Magazines

In her new book Commander in Chic, Essence editor-at-large Mikki Taylor doles out fashion and beauty tips for the everyday woman based on examples from Michelle Obama.

“I love her clear cut assurance, the way she owns her style from within,” she explained in our Media Beat interview.

And one thing FLOTUS has done, according to Taylor, is inject a much needed sophistication into America’s dress code. Casual Fridays? No, thank you, she says.

“I think that we’re a little too relaxed. I think a relaxed nation creates other kinds of flexibilities that shouldn’t exist. Let’s treat each other with the respect and the honor that we are due, and so the subliminal things play into that. If we’re coming to work in sneakers, if we’re coming to work in ripped jeans and plaid shirts, who are we representing?”

Part 1:Mikki Taylor on Her 30 Years at Essence
Part 3: Mikki Taylor’s Advice for Magazine Editors: ‘Take the Leap Forward’

Create a social media strategy, launch your campaign, and track the results in our Social Media Marketing Boot Camp starting February 16. The online event and workshop will feature speakers including The Onion‘s Baratunde Thurston (left), Facebook’s Morin Oluwole, and bitly’s Tim Devane. Register now.

This week’s NJ Magazine features “The Odd Couple”: With his big win in Florida behind him, Mitt Romney hopes to impose order on the unruly GOP presidential race. But Newt Gingrich‘s vow to go “all the way” to the convention ensures that the drama isn’t over. In this week’s cover story, Beth Reinhard looks at the odd couple of GOP politics—Romney and Gingrich—and how they’re stuck with each other for awhile. Read here.

Inside…

Basketball Junkie: Not the typical Washington influence-seeker, Chris Herren nonetheless spent two days working the Hill last month, meeting with senators, representatives, and trade-association leaders. Herren is a former NBA player and, by his own admission, a recovering addict who spent roughly 18 years bouncing from alcohol to cocaine to painkillers to heroin. A Q&A with Jim O’Sullivan. Read here.

Want to be the Web Editor at Washingtonian these days? Fine. But it’s a risky career move. In the last 24 months, they’ve had three — most recently Kyle Gustafson, who lasted about five and a half months, before that Sommer Mathis, who fled to The Atlantic after just four months and Alyssa Rosenberg, who is now at Think Progress. Gustafson recently told TBD, “They’re all wonderful people and I wish them well,” he says. “It wasn’t working out for either party.”

We reached out to Editor Garrett Graff on the matter. Surely the Editor of the magazine might be able to shed some light? Oh, but not so fast. He apparently doesn’t comment on matters pertaining to the magazine. This is the second issue that Graff has refused to comment on this week — the first was why a sentence involving where Rob Lowe‘s son, Matthew, resided while in Washington (psst… with a lobbyist) was mysteriously stricken from Carol Joynt‘s Capital Comment blog this week.

But Reason Mag’s Associate Editor Mike Riggs had an interesting take on what’s happening there. It involves Meth and foil.

Washingtonian goes through web editors like a meth head goes through rolls of tinfoil: is.gd/ta0G5a

— Mike Riggs (@MikeRiggs) January 31, 2012

If your pub cycles three really smart editors through the same post in two years, your pub has problems.

— Mike Riggs (@MikeRiggs) January 31, 2012

(A Sprinkling of What we Think you Ought to Know…)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Newt’s campaign still upset about tame audience– Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich complained Tuesday about NBC’s Brian Williams requesting that the audience remain silent during Monday’s debate. After experiencing a relatively docile audience during Thursday’s debate, the Gingrich camp is now getting conspiratorial. Kevin Kellems, a senior adviser to Gingrich, accused rival Mitt Romney‘s campaign of manipulating the makeup of the audience. “They definitely packed the room [with Romney supporters],” Kellems told HuffPost. Goddammit. Where are those moon colonists when you need them?

In jealous rage, The Atlantic calls Weigel a “raging jerk”– As bitchy as journalists can be, the ones on the Republican primary campaign trail have a lot to be happy about. They’re in Florida where the temperature is hanging around a balmy 70 degrees. But that doesn’t mean The Atlantic, founded in frigid Washington, has to be happy for them. On Thursday the magazine called out the braggy tweets from journos in Florida. They called Slate‘s Dave Weigel a “raging jerk” for sending out a tweet last week in which he said, “High on the pleasantness scale: That moment the Florida sun retreats behind a cloud.” And WaPo‘s Philip Rucker is “cruel” for tweeting about the “sunset in Ormond Beach.”

Two Speakers sit down for “This Week”– Former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich will appear on ABC’s “This Week” on Sunday to discuss his campaign and the Florida primary with ABC News Senior White House Correspondent Jake Tapper. Then it’s out with the old and in with the orange. Speaker John Boehner will be on after Gingrich to comment on the details of President Obama‘s State of the Union speech. Other guests: conservative columnist George Will, Democratic strategist Donna Brazile, former Obama economic adviser Austan Goolsbee, and conservative talk radio show host Laura Ingraham.

Editorial writer recalls “most embarrassing correction” of his career– After The Daily Caller‘s Matthew Lewis found glaring errors in a Thursday morning article about Florida GOP Sen. Marco Rubio published by Reuters, Philip Klein of the Washington Examiner offered up a quasi-defense of the wire service. In a blog post, he recalled his own time at Reuters and a mistake he once made that resulted in a dirty mudslide of corrections:

“[B]ecause it was the most important news of the day and it was rattling many markets, other Reuters reporters simply grabbed my wording to put into our stock report, bond stories, foreign exchange dispatches, and so on. So after I corrected the story, it triggered what my co-workers teased was a ‘global correction tsunami,’ as reporters throughout the world had to issue corrections because of my bungle. It was one of the moments in my career where I could have starred in a Southwest ‘Wanna get away?’ commercial.”

Klein went on to lambast Reuters for their errors Thursday, saying that it was different from his own experience because “this isn’t the type of breaking news financial news story that needs to be pumped out in minutes. It’s a longer feature that the writer and editor had more time to work on. There’s no excuse for being this sloppy.”

Breaking into the literary dream that is New York magazine means you’ve got to offer something new, an interesting angle or exclusive access into a little-known subcultural scene in the city (or anywhere else in the world).

“A freelance pitch that provides unusual insight and access into a slightly more hidden world or scene has a better chance of becoming a story here,” said editorial director Jared Hohlt in How To Pitch: New York [sub req'd]. ”Features that trend to get approved are narrative-focused and designed to engage the reader in good old fashioned storytelling.”

David Haskell, the magazine’s feature editor, agrees — but he needs more than just a good anecdote.

Read more

(A Sprinkling of Very Gross Things we Think you Ought to Know…)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Today’s Edition of Fish Food takes a look at some of the grosser parts of the news. Don’t say we didn’t warn you.

Bloody Mitt Romney – Yahoo‘s Dylan Stableford reports on what might have been if Bloomberg Business Week had gone through with their original idea for the Jan. 13 issue. The magazine actually went through the process of creating the cover on the right, featuring a bloody Mitt Romney, but decided to run a cover with Microsoft’s Steve Balmer instead. Bloomberg Editor Josh Tyrangiel says the decision was based on their perception that “the Romney story seemed to have already hit its peak.”

Barbara Bathroom Habits – Bravo TV’s “Watch What Happens” welcomed on Sherri Shepherd, co-host of the view this past weekend. Host Andy Cohen puts Shepherd through her paces and asks her a series of uncomfortable questions. When asked to say something embarrassing about ABC’s Barbara Walters, we braced ourselves. Considering Walters’ past, this could have gotten ugly. Walters has already admitted that she had an affair with Sen. Edward Brooke back in the 70′s. Fortunately, we were spared from any mental images of Walters doing the nasty, but what we did hear wasn’t much better. Shepherd says that Walters “never goes to the bathroom.” Here’s the video if you want to watch it, weirdo.

Shep Smith Just Ruined Lunch - POTUS welcomed various TV anchors to dine with him before his State of the Union Address on Tuesday. It’s a long-observed tradition in which the sitting President invites the pretty faces to join him for lunch. This year, the invite list included CBS’s Scott Pelley, ABC’s Diane Sawyer, NBC’s Brian Williams, and several others. HuffPost reports that one member of the media who was present was FNC’s Shep Smith. Smith confirmed this to his audience on Tuesday afternoon by bringing us the menu and how great it was. We honestly couldn’t tell you what was served, though. We were too busy trying not to get sick watching Shep’s sickly hacking cough and gaunt cheekbones as he described the menu. If you think you can stomach it, check out the video of a skeleton wearing a poorly made Shep Smith mask Shep describing the cuisine.

 

Washingtonian has posted their February cover. The lead story explores “Washington’s Secret Love Affair with Marijuana.” It examines the prevalence of reefer throughout the region. And apparently, it isn’t just for breakfast anymore. Washingtonian says that it’s a large part of life for “soccer moms and power players.” Why stop at soccer moms and power players? Maybe it’s infiltrated the newsrooms of Washington, D.C. It would certainly help explain some of the decisions that are made at TBD.com

Also in this month’s issue, Todd Kliman offers tips on dining out with kids and of course Harry Jaffe will have a poorly thought out advice column with his wife piece on the 108 murders that happened in DC last year. The mag hits stands tomorrow if you want to snag one.

Grab a slurpee and a microwave burrito while you’re at it. In case you get the munchies.

Karen Sommer Shalett, Editor-in-Chief of DC Magazine, hosts a lunch today for her new Senior Editor Sarah Crosland. The lunch will take place in the mezzanine loft of the Park Hyatt.

Previously Crosland was Assoc. Editor at Charlotte Magazine and before that she was Assoc. Editor at Modern Luxury Magazine.

Congratulations to Crosland.

 

 

Normally Ogburn handles giving advice to those who have sunk so far into despair that they seek advice from the husband and wife team of Washingtonian‘s Harry Jaffe and his wife, Louise. This week, thanks to logistical issues, it falls to me. Here’s the question from Almost Out of Patience:

Dear Harry and Louise:

I work with a jerk. Every day at the office, he makes snide remarks and undermines me and my colleagues. He works on projects with someone and then publicly complains to others about his partner. He is quick to criticize anyone else’s ideas. He considers himself the expert on everything. He praises himself and even sends e-mails about his latest accomplishments to all of us. I’ve just been assigned to work on a project with him. There is no point in trying to go over his head, because the boss will do nothing. To the outside, he is viewed as a success and an important part of the office.

How do I face him each day without decking him?

Almost Out of Patience

Dear “Almost,” while Harry and Louise gave you sound advice on how to be the perfect doormat for this jackass, and were horrified at the prospect of decking him, I won’t be so PC. No, you shouldn’t hit the dude, but you also shouldn’t lay down and take it. Prostitutes “take it,” you need to be the john here.

Get together with the other Jell-O backs in the office and see if you can’t all get together and form one spine. When this jackass starts patting himself on the back about his work to everyone in the office, call him out on it. Have your co-workers chime in with some laughs when he announces something publicly, or some creative “reply all” emails when he’s tooting his own horn.

When not bursting his bubble, have everyone ignore him. And I’m not talking about some half-assed not inviting him to lunch stuff, I mean like he constantly smells like a fart. Avoid him, ignore him, he doesn’t exist. When people are forced to talk to him, don’t make any eye contact at all. NONE. After a week of no one looking him in the eye he won’t be able to stand it.

This dude craves attention…

Read more

Say “Politico” three times in the bathroom mirror and Mike Allen shows up with an eBook. Say it four times and you have John Cassidy‘s gushing piece in the New Yorker.

In a lengthy defense of modern political reporting, Cassidy named several publications that offer up solid journalism in the field. Among them, the NYT, WSJ, WaPo, The Atlantic and HuffPost. But none were showered with kisses like Politico.

WSJ was mentioned twice. NYT also twice (with a separate mention for NYTimes.com). HuffPost, once. The Atlantic, once.

Politico was referenced four times. Love at first scooplet?

It’s worth noting that the D.C. publication’s original competitors, The Hill and Roll Call, weren’t mentioned at all. Looks like there’s a growing perception that Politico is now out of their league.