Parties

Bravo senior vice president of original programming and development (and Media Beat guest) Andy Cohen and Real Housewife of New York Countess LuAnn de Lesseps, are hosting a Memorial Day Weekend gala to benefit Miracle House, a charity that helps caregivers and patients who come to New York in search of medical treatment.

The May 29 event takes place at the Bridgehampton Tennis and Surf Club. Grammy-winning Motown singer Thelma Houston (“Don’t Leave Me This Way“) will perform.

For more from Andy Cohen, check out mediabistro.com’s Media Beat interview.

Press release after the jump.

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Blockbuster attendance at last Friday’s event, Tumblr Reads: Internet Writers IRL at SoHo’s Housing Works bookstore, indicated the IRL power of online communities, or at least the power of free booze.

What seemed like the entire New York Tumblr community flooded the space to hear stories from Tumblr-famous writers including Emily Gould, Julie Klausner, and Choire Sicha. At the 6:30 start time, a massive line of rumpled young New Yorkers formed outside the store’s entrance, and the venue reached its 300-person capacity shortly before Tumblr founder David Karp thanked everyone for coming and the readings got underway.

More photos, more recap after the jump.

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Save the date: Tomorrow night join Mediabistro.com for a cocktail party to bring awareness to WhyHunger, a 35-year old non-profit dedicated to fighting poverty and hunger both in the United States and world-round.

The event, which teams up with WhyHunger to raise the profile of its annual Harry Chapin Media Awards Ceremony begins at 6:30 and runs till 8:30 at the Trattoria Cinque. According to the site, the Harry Chapin Media Awards were founded in 1982, to “bring exposure and prestige to journalists who tell the stories of hunger and poverty.” Last year’s winners include Debbie Cenziper and Sarah Cohen of The Washington Post for “Forced Out,” an investigation into the D.C. real estate boom and its effects on the housing projects, and Aliya Sternstein for her CQ Weekly piece “Hunger Hits Home.”

The winners and finalists will be honored during a ceremony at the Times Square Hard Rock Cafe in September 2010.

The event is open to the media and RSVP only. Reserve your space here!

Read More: Enter the Harry Chapin Media Awards — Why Hunger

MediaElites.com’s Aaron Gell and Drew Grant, Advertising Age‘s Nat Ives and Jeff Bercovici of AOL Daily Finance

Last night’s Holiday Blowout hosted by MediaElites.com at 200 Orchard had all the ingredients for a good old new media holiday party: open bar, a feeling of good will (donate an old coat!), plenty of media types milling around and Big Buck Hunter. Sometimes reporters just need to let loose, and we’d rather they did it with a video game and a big plastic gun, because it’s just so much more fun that way.

Representing MediaElites.com (formerly ASSME) in the crowd was founder Aaron Gell and our fellow Fishbowl-er Drew Grant. We also spotted all the usual suspects, including many former FishbowlNY editors, Dylan Stableford, Rachel Sklar and Glynnis MacNicol.

We also learned that media party-goers can give as good as they drink; after asking attendees to each bring an old coat to donate, MediaElites carted away five nine garbage bags full of outerwear.

And as for Big Buck Hunter, we hear the big winner of the evening was media blogger Jeff Bercovici of AOL’s Daily Finance, who swiftly defeated Advertising Age‘s Nat Ives and publicist Shawna Seldon of the Rosen Group. Glad we sat that one out.

More pictures after the jump.

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Last night, members of the New York media gathered to toast The Atlantic and the incredible year the publication — and its parent company — have had.

There was plenty to celebrate. This year, the title reported a 16 percent increase in advertising revenue, thanks to a 115 percent increase in digital revenue. Events and subscription revenues also saw a boost, with digital subscription revenues climbing 158 percent. What’s more, 2009 saw the launch of the company’s new digital property, The Atlantic Wire, as well as politics, business and food channels on TheAtlantic.com.

“We had such an incredible year,” publisher Jay Lauf told us last night.

And there were plenty of people on hand last night to celebrate that year with Lauf and The Atlantic‘s president Justin Smith, including Glynnis MacNicol and Rachel Sklar of Mediaite.com, All Things D‘s Peter Kafka, John Carney of Silicon Alley Insider, New York Times reporter Brian Stelter and PRNewser editor Joe Ciarallo.

More pictures after the jump

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Saveur Publisher Merri Lee Kingsly and Editor-in-Chief James Oseland have a great time at their holiday party Tuesday night

We’ve been to enough media parties to become very well-versed in how to delicately eat hors d’oeuvres while chatting with someone and balancing a glass of wine. We know to steer clear of the mini sliders and stick to anything that can be consumed in one bite.

But when we arrived at Saveur‘s jam-packed test kitchen-cum-party space on Tuesday night, we knew we would have to throw all our party rules out. The theme of the potluck party was simplicity and celebration, and it was catered by some of the best chefs in the biz, who mingled among the crowd or served their food from steaming chafing dishes themselves. And never mind that one-bite rule; we dug into Scott Conant‘s balsamic glazed ribs, Christopher Lee‘s black truffle and bucheron cheese potato gratin and chocolate cupcakes topped with caramel buttercream and crumbled bacon, which sounds weird but was delicious.

After a successful year that saw Saveur leading its category in ad sales, publisher Merri Lee Kingsly was absolutely beaming as she and editor-in-chief James Oseland welcomed all the participating chefs, including Marco Canora, John DeLucie, Alex Guarnaschelli, Gavin Kaysen, Michael Laiskonis, George Mendes, Seamus Mullen, Pichet Ong, Zak Pelaccio, Michael Psilakis and Bill Telepan.

The chefs, with Kingsly and Oseland

More photos after the jump

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Last night, mediabistro.com kicked off the holiday party season with its own candy cane maritini-soaked shindig. We got to Tribeca Cinemas early, commandeered a big bowl of popcorn and snagged a spot at the bar, where we could get a good view of the party-goers on their way in.

Some of our fellow bloggers were also in attendance, in addition the event’s bubbly hostess, mediabistro.com’s senior editor Donya Blaze (left). TVNewser editors Chris Ariens and Kevin Allocca, as well as GalleyCat editor Jason Boog, were all there, mixing and mingling with the crowd.

TVNewser editor Kevin Allocca, Mediaite.com’s Steve Krakauer and TVNewser’s Chris Ariens

More pictures after the jump

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eMedia Vitals is not your normal aggregation site. Instead, it lends its arms out to publishers and content producers as well. While most aggregators are content to just piggy-back on other people’s content and get whatever pageviews or ad sales are to be found out there, eMedia working with them to create revenue for their product.

Last night, the new media company held a launch party at New York’s social bar. Pictures after the jump.

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If all the recent layoff news has driven you to drink, then you’re in luck.

Next Tuesday, mediabistro.com is throwing a cocktail party at Tribeca Cinemas hosted by yours truly, FishbowlNY editor Amanda Ernst. There will be $5 beer and wine, networking and a chance to commiserate, swap war stories, make new friends or just trade gossip.

Here are all the details:

When: Tuesday, November 10, 6:30 – 8:30pm

Where:
Tribeca Cinemas, Lower Lounge
54 Varick Street
at Laight Street
New York, NY

RSVP here

Hope to see you there.

(Photo via Flickr)

Last night, New York public radio station WNYC threw a gala at Gotham Hall to celebrate its recent acquisition of New York’s classical radio station WQXR and honor its former owner, The New York Times Co.

Hosted by Alec Baldwin, the evening featured performances by folksinger Judy Collins and opera diva Deborah Voigt. David Sanger, a New York Times correspondent and host of the “Washington Report” on WQXR — and grandson of the station’s founder Elliott Sanger — presented the Times Co. with an award, accepted by Times publisher Arthur Sulzberger Jr., commemorating the company’s stewardship of WQXR since 1944.

Later, Baldwin announced that the winner of the evening’s raffle would get a radio — actually, an Internet radio tuned to WQXR. “The New York Times got a piece of glass, for the millions and millions of dollars they’ve coughed up,” he said. “A piece of glass. The winner of the raffle gets a radio.”

(Video and more pictures after the jump)

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