Archives: March 2008

The back wall of Tar Art Media’s eco-friendly office, complete with wood salvaged from a barn in upstate New York.

Evanly Schindler, the visionary behind Blackbook, is jumping back into the magazine world with Tar, a glossy publication slated to launch in October produced by Tar Art Media, the company he runs with Maurizio Marchiori, formerly VP of global marketing and communications at Diesel. “Everything [about Tar Art Media] is connected by art, aesthetics and social consciousness,” Schindler said. “[Tar] is a high-concept publication with the ability to be sustainable.”

To achieve this, the magazine will be published on a combination of recycled and eco paper (meaning, for every tree cut down, one is planted). As a result, paper quality and “digital treatment” varies throughout the prototype we were shown, but according to Schindler, advertisers have not shied away — paging through the mag is actually a very cool feeling. “People [and advertisers] are psyched by something that’s beautiful but is going deeper into people’s minds,” Schindler says, crediting the biannual publishing schedule for allowing editors to focus on big-picture topics. (Every page of the prototype has a swatch of tar on it, creating a “visceral experience.”)

But what about the other big names involved with the project?

Read more

Create a social media strategy, launch your campaign, and track the results in our Social Media Marketing Boot Camp starting February 16. The online event and workshop will feature speakers including The Onion‘s Baratunde Thurston (left), Facebook’s Morin Oluwole, and bitly’s Tim Devane. Register now.

AT&T gets ready to launch its mobile TV service (finally), Verizon Wireless offers direct access to MySpace Mobile, and
Paramount Pictures gets into the video game game. Here’s Julie Ann Sageer with today’s Daily Angle.

Soho’s Puck building was packed Sunday afternoon with brokers, buyers and browsers checking out New York’s hottest luxe real estate projects. The first ever New York Observer Condo Showcase made one stop shopping easy for anyone with a few (or 10) million dollars burning a hole in their Rock & Republics.

The idea was the brainchild of Observer Media Group publisher and real estate scion Jared Kushner, who apparently liked what he saw. He picked up a pad in Manhattan. Kushner tells FishbowlNY the one-day walk thorough made it simple for potential buyers to see the projects, and the developers to develop interest in them. The free-flowing Mimosas and aged Tarentaise helped.

From Riverdale to FiDi (that’s Financial District to you and me); from Hell’s Kitchen, to Williamsburg, 40 high-end properties represented.

Kushner says the event exceeded expectations with more than 2,250 people attending. He plans to make it a twice a year event. The $10 entrance fee ($5 online) goes to the Coalition for the Homeless.

And plays some Green Day…

We mentioned last week that Gawker Media was moving to a new office. So cheers to the intrepid reader who just sent us this YouTube photomontage of scenes from the old Gawker office set to Green Day.

Now back to our usual programming.

Billie Cohen‘s long relationship with Time Out New York adds another a chapter, as the magazine’s former associate features editor returns to be its new deputy editor. She had been writing a biweekly column in The New York Times Escapes section. Previously, Cohen worked at Tony as everything from an editorial intern to launch editor of Time Out Singapore.

Also joining “New York’s Culture Bible” are Seek editor Erin Wylie — jumping from MSLO — and assistant editor Allison Williams, who had been features editor at the New York Metro.

Is Time Inc. next?

Shortly after 1pm yesterday, word leaked out of a massive exodus at Newsweek. In short: More than 100 staffers accepted a buyout from Newsweek. The departing names include David Gates, David Ansen,Cathleen McGuigan and all of the magazine’s chief researchers. Over at Radar, Charles Kaiser writes:

146 staffers were offered the chance to leave the magazine, with as much as two years of their current salary as a departing bonus, depending on their age and length of service. The package also includes pension sweetners and the chance to continue health insurance coverage until the age of 65. More staffers than expected accepted the offer, so at least some their jobs are likely to be filled by new hires. But dozens of positions will be eliminated permanently.

The news isn’t so great at Time Inc. either. Nat Ives reported in Ad Age that the company’s quarterly management meeting left many with the impression that massive job cuts are coming up in the near future.

Right now, Barry Diller is celebrating the Friday court ruling that gave him the ability to breakup internet giant IAC over John Malone‘s objections.

But there’s some good news for Malone. One of his properties, cable network Starz Entertainment, is embarking on a $25 million rebranding project.

The cable network just unveiled a new logo (shown above) and they are also launching a new ad campaign entitled “Are You Ready?”

According to SVP marketing Nancy McGee:

“The new brand campaign is the culmination of an evolving process for Starz [...] Clearly we are not the company we were 18 months ago. We’ve invested in new and exciting ways to entertain and engage our audiences,from the production of our new original series to first-run theatrical movies from Overture Films. We are the ultimate source for a commercial-free premium movie experience. This long-term brand investment was a natural next step and signifies our strong commitment to deliver the best entertainment experiences for our customers.”

The “not the company we were 18 months ago” crack, however, surprised FishbowlNY. Did the cable network really want to kick off their new marketing initative with a press quote that alluded to the company’s public image as an, err, underdog?

Starz’s new logo was designed by Darwin in partnership with Design & Image Communications.

The New York Post‘s weekly magazine summary just gave pride of place to mags for “hopeless hipsters.”

Who qualifies as a hipster magazine in the New York Post‘s book?

Paper: “The magazine boasts some of the best production values of the hip set.”

BlackBook: “The photos of [Janet] Jackson trussed up in latex and headgear are supposed to be provocative, but the S&M spread comes across as silly playacting, and the interview with the pop star falls flat.”

Interview: “With the departure of longtime editor Ingrid Sischy, we have to wonder whether Interview is due for a makeover. The magazine — created by Andy Warhol in 1969 — seems stuck in another era.”

Zink: “There’s no nice way to say this: Zink has embarrassingly bad design and poor production values. [...] A quick read tells us that a bunch of first-time freelancers are working for peanuts.”

After Jane folded, FishbowlNY reported that ex-EIC Brandon Holley had inked a deal with Yahoo! to run division Yahoo! Lifestyles and, err, “oversee forthcoming launches in other content areas.” That’s how MediaWeek put it, anyhow.

Holley developed a major project launch for Yahoo! that just launched today. The web portal, Yahoo! Shine, is branded as a “smart, dynamic place for women to gather, get info and to connect with each other and the world around them.”

According to Holley:

We women are experiencing something very cool happening in our culture today and Shine plans to be right in the middle of it. We’ve got a woman campaigning for the top job in the country, female bloggers now outnumber men, and we’ve got Tina Fey writing a hit network show, for goodness sakes. We no longer need to stand by passively as the media portrays us as fashion-obsessed diet victims. With the Internet as our megaphone, we can now portray ourselves as funny, opinionated women who are in charge of our incomes, careers, families, and happiness.

And isn’t that all we’ve ever wanted?

Other employees include publisher Amy Iorio, former head of the Microsoft Developer Network, Annette Cardwell, Jessica Ashley (Sassafrass), Charlene Prince Birkeland (Babble, San Francisco Chronicle), Erin Flaherty (another Jane refugee) and Valerie Rains (Blueprint, Real Simple).

Yahoo!’s official press release can be found here.

Our man Kelefa Sanneh, New York Times pop music critic turned intrepid New Yorker reporter, just unveiled his first article for the magazine.

In a word, it’s awesome. Sanneh just delivered a piece on Barack Obama‘s controversial Trinity United Church of Christ. Here’s a sampling:

“I have never seen so many white people here in my life!” It was Good Friday on the South Side of Chicago, at Trinity United Church of Christ, which has been Senator Barack Obama’s church for about twenty years and the most notorious congregation in America for about three and a half weeks. The preacher was in the pulpit, recalling a scene outside the church earlier in the week. He gestured at the reporters who had come to take notes. “I hope you’re tithing,” he said.

We’re glad to see Sanneh’s found a home at the New Yorker. The fella’s a killer reporter.