Magazines

Our local rebels The Young Turks and Cenk Uygur are profiled in December's issue of Fast Company. See if you recognize the author. Go see.

From the article:

Uygur doesn't look like a rebel, but there is something revolutionary going on here. Roughly 450,000 people watch The Young Turks on YouTube alone; thousands more in the precious 18-to-35 demo listen on Sirius Satellite Radio and through the TYT Web site, making it competitive with, say, MSNBC's Morning Joe (382,000 viewers a day in September), or CNN's Lou Dobbs Tonight (616,000). And that, says Uygur, is only the beginning of a campaign "to take down television."

"When I watch TV, I see robots," he says. "We're not robots; we're people." On a show touching on health-care reform and Senator Max Baucus, Uygur proclaimed, "The mainstream media and the politicians who do these tricks and the media who cover for them -- guess what? You're fucked. We're coming for you. We're coming to your house."

Whole piece is here.

Playboy Enterprises Inc. has struck a deal to outsource most of the struggling magazine's operations to Florida-based publisher American Media Inc. Chief executive officer Scott Flanders told the Wall Street Journal that the five-year deal "would help return the magazine to profitability by the end of 2011."

That's all well and good unless you happen to work at the magazine. The deal means many layoffs for Playboy employees. Of course, Hugh Hefner isn't going anywhere. Editorial is the one department that isn't being handed over to AMI. Though it would certainly be interesting to see how the company that publishes the supermarket tabloids National Enquirer, National Examiner and Globe would make over the mag.

Normally when magazines need writers and decide to post on Craigslist, they put up some info about what they are looking for and an email address. Writers will email the editor clips, a resume and maybe a pitch. It's all very...usual.

Then there's this:

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The magazine sent us this release:

944 Media has appointed Brent Bolthouse and Jenifer Rosero, business partners in event production company Bolthouse Productions, as Publishers of 944 Magazine Los Angeles. Over the past twenty years, Rosero and Bolthouse have been instrumental in setting the tone of Los Angeles nightlife and have had their finger on the pulse of the ever-evolving industry landscape in not only events, but collaborating on many of the city's landmark hotels and fine dining establishments. As publishers the pair will focus on further developing 944's brand relationships in Los Angeles.

"We are not a typical media company, so we don't need typical publishers," says Marc Lotenberg, Founder and CEO of 944 Media. "Brent and Jen are brilliant marketers and influencers, and they have deep and longstanding relationships with celebrities, photographers, designers, vendors...everyone that we need to reach in order to continue to raise the profile of the Los Angeles edition."

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Bloomberg is reporting that Playboy Enterprises Inc. is in talks to sell itself. The buyer would be Iconix Brand Group Inc., which owns clothing brands Candie's, Danskin and London Fog.

Playboy's management has been looking for a buyer since Scott Flanders was appointed as chief executive officer in June, one person close to the situation said. Flanders, the former CEO of Freedom Communications Inc., replaced Christie Hefner, who had run Playboy since 1988 and is the daughter of founder Hugh Hefner. Hugh Hefner, 83, has a controlling stake, with about 70 percent of Class A voting shares and 28 percent of the Class B shares.

We are more than aware this is an unfair question. Does Scrubs Magazine, a glossy for nurses give their staff health bennies?

Yes, we've heard the news about the media industry taking a giant hit the past couple years.

But it's a magazine about health care providers. For the longest time Wired only accepted pitches via - wait for it - snail mail. Which is like having to pass a drug test to write for High Times. So that's why we were curious.

Dayna Macy of Mind Over Media tells FBLA, "There actually are no staffers at Scrubs. Mind Over Media, the media development company that created it, is virtual. MOM is based in LA and is headed up by magazine industry veterans Amy Rappeport and Susan Gates. Their team is all freelance, pulled from the best/brightest/most experienced from New York to SF and LA."

Previously on FBLA: Scrubs Magazine Launches

The Business Insider is reporting that 11 employees have been laid off at Entertainment Weekly, 2 of which were from the magazine's Los Angeles bureau. According to their unnamed source, the cuts include "four on the editorial side and 7 on the business side."

Entertainment Weekly is owned by Time Inc., which has estimated the elimination of 400-500 employees by years end. Today also brought layoffs and buyouts to Time Inc. publications Essence and People, and Fortune Small Business was shuttered altogether.

Found via LA Observed

Scrubs the magazine geared specifically for nurses has debuted with their first issue.

All we want to know is if the staffers have an employee health care plan. And by staffers we mean "bloggers." We'll keep you updated.

Here's the press release in its entirety:

Scrubs (scrubsmag.com), the First Lifestyle Magazine and Website for Nurses, Premieres November 2009

Los Angeles, CA (November 3, 2009) - Scrubs Magazine (scrubsmag.com), the first lifestyle magazine and website for nurses, premieres November 15. The magazine, with a paid circulation of 350,000, will be sold in more than 1,500 nursing apparel stores nationwide. Strategic Partners, Inc. (SPI) - the leading nursing apparel and footwear company in the United States and manufacturer/distributor of scrubs under the labels of Cherokee, Disney, Baby Phat, Skechers, the NFL and others - is the founding sponsor.

"There are almost three million RNs in the United States, making nursing one of the largest segments of the U.S. workforce," says Michael Singer, Chief Executive Officer of SPI. "Healthcare is one of the few sectors of the economy adding jobs.* Scrubs and scrubsmag.com are perfectly positioned to reach this growing and thriving market."

The rest after the jump...

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Michael Grunwald at Time pens a fawning piece about how great California is:

Ignore the California whinery. It's still a dream state. In fact, the pioneering megastate that gave us microchips, freeways, blue jeans, tax revolts, extreme sports, energy efficiency, health clubs, Google searches, Craigslist, iPhones and the Hollywood vision of success is still the cutting edge of the American future - economically, environmentally, demographically, culturally and maybe politically. It's the greenest and most diverse state, the most globalized in general and most Asia-oriented in particular at a time when the world is heading in all those directions. It's also an unparalleled engine of innovation, the mecca of high tech, biotech and now clean tech.

Shut up. We would like our home prices to go down a little more before the word gets out about this place. Have some decency.

We have seen Marge Simpson's nipples and we don't feel good about it.

Marge Simpson is the cover girl for Playboy's November issue, the first time ever a cartoon character has graced the cover of the magazine. She wouldn't have been our first choice. It's a bit like walking in on your parents having sex. The racy pictures can be viewed online here - though be forewarned, they may scar you for life.

Playboy's CEO told the AP that the Marge pictorial is an attempt to attract younger viewers. We don't know what Matt Groening's excuse is.