With a bimonthly print publication, podcasts and a robust website and online store, The Fader has succeeded as a brand by allowing each of its outlets to have its own style, says Andy Cohn, president and publisher of Fader Media.

“We saw a lot of other music publications trying to become websites and just becoming very busy and very formulaic,” Cohn told Mediabistro for its latest So What Do You Do? interview. “For us, we let our website be the website and let the magazine play to its own strengths, both from a visual — design, photography — and medium- to longer-form journalism standpoint. The approach that we’ve always taken is great content first, and then figure out how and where it goes second. And we’ve always been willing to let our readership play a role in that, because we’re not going to ever be married to one medium.”

For more, read So What Do You Do, Andy Cohn, President and Publisher of The Fader?

– Nicholas Braun

Way back in 1995, Ryan Schreiber was a high school graduate working as a record store clerk. Finding little on the Internet about indie music, he decided to start his own Web page and launched Pitchfork. With no publishing experience, the site eventually became the online authority on indie music, and nowadays a review there can make or break a career.

In the latest installment of Mediabistro’s So What Do You Do? series, Schreiber discusses what the success of sites like his means for print music magazines.

“I think if you’re going to be able to do a print publication that works in 2013, it has to really take advantage of that format, and the things that that format offers that are much more difficult to execute on the Web are having really expansive, beautiful layouts for your articles and features and making it feel like a desirable object.”

He continued, “It used to be that when you picked up a music magazine in, like, the 90s there was all this cheap, chintzy content thrown in there and goofy sidebars and just sort of filler, almost. And it’s really just not an option anymore. I feel like if people are willing to make an investment in a music magazine — or in a magazine of any sort, currently — they want something that feels substantial and feels significant. It’s not a joke. It’s a real thing.”

Read the full interview in So What Do You Do, Ryan Schreiber, Founder and CEO of Pitchfork?

It’s official: New York’s Country station is now WNSH/NASH FM 94.7. The temporary WRXP call letters now belong to a station in Minnesota.

The newly acquired Cumulus station made the historic move to Country last week. Now, the nationwide search begins for an air staff and a combination program director/air personality.

Ed Salamon knows all about programming Country in New York. During the latter half of the 1970s Salamon was in charge at WHN, the most successful Country station New York has ever heard.

The timing was right for a Country return, and also for Salamon to write a book detailing his memories from the WHN days. While he puts the finishing touches on the book, due out next month, it’s a perfect opportunity to pick Salamon’s brain about NASH.

• Related: FishbowlNY, Country is back in NYC

Salamon, who lives in Nashville, took advantage of the Web site’s streaming live feature. Waiting another month or two before NASH starts to use live jocks, Salamon cautions anyone from being critical as this isn’t the final product.

“I can’t be listening and commenting on it, because it’s going to be something different,” Salamon says.

Read more

The world is poised to celebrate another New Year’s Eve in Times Square. But this one will be unlike any in the last forty years, as there will be no Dick Clark preceding over the all-important ball drop.

Clark died in April at the age of 82. He suffered a massive heart attack, and was dealing with the complications from a stroke since 2004.

For the majority of his decades in the business, Clark’s boyish looks kept his title “Oldest Living Teenager” intact. He was synonymous with New Year’s Eve since creating his Rockin’ Eve special to usher in 1973. He marked his 40th anniversary with the holiday program just months before his death.

The show must go on, as New Year’s Eve goes on without Clark, and his beloved show continues his legacy and to bear his name.

In recent years, tourists or anyone else venturing to the Times Square Visitors Center, or online, were asked to write notes to help ring in the New Year that would be used as confetti.

This year, people are encouraged to leave fond farewells to Clark.

Tim Tompkins, Times Square Alliance president, says approximately 400 messages were left for the broadcasting icon. Those hand-written notes came from people from as far as away as Fiji and Yemen. Overall, they receive thousands of well-wishers year-round on various topics.

Tompkins tells FishbowlNY that Clark played a major psychological role when New York needed it most.

“For many decades, this was one of the few positive images that went out to the rest of the country of New York City and Times Square, Tompkins says. “This is the time you had Midnight Cowboy, you had Taxi Driver.” Read more

Dave Brubeck was composer and pianist, but that barely scratches the surface of his illustrious career. Brubeck passed away yesterday in a Norwalk, Connecticut hospital. He was one day shy of turning 92.

Jazz and Brubeck were one and the same. He spanned the entire jazz scene in America after World War II. He formed the Dave Brubeck Quartet in 1951. By 1954, Brubeck reached a historic milestone when he was chosen as the first modern jazz musician to grace the cover of Time magazine.

If Time was Brubeck’s “arrival,” his popularity reached its zenith with the seminal album Time Out in 1959. It marked the first jazz LP to crack 1 million in sales.

The album includes Brubeck’s signature piece Take Five, which also became the quartet’s theme.

Paul Cavalconte played Take Five and other Brubeck riffs during his stint at WQCD.

“Take Five” was the most covered original jazz title on CD 101.9,” Cavalconte tells FishbowlNY. “I think we played about five or six versions, counting the original.”

Read more

If the name Steve Stoute doesn’t ring a bell, perhaps his partner at New York-based ad agency Translation does: Jay-Z. The pair’s relationship dates back to the ’90s and has now culminated into not only ad agency collaboration and creative consultation for the Brooklyn Nets, but a music festival for Budweiser dubbed “Made in America,” which recently took place in Philadelphia.

In Part I of our recent Media Beat chat with Stoute, the record-turned-advertising exec talks not only about Translation’s expanding relationship with Budweiser, but touches on the Made in America fest (soon to be turned into a Ron Howard documentary) as well as his agency’s marketing mix.

This and all MediabistroTV productions can also be viewed on our YouTube Channel. Be sure to check out Part II and III of our chat with Stoute tomorrow and Wednesday, respectively.

Nicki Minaj is one of the top rappers out there today. The Jamaica, Queens native was set to headline yesterday’s Hot 97 Summer Jam day-long concert at MetLife Stadium. But that never happened because just hours before Minaj was due to hit the stage, she was ordered by her mentor and record label head Li’l Wayne not to appear.

At issue, Hot 97/WQHT morning host Peter Rosenberg (simply Rosenberg on the air), according to the Daily News, made critical statements about Minaj latest song, Starships.

“Young Money ain’t doing summer jam,” Rosenberg tweeted, which is a reference to Wayne’s rap crew that includes Minaj.

And she didn’t.

“I go above and beyond for my fans. But won’t ever go against Wayne’s word. What he says, goes,” she tweeted last night.

In another tweet, she took a swipe at Hot 97, “I’d like to thank the staff @ Philly & Boston summer jams for treating their guests w/respect! Had a blast.”

A statement by Hot 97:

“Hot 97 Summer Jam is the biggest hip hop Festival in the world. It’s about more than one act, it always has been, it always will be. It is about a culture and we continue to deliver the greatest live hip hop experience on the planet.”

As you may have heard, on Friday Adam Yauch died. Yauch was one of the Beastie Boys, one of the musical voices of their generation.

Neal Brennan is a comedian, and the co-creator of the Comedy Central series “Chappelle’s Show.” To honor Yauch, Brennan posted an unreleased Beastie Boys performance on his YouTube page. The performance was supposed to be for season three of “Chappelle’s Show,” but when comedian Dave Chappelle left the program, it never had a chance to see the light of day.

Until today that is.

Unfortunately, lawyers for Viacom have sent a takedown notice to YouTube, and the video has been removed.

Read more

Pete Fornatale, the man at the forefront of the progressive radio movement on FM in the late 1960s died yesterday after complications from a stroke at Manhattan’s Beth Israel Medical Center. He was 66.

Fornatale was an institution in New York radio, and at Fordham University’s WFUV. The Bronx native graduated in 1967 with a B.A. in Communication Arts. Fornatale remained on the school’s station until 1969. His future would soon be tied to WNEW-FM, with two decades at the station that long billed itself as the place “where rock lives!”

Another legendary air personality, Dennis Elsas worked with Fornatale at both stations. He was at the microphone yesterday informing listeners of Fornatale’s passing. Their friendship started 45 years ago. Still a student at Queens College, and working for the school’s radio station, Elsas found Fornatale by mistake on his alarm clock.

“I really enjoyed the show,” Elsas tells FishbowlNY. “…That accidentally hearing of his show, and liking what I heard, was the formation of a relationship, and we quickly saw that we had a lot in common.”

Fornatale had a misstep when he attempted to join WNEW in 1967, as he recalled to me in 2009.

Read more

Whether showing that turbans can be chic or sending the paps into a tizzy just by entering Jay-Z and Beyonce‘s TriBeCa crib, June Ambrose often has the fashion world falling at her feet. And she single-handedly upgraded hip-hop’s street corner image with her innovative approach to music videos. (See this and this.)

In our Media Beat interview, Ambrose explained how she tapped into her West Indian roots for one of her most iconic looks: those shiny suits donned by Diddy and Mase in Notorious B.I.G‘s posthumous “Mo’ Money, Mo’ Problems” clip.

“I showed [Diddy] the red metallic and he said, ‘I am not wearing that.’ I had to make one red leather outfit and one metallic leather outfit and… I won!” the star of VH1′s Styled by June said.

“You have to go into this business very fearless, and you have to have integrity for what you do… I said to him, ‘You have to just trust me. I know that sounds wild, but I put my career on this moment. I’m telling you it will make a huge difference.’ Once he saw the first take and he looked at playback, he looked at me and said ‘okay.’ And that was the beginning of not only a great working relationship, but a great friendship.”

Part 2:June Ambrose on Her New VH1 Show, Styled by June
Part 3: June Ambrose on How to Become a Fashion Stylist
Bonus! June Ambrose on Her Trademark Turban

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