with 37 violation points — but raise your hand if you're comfortably eating somewhere that's just been cited for "evidence of mice or live mice present in facility's food and/or non-food areas."
Buehler?
Karen Leigh's saga continues. The new editorial assistant at Entertainment Weekly – who landed the gig hovering over Lori Majewski's desk thanks to Norm Pearlstine being Karen's godfather – continues to miff EW veterans.
Hiring Karen "was definitely NOT a good move," says an insider, "especially considering they nearly forced loyal staffers to move on as to make room for people like Karen. … Karen's hiring pissed a lot of people off."
Like say, for example, freelancers who maintain a revolving door at the magazine (thanks to Time Inc.'s 1,100 hour cap for stringers) that are begging for a masthead position.
But screw them. The good fortune belongs to Karen, who, says another source, is known for her sense of entitlement.
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Turns out Lori Majewski's new assistant at Entertainment Weekly isn't the most welcome addition to the family at 1675 Broadway. Karen Leigh, the 21-year-old goddaughter of Time Inc. EIC Norm Pearlstine, just began her gig as Lori's minion — and already there's resentment.
"No one likes her," says one well-placed insider. "I'm seriously wondering how long she'll last."
We're told that previous to Karen's gig at EW and her stint at Time in London, Karen's accomplishments include dropping out of college. Tattles a source: "EW is so snooty in its hiring process that the execs won't even hire EAs that don't have years of experience and editor/staff writer titles under their belt, but they'll pick up an incompetent little twit without a degree simply out of fear of her ex-stepfather who no longer works at Time Inc.?"
So how long will Karen last? Not very, wishes our insider, who hopes that being Lori's underling will "knock a good dose of reality/humility into her."
After all that shuffling around – from exec editor at Us Weekly in '03 to managing editor of Teen People in '05 to exec editor at Entertainment Weekly in September – Lori Majewski certainly needed somebody to handle her calendar. Lucky, then, that Karen Leigh was available to take on the job as her assistant.
Karen who? That'd be Karen, goddaughter of Norm Pearlstine, Time Inc.'s chief. Ah, nepotism.
This much we know: Karen is 21, and just returned to the New York after a stint at Time magazine in London. And, naturally, she has ambitions to one day be an editor-in-chief. Quick, someone subscribe her to that ED2010 thing the kids are crazy about.
• Bonnie Fuller waving buh-bye to American Media, saying "how you doin'?" to Hatchette Filapacchi, TMZ?
• Rosie O continues her role as The View's resident bully; Elisabeth Hasselbeck continues her role as its resident basket-case by pulling yet another "Larry Seidlin."
• The BBC and YouTube to have a shag, smoke a fag and form an unstoppable online empire. 'Bloody hell!' says Veoh Networks.
• Diarist Dominick Dunne might be "dunzo" at Vanity Fair, says Page Six three days ago Bergdorf Goodman magazine.
• Journalists suddenly enamored with Al Gore; possibly because he won an Oscar, definitely because he's not running for president.
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As others have tried before, Time Inc. is preemptively taking a stab at protecting an investment — in exclusive photos. The publisher is sending out notices to celeb blogs far and wide that People is the only outfit licensed to publish the first pics of Patrick Dempsey and his newborn twins, which they've purchased exclusively.
Naturally, in this era of celebrity blogs, no photos are safe. And there's no such thing as a respected embargo when 13-year-olds are running the show.
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• PerezHilton helpfully reminds us "who's who" in the Pitt/Jolie family by scrawling the first letter of Zahara, Brad, Angelina and Shiloh's names on their respective crotches. ZABS!
• Someone delivers Poo In A Box to Time Inc; staffers were all too bored to notice/care.
• A mom coached her two children to fake retardation; kids pulled it off by proclaiming Carrot Top to be "hilarious."
• Britney Shears becomes MySpace's newest (inadvertent) spokeswoman.
• Meanwhile, TMZ says Brit may be suffering from post -artum depression. Which is kinda hard to make into a one-liner, y'know?
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• Gillian Hearst-Shaw shows us how easy it is to land an editorial assistantship for a publication that your family owns.
• Nylon takes a gamble copies American Idoland allows its readers to decide which band should be featured on the June/July cover.
• Time Inc.shows off their new hires! Which should come as great news to the 289 people who just lost their jobs due to company-wide pay cuts!
• GQ Hopes to Make The 'G' Stand For Generosity; everyone already knows what the 'Q' stands for.
• Fox News Channel to test "blog" pilot featuring Michele Malkin on Sunday; Jossip editors would watch, except it conflicts with My Super Sweet 16.
• Money Honey made a habit of 'cozying up' to business execs; CNBC made a habit of ignoring it.
• WashingtonPost.com blogger, William M. Arkin, has received thousands of email critiques, death threats—or, one from each of President Bush's remaining supporters.
• Scooter Libby believes NBC's Andrea Mitchell will clear him in CIA leak case. Also, everyone hates Meet The Press.
• Viacom to fire 500 MTV staffers; Related: Vanessa Minnillo to try really, really hard not to drop another F-bomb.
• MySpace to keep pedophiles, perverts; get rid of copyrighted video material.
• More Time Inc. publications to move to Florida, crash your grandparents' retirement condo.
Though we're having trouble accessing it, norablog.timeinc.net is real. Yes, norablog.timeinc.net.
Confused? Even if you were a Time Inc. staffer who received the explanation from Ann Moore, you're forgiven if you're not sure what's going on.
Apparently, Ann & Co. were so enamored with COO Nora McAniff – and so saddened by her departure – that they've launched an internal blog to commemorate her tenure. Sweet, huh? Ann yesterday wrote to staffers:
What happens when you combine three of the biggest news items of the day - Time Inc.'s digital strategy, user-generated content, and Nora McAniff taking a break?
You get Nora's Blog.
It's our opportunity to share our memories and best wishes with Nora. Please feel free to post thoughts, photos, or even videos.
Before you start with the jokes, keep in mind that OfficePirates.com was also part of Time Inc.'s digital strategy. They're hopeless. We know.
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