Media Companies

Our sister site FishbowlDC is reporting that BuzzFeed is opening an office in Washington, D.C. According to Ben Smith, BuzzFeed’s Editor-in-Chief, the DC operation is looking for “a talented, heavyweight player-coach as bureau chief.”

All candidates are encouraged to submit a resume along with a “20 Reasons My Cat is Like a Dog” list to Smith for consideration. Please note that any “20 Reasons My Dog is Like a Cat” lists will be rejected.

For more details, head over to FishbowlDC.

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.

While speaking at Ohio University, Fox News honcho Roger Ailes predictably praised his network and blasted The New York Times. Poytner reports that Ailes said the paper was a “cess pool of bias” and called the Times’ reporters a “lying bunch of scum.” Perhaps someone pointed out to Ailes the irony of him — a man who works for a company that is under investigation for illegally spying on people — saying other people were liars, because now he has apologized. Sort of. Kind of. Maybe.

According to The Daily Beast, Ailes “realizes he went too far and regrets using that language.” Unfortunately, Ailes himself didn’t say that. This information was relayed to The Daily Beast by an anonymous “Fox News executive.”

So does Ailes really regret his attack on the Times? If so, why didn’t he just say that, instead of having a mystery person issue a statement? We would ask Ailes ourselves, but frankly, his potty mouth is quite intimidating.

AOL’s Patch is cutting 20 managers as it folds its South “zone” into its East zone. The Wall Street Journal reports that the restructuring will allow the hyperlocal news network to dump those staffers, yet keep every one of its 850-plus sites up and running. Jon Brod, CEO of Patch, announced the changes this morning in a memo, which was obtained by the Journal.

“After implementing a more efficient field structure earlier this year, we have seen an impressive boost in both traffic and revenue,” Brod explained in the note. “With an eye on our overarching business goals, streamlining our field management structure not only gives us additional operating leverage, but also allows us to better serve our users and out communities. This is the next step in Patch’s strategy to win.”

You have to admire his optimism, but with the collection of sites currently hemorrhaging about $100 million a year, maybe it’s time to start considering that there is no winning with Patch, no matter how much “streamlining” AOL does.

Fairchild Fashion Media (FFM) has acquired Fashion Networks International (FNI), a media enterprise. FNI’s biggest brand is NowManifest.com, a site that curates posts from high profile fashion bloggers such as Anna Dello Russo, Bryan Grey Yambao, Rumi Neely and Elin Kling. NowManifest gets an average of 1.2 million unique visitors per month.

As part of the deal, NowManifest’s Co-founder, Christian Remröd, will join FFM as Managing Director, NowManifest and Fairchild Fashion Media Business Development.

“We are thrilled to welcome Christian and Fashion Networks International to Fairchild Fashion Media,” said FFM’s President and CEO Gina Sanders. “This acquisition furthers our mission to deliver an insider perspective to the global fashion community, while offering exciting new functionality and meaningful scale.”

According to PandoDaily — who cites two sources — AOL is putting its tech sites Engadget and TechCrunch up for sale. The sites would have to be purchased together, and the asking price is a ridiculous $70 to $100 million. For now there are no serious bidders, but Pando says there has been interest.

And because any story involving TechCrunch wouldn’t be complete without a quote from its founder, Michael Arrington, he told PandoDaily the following:

I don’t know anything. No one tells me anything. I am not in the least bit interested [in buying back TechCrunch]. I was Team Pando all the way until Sarah Lacy fired me. That does not change my position on TechCrunch.

Serious question: If Arrington didn’t have drama in his life, would he be able to function?

The magazine business is not for the faint of heart. Even Time Inc., the publishing powerhouse, has been feeling the print blues. According to All Things D, Time Inc. went through a rough first quarter, seeing operating income drop 38 percent and revenues decline three percent.

Apparently the doldrums can be blamed on slowing ad sales (down five percent) and slumping newsstand sales (down two percent).

The bad news for print only puts more pressure on Next Issue, the so-called “Netflix for magazines.” Time Inc. has a stake in the digital subscription system, which you can see here.

Somewhere, Laura Lang, Time Inc.’s relatively new CEO, is crossing her fingers.

Time Inc. is having its editors work together on a social media policy that will be “released soon,” according to WWD. This probably has something to do with Essence’s now former Managing Editor, Michael Bullerdick, posting ignorant and racist items on his Facebook.

It seems Time has finally realized that if you don’t put regulations on people, they will most likely end up doing something idiotic.

Maybe next time a Time employee wants to be offensive they’ll just tell their friends in person instead.

Meredith Corporation has cut a whopping 80 staffers in a move to address disappointing ad sales during the first quarter of 2012. The New York Post reports that every publication was impacted, including such popular titles as Better Homes and Gardens, Family Circle, Ladies’ Home Journal, Parents and Everyday with Rachael Ray.

Per a statement obtained by the Post, Meredith’s CEO, Stephen Lacy, said the pink slips were needed so that the company could “operate as efficiently as possible.”

We must dedicate resources to meet the demands of the evolving business landscape, and operate as efficiently as possible. As part of this process, today we are announcing selected work-force reductions of 80 employees companywide. These actions will enable us to allocate additional resources to our key strategic-growth initiatives.

Meredith is reporting its first quarter results today; that should be an interesting announcement.

Sure, unpaid internships are the backbone of countless New York City media companies, but that doesn’t mean they’re all effective or even legal. Just look at Harper’s Bazaar, Charlie Rose and the movie Black Swan – all companies were hit with lawsuits over unpaid work by former interns.

So, avoid all the headaches by first re-evaluating your hiring process. ”Haphazardly hiring interns can be a huge waste of time for both the intern and the company,” said Marc Scoleri, co-founder and CEO of creativeinterns.com.

Instead, think of the internship as an investment and plan accordingly. “An interview and discussion about the candidates’ skills, future plans and career interests will help clarify if the candidate will be a good match — and possibly a future employee,” he said.

For more tips on developing a mutually beneficial program, check out 7 Things That Are Ruining Your Company’s Internship Program.

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The New York Times Company announced its 2012 first quarter results today, and as has often been the case, there was mostly bad news. Despite net income skyrocketing to $42 million as a result of the company selling its Regional Newspapers, profit was down 24 percent in 1Q, compared to last year. Print and digital advertising revenue dropped as well, down seven and three percent, respectively. Additionally, revenue at About Group plummeted 23 percent.

“The uneven U.S. economic environment and uncertain global conditions continued to present challenges to the advertising marketplace,” said Arthur Sulzberger Jr., in a statement.

However, it wasn’t all bad news. Circulation revenue was up almost 10 percent and “Paid subscriptions to all of the company’s digital packages, e-readers and replica editions totaled approximately 472,000,” according to Sulzberger, Jr.

Fingers crossed that those numbers keep growing, not the ones we mentioned in the beginning.