Archives: January 2007

As much as we’ve come to enjoy our perch at the bar with its bird’s eye view, we were thrilled when one of our favorite television titans, Andrew Heyward, invited us to join him and his guests for lunch. Today’s lunchtime chronicler, Diane Clehane, chatted with the always affable and extremely insightful former president of CBS News and Bostonian pals Jeffrey F. Rayport, chairman and founder of Marketspace and his wife, investment consultant Hilary Hedge. Andrew, who is currently working with fellow Harvard alum Mr. Rayport as a consultant to Marketspace’s media practice, looked relaxed and happy (love the Zegna suit!) as he weighed in on his former employer’s decision to hire Katie Couric to anchor the evening news. “They are not to be underestimated. They deserve credit for trying new ideas and taking the program in new directions. The reporting is excellent.” His take on Couric: “She’s very talented and has brought a warmth to the broadcast. It takes time to find your voice and it takes time for viewers to find you.” So back off, you naysayers!

Here’s the rundown on the best of the rest:

1. Bruce Wasserstein presiding over a table of imposing-looking gentlemen.

2. Peter Brown and Joan Cooney.

3. ‘Mayor’ Joe Armstrong and New York Social Diary‘s David Patrick Columbia with the lovely Joan Jacobson.

4. Herb Siegal and guest.

5. Producer Irv Winkler and an outdoorsy-looking gent. The hit-maker — whose latest picture, Rocky Balboa, has proven to be a knockout punch at the box office — was collared by Peggy Siegal (who was showing off her pics taken on a recent trip to Africa to all who stopped by) on his way out. The uber publicist was overheard extending an invite to Irv to attend her screening of “The Lives of Others.” Second shift: Former New York City Council president and one-time mayoral candidate Andrew Stein.

6. Our friend Terry Allen Kramer, Margo McNabb and guest.

7. A flack named “BJ,” we’re told …

8. Messieurs Heyward and Rayport, Ms. Hedge and Ms. Clehane.

Read more

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George W. Bush made a surprise visit to the New York Stock Exchange floor — only the second sitting president to do so

CNN’s transcript:

LISOVICZ: President Bush, welcome to Wall Street. Welcome to Wall Street.

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Good to be here, thanks.

LISOVICZ: What do you think of the reception here?

BUSH: I’m impressed and grateful.

LISOVICZ: Do you think it’s warmer than on Capitol Hill right now?

Kyra?

PHILLIPS: Susan Lisovicz, I knew you could do it. You of all people got the president live on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange.

LISOVICZ: I don’t know — I don’t know if you saw the glance he gave me after I asked him if he would have an easier time with Capitol Hill, but it was sort of a suspicious glance, and he covered the microphone.

PHILLIPS: He covered your microphone?

LISOVICZ: He did. He did. He said — he is — probably about ten feet away from me right now. Anyway, it’s a historic day on Wall Street, and I’m moving forward because I’m being pushed forward.

Bush, of course, has had a rather checkered history with CNN microphones, and, for that matter, so has Kyra Phillips.

Bush ‘Shit’ Utterance Gives Media Editors Pause, New York Times a Watershed Moment

Hey Kyra: ‘Your Mic Is On. Turn It Off’ [TVNewser]

Parties, panels and other notable media gatherings

WEDNESDAY 01.31.07

WHAT: NYC Blogger Summit
WHEN: 7:15PM
WHERE: NBC Studios, 30 Rockefeller Plaza
WHY YOU SHOULD GO: If you are a blogger — or “yogger,” perhaps it’s with a soft “bl” — you probably already RSVP’d on the promise of free drinks. That and Today in New York‘s Rob Morrison — yes!
NOTE: Invitees only.

WHAT: The Raw Word: Screenplay Readings
WHO: Panelists include director Mary Harron (American Psycho, I Shot Andy Warhol) and PBS writer/producer Michael Winship
WHEN: 8:00PM
WHERE: JCC Manhattan, 334 Amsterdam Ave
WHY YOU SHOULD GO: Screenwriters, including American Psycho‘s Harron, offer up new work to a live audience and panel of industry hotshots.

WHAT: “Free Culture, Transparency, and Search”
WHO: Wikipedia’s Jimmy Wales
WHEN: 3:30PM-4:45PM
WHERE: Courant Institute, 251 Mercer Street, Room 109
WHY YOU SHOULD GO: I don’t know, read his Wiki.

• Obama: Putting “deep freeze” on Fox News reporters? [Washington Post's Sleuth]
• Judy Miller: Testifies at Libby trial. [WSJ]
• Graydon Carter: Film untouched by buyers at Sundance. [Page Six]
• New York Mag: To move downtown? [WWD]
• Wallpaper: Eying Details editor Dan Peres to fill top spot. [WWD]
• Fashion Mags: Spring previews. [MIN]
• Ann Moore: Time Inc. needs more risks, failures. [Forbes]
• Yahoo: To launch 100 entertainment Web sites. [NYT]
• Letterman: To celebrate 25 years in late night. [Daily News]
  

From an inside source:

There will be a 4:15pm annoucement today to the iVillage staff that the office is moving to Englewood Cliffs, NJ by the end of 2007 — affecting 200+ employees, most of whom are going to be none-too-happy. Coincidentally, most of the top brass at iVillage lives in New Jersey.

Developing …

Trouble in “paradise”?

Tom Foster, editor-in-chief, Men’s Journal, Monday:

“The conventional wisdom in the magazine world is that you have to job-hop to get ahead — that’s not necessarily true. I got the job because I had been there and knew the magazine through its various forms.”

Today:

Tom Foster, editor of Men’s Journal, has resigned, citing irreconcilable differences with Jann Wenner. He’ll be out of the office by 1 p.m. today.

Wenner Media’s full release:

Read more

Speak of the devil. Maer Roshan answers the proverbial question:

“Who needs another magazine?”

It’s a question I’m often asked by cynical media reporters (and occasionally by my mother). I started Radar four years ago because I believed there was a place in the world for a smart, subversive title that didn’t pull its punches. After five issues and a few bumps and scrapes, I still do. Whatever they’re saying this week about the demise of print, I think great magazines of the kind Radar aspires to be are essential as ever.

Certainly it would be more economical to hire pajama-clad post-collegiates to snarkily blog on content produced by others. But if your mission is to break new ground, dispatching actual reporters and photographers to cover actual stories still has an essential power.

Not to disparage the Internet: Our new site, radaronline.com, which launched last September, now draws more than a million visitors a month and breaks news every day. But while there’s something undeniably thrilling about responding to news as it happens, there’s also much to be said for taking your time. With magazines you don’t get second chances (not usually, anyway), which compels a more thoughtful and nuanced approach.

O.K., fair enough, we’ll take a careful and nuanced approach here. We’ll wait until we see the results of Maer’s careful and nuanced approach before we snarkily blog on its content.

EARLIER:

Radar Gets D-Nasty For First Re-Relaunch Issue

Vanity Fair editor Graydon Carter is still political.

The Columbia Journalism Review reviews Carter’s 2004 pledge to mediabistro.com that his involvement in bashing the Bush administration in the form of a monthly editor’s letter had “probably run its course”:

David Hirschman‘s question for a 2004 Media Bistro article was the same one reporters had been asking Graydon Carter for more than a year: “Do you plan to keep Vanity Fair more political?” Hirschman was referring to the magazine generally and to Carter’s ferocious editor’s letters in particular, which, since 2003, had become an outlet for his disgust with the Bush administration. Carter’s reply was defensive. “Vanity Fair’s always covered politics quite heavily,” he said. “I think that my own participation has probably run its course. I’ve said everything I want to say.”

He had not, however. Two and half years have passed and Carter shows no sign of quieting his political voice.

We could’ve told you that last fall.

Vanity Fire [CJR]

EARLIER:

Spy Puck Party: ‘Freeze-Dried’ Version Of Yore

Q&A: Graydon Carter

As we eagerly await the re-relaunch of Radar magazine like everyone else, GalleyCat says that the magazine has picked up the first serial rights to blogger, banker and Times Style writer Dana Vachon‘s debut, Mergers & Acquisitions, “a thinly-disguised novel about hijinks in the investment banking world” — beating out New York and the New Yorker for the excerpt.

Meanwhile, Radar is apparently looking for an intern.

The street date for the magazine’s latest print issue is a tantalizing two weeks away.

EARLIER:

Radar Continues Hiring Push

—–Original Message—–
From: Jim Kelly
Sent: Monday, January 30, 2007 12:48 PM
To: Dylan Stableford
Subject: Out of Office AutoReply

I am attending the Libby trial in Washington until Wednesday afternoon. I will not be reading e-mails while court is in session. If you need immediate assistance, please call Ann King at XXX-XXXX.