Media Beat

Mikki Taylor spent over 30 years at Essence, first in the mag’s fashion and sewing department in the early 80s and most recently as its cover and style director, and she says the key to longevity in publishing is a combination of good ideas, enthusiasm, and a pro-active attitude.

“First, you have to know the territory. You also have to know your gift,” she explained in our Media Beat interview. “Is there room for your gift at the magazine at which you currently work? And, if so, how will you play that forward? And how well are you selling yourself everyday not only in the things that you say but in your actions, in the ideas that you come to the table with. Are you asking yourself ‘what great things am I going to do today?’”

Watch the full video to find out how Taylor found the courage to leave Essence and start her own consultancy, Mikki Taylor Enterprises.

Part 1: Mikki Taylor on Her 30 Years at Essence
Part 2: Mikki Taylor: Michelle Obama Brings ‘Sophistication’ to American Style

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When Mikki Taylor first started working for Essence in the early 80s, there weren’t nearly as many images of black women in the media as there are today. In our Media Beat interview, the fashion and beauty maven credited longtime EIC Susan Taylor for instilling staffers with the mag’s mission early on.

“I just remember her saying to me, ‘We come to this magazine to contribute,’ and it was something that she instilled in me that day that I walk with to this day,” Taylor recalled. “In fact, when I got the job, I was ready to go on a mission. It became more than a job from the moment I walked in the doors and began serving black women.”

Watch the full video to find out which Essence covers Taylor found most difficult to direct and what she has to say to the magazine’s critics.

Part 2:Essence‘s Mikki Taylor Takes on Casual Fridays
Part 3: Mikki Taylor’s Advice for Magazine Editors: ‘Take the Leap Forward’

Brad Goreski wasn’t always the beacon of style he is today. In our Media Beat interview, the star of It’s a Brad, Brad World revealed that he had to overcome a lack of access (he’s originally from a tiny town in Canada) and the doubts of others to climb to the top. One college career counselor, in particular, was quite taken aback by a young Goreski’s outsize ambition.

“She’s like, ‘Okay, so what do you wanna do?’ And I’m like, ‘I’m gonna get an internship at Vogue in New York.’ And she was like, ‘Excuse me?’ And I’m like, ‘I’m gonna get an internship at Vogue. Is that possible for me to get credit and go to New York?’ And she was like, ‘If you get the internship…’ And I was like, ‘Okay!’” Goreski told us. “And I came back later with all my paperwork, and she was like, ‘Are you really going to New York?’ I’m like, ‘Yeah! I’m going to work at Vogue!’”

Now, with a hit show on Bravo and Born to Be Brad: My Life in Style So Far due in bookstores in March, the taste maker credits those early work experiences for his success.

“Internships are so instrumental but, not only do you need to get them, you need to work at them,” he said.

Part 1: Breakout Styling Star Brad Goreski Takes Us Inside His Brad, Brad World
Part 2: Brad Goreski on His Falling Out with Rachel Zoe

In the second part of our Media Beat interview with Brad Goreski, the up and coming stylist sets the record straight about his relationship with Rachel Zoe.

Unlike the somewhat messy way his departure was portrayed on Bravo’s The Rachel Zoe Project, Goreski says that he actually gave his former boss and good friend two months notice.

“It’s strange that it turned into this whole thing, because for me it’s a very logical thing to assist somebody and then after a certain amount of time choose to leave and go off and do your own thing. And I think that’s really a natural progression,” the star of It’s a Brad, Brad World said. “I really felt like I had done my time, and I had reached a point personally — it was not anything that Rachel was doing — I had reached a point for me where I was like, ‘I’m 33 years old. I love my job, but there’s this voice inside of me that’s telling me it’s time to go.’”

So, has Zoe ever had an assistant leave on good terms?

“Um, that I don’t… I actually, uh, have not heard of a relationship being kept,” said Goreski. “I find it confusing. I really do.”

Part 1: Breakout Styling Star Brad Goreski Takes Us Inside His Brad, Brad World
Part 3: How Brad Goreski Got an Internship at Vogue

Even if you don’t know Thom Browne from Tom Ford, you probably recognize the bespectacled visage and signature coiff of Brad Goreski.

The dapper Canadian was the breakout star of Bravo’s The Rachel Zoe Project, which documented his rise from steamer-wielding errand boy to Oscar-night styling protégé, and now he’s striking out with a celebrity-styling career and addictive reality series of his own. It’s a Brad, Brad World, which airs Monday nights on Bravo, follows Goreski as he starts a styling business and trades quips with his boyfriend of ten years, TV writer and producer Gary Janetti (Will & Grace, Family Guy).

“We decided we would go on a crazy ride, a wild adventure, and hopefully the audience will come along with us,” Goreski tells us in this first segment of our three-part Media Beat interview. “I’m not exactly sure what a ‘Brad, Brad World’ is yet—it’s just that you never know where you’re going to end up.”

Part 2: Brad Goreski on His Falling Out with Rachel Zoe
Part 3: How Brad Goreski Got an Internship at Vogue

How exactly did Ryan Gosling become the man this year? Sure, fans of The Notebook always loved him, but who else was really checking for him back in, oh, 2007?

According to Entertainment Weekly executive editor Kristen Baldwin, Gosling’s ascent is no accident. She says quality work + star presence = crazy buzz.

“He’s a star because he’s given three amazing performances this year,” said Baldwin in our Media Beat interview. He’s incredibly, ridiculously handsome — like, it’s almost offensive how handsome he is — and then he’s just kind of a character. He stopped a fight on the street, you know?”

Squashing a beatdown can indeed increase your Twitter mentions, but Baldwin says aspiring A-listers don’t have to resort to such tactics to land in the pages of EW. “We don’t really get into their personal lives… we wanna talk about their work.”

Part 1: Entertainment Weekly‘s Kristen Baldwin Talks ‘Entertainers of the Year’
Part 2: Kristen Baldwin on Bringing EW to Tablets: ‘We really wanted to wait until we got it right’

With the runaway success of eBooks and iPads, you’d think that launching a tablet version for a magazine would be a given. However, Entertainment Weekly executive editor Kristen Baldwin says that rushing into the field too early could be a mistake for publishers.

“We’ve been on the tablet with our Must List app for quite a while, but in terms of the actual magazine, we really wanted to wait until we got it right,” she explained in our Media Beat interview. “Because what we learned is you have to get it right the first time, and users have to really enjoy it and be satisfied with it, because otherwise they’re just not gonna come back.”

Baldwin also discussed the key to writing those punchy blurbs that EW is known for: “It’s kind of like writing haiku.”

You can also view this video on YouTube.

Part 1: Entertainment Weekly‘s Kristen Baldwin Talks ‘Entertainers of the Year’
Part 3: Thursday, we break down exactly how a celebrity makes it onto the A-list.

In a year of Adele on the radio, Bridesmaids at the box office, Jay-Z and Kanye on the Throne, and Charlie Sheen on another planet entirely, how the hell do you pick the definitive Entertainer of the Year?

Surprisingly, the folks at Entertainment Weekly say their choice for the top spot was a shoo-in: Daniel Radcliffe. “He’s proven that he’s going to have a career outside Harry Potter,” said executive editor Kristen Baldwin in our Media Beat interview.

Baldwin also discussed the magazine’s editorial process for churning out such lists on a weekly (daily for EW.com) basis. “Well, it’s never come to blows,” she said with a laugh. “I mean, it’s entertainment. Nobody’s really getting worked up about it, but you’re in a room with a lot of smart, funny people. So, it’s sort of like ‘one liner, one liner, one liner’ as people try to make their case and put down other people’s cases.”

So, which pop culture trends will define 2012? Watch the full video for Baldwin’s predictions.

You can also view this video on YouTube.

Part 2: Tomorrow, Baldwin explains why EW didn’t rush into the tablet market.
Part 3: Thursday, we break down exactly how a celebrity makes it onto the A-list.

Every. Writer. Hates. Pitching. (Imagine you’re a puppy waiting at the dinner table for just one morsel of meatloaf to fall. “Can I work for you? Huh? Can I? Can I?”)

But Toure, who regularly appears on MSNBC and has penned features for Vibe and Rolling Stone, says freelancers better get over that aversion if they want assignments.

“Oh, I pitch a lot. I do,” the Who’s Afraid of Post-Blackness? author explained in our Media Beat interview. “I mean, I wanna let people know generally ‘I wanna work for you; I wanna work with you. I wanna do stuff, so keep me in mind.’ So, just that general, you know, sort of selling yourself… And even if those two, three, five things are rejected, you are top of mind for that editor.”

Toure also detailed his strategy for getting big names like Adele and Beyonce to open up on the record (he likes “question clusters”) and revealed what he was really thinking during that BET R. Kelly interview.

“It was about being a cat burglar and not letting him know that he played himself.”

You can also view this video on YouTube.

Part 1: Toure Lights Up the Twittersphere with a Debate on… Tipping?

Part 2: Toure Tackles Watermelon, Fried Chicken and Post-Blackness in New Book

New York based music journalist and cultural critic Touré sat down with Mediabistro’s Donya Blaze for the latest in our ongoing series of “Media Beat” interviews.

In this special bonus clip, he explains that while publicists rarely try to declare an interview topic off-limits, this does sometimes creep into the process. As in when a certain musical artist interviewed by Touré followed up a flop single with the full CD release:

You can also view this video on YouTube. Touré, incidentally, owes his unusual name to a TIME magazine article read by his mom about former President of Guinea Sekou Touré.