Looking for an unusual and dirt cheap Father’s Day gift?

Jake McGuire, an accomplished Washington photographer, may have the answer to your Father’s Day shopping woes. He’s giving away a minimum of 500 free copies of his most popular photograph, “Marine One” so Washingtonians can give their fathers what he considers to be a dramatic gift. “The economy is slow and most people can’t spend much money,” says McGuire, “so I thought I’d share the one photo that most dads go ‘wow’ over.”

The details on this contest sound easy. The fine print involves little more than clicking the “like” button on Facebook. If you work in a Congressional office and have to deal with a gift ban, a $10 donation is perfectly acceptable.

The photo, a straight-on view of the Presidential Helicopter flying down the National Mall. The print is a $40 value. He thinks the photo is particularly dynamic because the heat from the turbine engines of the Sikorski helicopter creates the mirage effect on the Capitol Dome. The photo has been “wildly popular” with White House and Capitol Hill staffers, lobbyists, Secret Service agents, DC interns, aviators and those who love great pictures of our Nation’s Capital.

Find out how to get a free copy for the June 17th holiday here.

Launch a social media campaign that will build your brand and deliver results in our online Social Media Marketing Boot Camp starting June 7. Speakers include Abigail Cusick (Bravo Digital), Gregory Galant (Sawhorse Media), Alex Leo (Thomson Reuters Digital), Jim Tobin (Ignite Social Media), and many more. Read the reviews.

Meet leading authors, editors, and literary agents and get your writing project professionally critiqued in our online Literary Festival & Workshops, July 16 – August 1, 2012. In our innovative, interactive online event, you will:

• Hear from accomplished authors, literary agents, and editors
• Workshop your own creative project with writers and editors
• And make connections with other writers and book lovers across the globe in our summer reading group.

Come celebrate the publishing world with us and get inspired to finish the book project you’ve been working on.

The speakers are top notch…

Read more

Jay Lauf, Vice President and Publisher of The Atlantic, announced today that Hayley Romer has been named Associate Publisher of The Atlantic. Working closely with Lauf and overseeing the national sales team, Romer will help lead advertising efforts for the brand across all its platforms.

Her past… Romer spent five years at the Condé Nast Media Group, most recently as Executive Director of Corporate Sales. In that role, she managed an integrated team on accounts ranging from Finance to Luxury to Technology across titles such as The New Yorker, Vanity Fair, and Wired. Before joining Condé Nast in 2007, Romer managed the luxury account list at Forbes Media. She began her career in publishing at American Heritage magazine.

Romer begins on May 30.

The answer is no. But, the emails from the Obama campaign are certainly getting our attention in new and weird ways. Thursday afternoon, we received an email from “Bill Clinton” that had a subject line saying, “Meeting you.” Well, hot damn! It’s our lucky day. We get to meet Bill Clinton! NOT so fast. It’s an email trying to squeeze money out of potential donors. You see, Clinton is teaming up with POTUS for “An Evening with Two Presidents.” All you have to do is kick a little cash to the Obama campaign and you’re entered into a lottery to meet the two in NYC. (We’re less than shocked to see that POTUS didn’t include Jimmy Carter in this shindig.) I know that campaigns are constantly looking for inventive ways to raise funds, but maybe they can stop freaking me out so much with emails from famous people. It’s starting to come off as a scam. Just last week we got an email from “Sarah Jessica Parker” saying, “I’m hosting.” Hosting what? Saturday Night Live? The answer was no, she wasn’t hosting SNL, but rather another event for POTUS in NYC. Since Bill Clinton is so willing to help these days, we thought we’d help write the next version of the email.

From: Bill Clinton

Subject: I need your help

Dear Peter,
This message may be coming to you as a surprise but I need your help.Few days back we scheduled a fundraiser for President Barack Obama.Everything was going fine until last night when we got mugged on our way to the fundraiser and all cash and credit card were stolen off us.

I really need your financial assistance Please let me know if you can help us out?

You can wire the money to me through western union all you need is the Name on my passport and location below.

“Bubba”

Publisher of Hustler Larry Flynt made news yesterday when his nudie mag ran a photo of conservative commentator S.E. Cupp with a photoshopped penis in her mouth.

Scott Baker, editor of The Blaze, which Cupp contributes to, told FBDC “it doesn’t sound like” she plans on suing. Flynt told The Daily Caller‘s Caroline May that he had every right to publish the photo, which came with a disclaimer stating it had been edited, as an expression of satire.

But is there a difference between parodying a public figure and photoshopping a penis in her mouth? Let us know in our Fish Poll. We’ll run the results tomorrow.

WaPo is moving Olga Khazan to the foreign desk to be a producer. She’ll be responsible for daily digital presentation. She joined the publication in October 2011 to work on the Small Business section. As her name suggests, she speaks Russian fluently, which might help in navigating WaPo‘s website since nothing else seems to be working.

Congratulations to Olga!

See the internal memo…

Read more

If you’re a reporter covering the media you may have noticed new pitches flowing in for The Hill from Elizabeth Luke at High10 Media, a New York-based communications agency that also reps The Hollywood Reporter, Norman Lear‘s People for the American Way, NatGeo Network, Time Inc., Adweek, A&E Networks and Simon Cowell. The Hill has notoriously not had a publicist in a good while ever since Tricia Barba left the role in 2011 after about a year. Before Barba, they went years without a publicist. In January 2012 they brought on Megan McCourt as an editorial assistant to handle social media.

Now they’re giving High10 Media a try.

It’s hardly surprising that the publication would secure a New York-based firm considering The Hill‘s hands-on owner, Jimmy Finkelstein, resides in Manhattan. But what is a little confusing is that they’re not actually letting Luke autonomously speak to the media. When I asked her questions about whether she will serve in an actual role of spokeswoman, ironically she never replied, despite saying repeatedly in her emails, “Feel free to contact me with questions.” Editor Hugo Gurdon also did not reply to simple, basic questions we sent yesterday.

So who is actually speaking for The Hill? That would be High10 Media CEO Lisa Dallos, who said Tuesday morning that she would be handling my questions, but had to talk later because she was on an airplane. She explained quickly by email, “We were retained by The Hill to help promote its editorial and business interests — stories, events, special reports, and so forth. We work very closely with the client, in terms of what gets promoted. Elizabeth is part of the HIGH10 team working on the account.” On the subject of Luke, she said, “Elizabeth works with me, I run High10 Media, I oversee all the work with The Hill. I am the one to speak to.”

I told Dallos that Luke not being able to talk seems fishy. She replied, “Funny u think this is fishy. This would be a lot better if I could talk with you when I land.” She added, “It is very straightforward and not complicated. I am the CEO of company and lead work on all our clients Elizabeth as well as other members of the high 10 team work collaboratively to fulfill our clients needs.”

Luke seems qualified to answer questions and Dallos said I could call her or Luke anytime. Before joining High10 Media, Luke spent three years at Nielsen, most recently as a corporate communications analyst. She graduated from the University of Southern California with a B.A. in Communications. While it appears that Luke will not serve as an actual spokeswoman for the publication, Barba’s role also did not involve commenting on the record to reporters.

In a morning phone interview with Dallos, she said she’d be handling all questions related to the editorial and business sides of the publication. “Any of those questions feel free to call me,” she said. “I think the hope to have a coordinated communication effort under the guidance of Hugo and that we would be able to properly disseminate information to media on multiple subjects, whether it’s breaking news, evergreen and on announcements of whatever kind, both on the business side and the editorial side.”

So far, Luke typically sends out one email a day featuring a story they mark as “Breaking News.” Luke’s email intro on most pitches is as follows:

Good morning, I represent The Hill at High10 Media and am sharing this breaking story with you (link and text below) because it aligns with your beat and I thought you and your readers might be interested.  If you decide to cover this story, please link to the article and credit to “The Hill.”  Feel free to contact me with questions.  Thank you!

But maybe don’t take that second to last line too seriously. That’s not exactly true.

To promote its “Guns and Gear” vertical, The Daily Caller is giving away one gun every week until Election Day in November. That’s 25 guns total.

The sound you hear is TWT‘s Emily Miller, who wrote a lengthy series called “Emily Gets Her Gun,” squealing through all of NW.

Winners of the giveaway will receive the FMK 9C1, an American-made high-capacity 9mm, according to a release. It comes in three colors and is engraved with the Bill of Rights.

“Like most Americans outside Washington, DC, New York City and most of our nation’s news rooms, large numbers of Daily Caller readers love guns. These people are already looking to our new Guns and Gear section for the latest product reviews and Second Amendment news,” said Neil Patel, Publisher and CEO.

Trigger happy readers can enter by simply visiting this landing page and filling out a form with some basic information.

Noteworthy: The release says “The Daily Caller is the only major U.S. news outlet with a dedicated section related to firearms and firearm-related issues.” So much for “Guns&Patriots” over at Human Events.

ABC News is launching a Fellowship program to attract and develop aspiring journalists from diverse backgrounds for a “rigorous” and “rewarding” year-long opportunity.   Starting this July, future news leaders will rotate through several ABC News departments and broadcasts while mastering editorial, production, and newsgathering skills.  Participants from a variety of racial, ethnic, socio-economic and geographic backgrounds will work closely with an experienced ABC News mentor.

ABC is now accepting applications for a July 2, 2012 start date. Candidates must have a Bachelor’s degree, solid writing skills, shooting and editing experience and a minimum of two years of journalism experience to be considered.  Positions are offered on a rolling basis and participants will be employed by ABC News for a full year.

Apply here.

After WaPo names a new Pop Culture Editor Joe Heim will move into an editing role for WaPo Magazine. They describe him as a “wordsmith” who “loves to edit.” Heim joined the publication in 2000.

The memo on him, which isn’t half bad as memos go, remarks that “He wrote the memorable Bruce Springsteen profile and recently the story about public clocks for A1, a story he no doubt was inspired to do when he checked a public clock to see how late he was for work.”

See the full memo…

Read more