Media Events

As we all know, there’s a dearth of female bylines among the biggest publications. While there have been a variety of explanations for why that is, one thing that keeps coming up is that those titles just don’t see that many pitches from women. Well ladies, you’re in luck. A panel of pros wants to help you out.

On May 29 at Public Assembly in Williamsburg, a decorated group including Evan Ratliff, founder of The Atavist; Carolyn Ryan, Metro editor of The New York Times; Jessica Pressler, contributing editor to New York and Katherine Lanpher, an award-winning print and broadcast journalist, will be discussing the best techniques for pitching ideas.

The event — “Throw Like a Girl: Pitching the Hell Out of Your Stories” — is being put together by Her Girl Friday, and will be moderated by Amy O’Leary, a reporter with The New York Times. It’s also free, so you have no excuses. Oh, and there’s a “boozy mixer” afterward, so there’ll be plenty of time for shotgunning PBRs when the panel is finished. No need to get too liquored up while everyone is talking.

For more details, check this Facebook page.

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.

Attention all you politicos out there: New York magazine’s John Heilemann is hosting a conversation with President Obama’s senior strategist David Axelrod at the 92nd Street Y. Heilemann knows his stuff: He covers politics for New York and is the author of the fantastic book Game Change, about the 2008 election. In other words, this will be fun event.

We’re not saying that Heilemann will ask Obama to save the Knicks, but you might want to be there just in case he does.

Tickets are on sale now.

[H/T: Daily Intel]

If all the spring conferences and after work mixers typically leave you noshing on free appetizers rather than actually meeting people, there’s a cure. In mediabistro.com’s latest AvantGuild feature, career coaches outline five steps to help even the most socially averse conquer their new-people phobia.

No. 2: Listen first.

The one hard and fast rule to remember is to listen more than you talk, says Juli Monroe, a coach at 1 to 1 Discovery, a Washington, D.C.-based networking and social media agency. “If you listen first, then you know how to talk about yourself,” she explained. “If you can address their needs, then you can pitch your services, but in a targeted and strategic way.”

Read more in How To Network in Any Situation.

This article is one of several mediabistro.com features exclusively available to AvantGuild subscribers. If you’re not a member yet, you can register for as little as $55 a year and get access to these articles, discounts on seminars and workshops, and more.

Real Simple commissioned a national survey about women and time. Because, just in case you didn’t know, most of us feel like we don’t have enough of it. Ever.

The study “Women & Time: Setting a New Agenda,” designed by Families and Work Institute surveyed about 3,200 American women between the ages of 25-54 in October and November of 2011.

It revealed that much of the time pressure that women feel is actually self-imposed.

The top culprits: poor delegating and not letting go of control.

To help contextualize the study, Real Simple held a breakfast this week at the Time & Life Building in New York City that featured a panel of super accomplished, super busy women (pictured above from L to R):

TIME senior editor Ruth Davis Konigsberg
ABC News correspondent Claire Shipman
Yale Law professor and author of Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother Amy Chua
founder & CCO of Bobbi Brown Cosmetics Bobbi Brown

The panel was moderated by Real Simple managing editor Kristin van Ogtrop (pictured far right). “There is a startling connection between scheduling free time and happiness – and an equally startling connection between the ability to delegate and happiness,” said van Ogtrop. “We hope these findings will spark a national dialogue to help women everywhere reclaim their free time and use it in a way that will ultimately make their lives better.”

For Brown, finding more time required an attitude adjustment where she enjoyed the little things. She recommended that everyone rent the movie Click (yes the one with Adam Sandler) to help put the whole time thing into perspective.

Chua said that declaring that she was bad at a lot of things has been very liberating. She outsources the things that she isn’t good at as well as those things she doesn’t enjoy, like grocery shopping.

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Game Change, HBO’s much buzzed-about film based on the 2008 presidential election and the 2010 book of the same name, held its premiere party at Ziegfeld Theatre last night.

Just a few of the celebs FishbowlNY spotted in attendance and on the red carpet: Julianne Moore, who does a spot-on, yet subtle portrayal of Sarah Palin; Sarah Paulson, who plays senior McCain campaign adviser Nicolle Wallace; the film’s executive producer, Tom Hanks, and his wife Rita Wilson; Jeff Zucker; Arianna Huffington; Monster’s Ball producer Lee Daniels; and just about every political pundit in town.

Unlike the book, which focused on all the candidates in the election, the movie zeroes in on John McCain‘s choice (or should we say, his advisers’ decision) to pick Palin as his running mate. And, while many are praising Moore for the way she humanized the Alaskan governor, Ed Harris brought his A-game too. Everything from his mannerisms to his posture were so McCain-like, it was eerie.

Game Change premieres this Saturday, March 10 on HBO. If you don’t mind a spoiler, head over to our sister blog TVNewser for a full review and peep more photos from the event after the jump.

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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. ”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.

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Our “Meet The Teachers” soiree at Stone Creek Bar & Lounge last night brought a rare opportunity for our students (past, present and future) to mingle with the fantastic mediabistro.com professors.

New and returning students had 24 courses to choose from, like the Stiletto Boot Camp — an online workshop on writing for women’s magazines. Instructor and freelancer Cara Birmbaum shares what she’s learned from writing for Vogue, Elle, Glamour and more. “It’s fast-paced, which is the appeal of this course. It’s a very efficient.”

And don’t feel like after the course ends that your teachers won’t want to keep in touch. ”A lot of the students followed up with us,” says Jessica Kleiman, this year’s keynote speaker at our Job Search Boot Camp. “Which was great! They really connected during the Boot Camp.”

For students like Luz Barbosa, it was enough just having the opportunity to improve with the help of an attentive teacher. ”My instructor was very knowledgeable and helped us understand. He was patient and answered questions thoroughly, said the communications consultant. “For me, it was worth taking the course.”

Missed the chance to get some face-time with the instructors? Then check out tonight’s online Meet the Teachers event! It takes place from 5-6 pm ET. Don’t forget to sign up here, and check out our full course list.

More pictures after the jump! Read more

Our year-end HR breakfast was a rousing success. HR pros from almost 50 media companies including BET, Disney and UrbanDaddy spent Tuesday morning squeezing in an extra two hours of mingling and networking before heading back to the office.

mediabistro.com held the festive gathering to round out another successful year and to thank those who continue to post on our ever-growing job board. Recruiting experts shared their tips while Resto dished out Eggs Benedict and bottomless pastry baskets. And some even got their own mini Elevator Pitch moment rubbing elbows with WebMediaBrands CEO Alan Meckler.

For the past two days, mediabistro has been conducting the Publishing App Expo, featuring discussions on everything and anything app. Yesterday alone there were talks on building apps, setting budgets, if the Kindle Fire was a good thing for publishers and much more. Some of the panel members included Alex Souza, founder of Kwiksher, Jordan Stolper, CEO of StoryDesk, Paul Canetti, Co-Founder of MagAppZine and Debbie Weil, Founder and CEO of Voxie Media.

One of the talks earlier today centered on business models for apps, and among the speakers was Craig Ettinger (pictured, far right), General Manager for Time.com. Along with other members of the panel, Ettinger offered words of wisdom on subscription methods and how to make an app work within a publisher’s business plan. Afterward he took some time to speak to mediabistro’s Publishing Editor Jason Boog.

During their talk, Ettinger said that it’s important for publishers to design for the tablet experience. He said magazines should use the platform to create something new. Ettinger also shared some advice for journalists who want to create an app, but don’t have the backing of a major publisher. What are those tips? Well, you’ll have to check back next week for the full interview.

The first thing you need to understand when discussing the Condé Nast luncheon yesterday is that it was just a lunch. Luncheon is just a rich person word for lunch. With that out of the way, let’s get to some of the more notable moments from the meal at the Four Seasons.

The New York Post reports that everyone was in pretty good spirits. Charles Townsend, the CEO of Condé, said, “We had a very good year — up in high single digits,” and said the company’s digital business was doing well.  Si Newhouse was sitting at a table with Scott Dadich, David Remnick, Brandon Holley and a few others. This seating arrangement can mean something or nothing. Feel free to pick one and spread those thoughts to everyone you know.

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