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: Essence‘s Mikki Taylor Takes on Casual Fridays

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’

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 a sense of purpose 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.”

You can also view this video on YouTube.

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: EW‘s Kristen Baldwin on the Ryan Gosling Factor

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: Kristen Baldwin on Bringing EW to Tablets: ‘We really wanted to wait until we got it right’
Part 3: EW‘s Kristen Baldwin on the Ryan Gosling Factor

Love Chris March‘s wild designs on Project Runway and Mad Fashion? He gets it from his mama — seriously.

In the final segment of this week’s Media Beat interview, the fashion designer and reality TV star explains how the fashion bug first bit him as a child while watching his mother take sewing lessons. And when Mama March landed a spot on a particular game show, it was a wrap — young Chris officially had a niche.

“My mother was on Let’s Make a Deal when I was little, and so I was always fascinated with Let’s Make a Deal and all the people in their costumes,” March said. “And the bigger and crazier ones always got more attention so… Gee I wonder where that comes from.”

You can also view this video on YouTube.

Part 1: Chris March Talks Mad Fashion
Part 2: Chris March on The Project Runway Effect