Archives: November 2009

PRNewser: The new FTC guidelines go into effect tomorrow, but don’t expect social media campaigns to subside, especially during the holiday season.

TVNewser: The Nieman Foundation has set up a new fellowship for business journalists, thanks to a nearly $1 million grant from the Donald W. Reynolds foundation.

Financial Times: Rupert Murdoch‘s son Lachlan is among the group of bidders looking to buy a group of Nielsen Business Media titles including Billboard and The Hollywood Reporter.

Associated Press: Elizabeth Kennedy, the chief of the Associated Press‘ East Africa bureau, has been named chief of the Beirut bureau.

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.

Here Media, which publishes The Advocate and Out today announced that it was promoting Jon Barrett, editor-in-chief of The Advocate and Advocate.com, to editorial director of the newly created Advocate Group, which will now oversee all of the magazine’s print, online and TV content as well other Here Media brands such as SheWired.com and PlanetOut.com.

The announcement comes just a few weeks after Here CEO Paul Colichman announced plans to bundle The Advocate‘s print magazine with Out for subscribers.

In his new position, Barrett will be in charge of growing the Advocate brand, an undertaking that includes oversight of an upcoming hour-long television magazine series aimed at the brand’s LGBT audience. Before joining The Advocate, Barrett worked as features editor for O magazine spin-off O at Home and served as senior editor at Cargo and Real Simple.

Full release after the jump

Previously: Publisher Plans To Bundle Out With The Advocate For Subscribers

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When Condé Nast folded Gourmet magazine along with three other titles two months ago, there was a little bit of consolation for the award-winning food title: It wasn’t completely disappearing, but would be folded into Epicurious.com, one of Condé Nast Digital’s Web entities.

Now, six months after the release of Epicurious’ iPhone application, the number of downloads for the free app have exceeded one million, creating a small silver lining for those who are still smarting from Gourmet‘s absence, and a boon for Condé Nast, which has been striving to prove itself successful in the digital realm.

Full press release after the jump.

Previously: Breaking: Condé Shutters Four Magazines: Cookie, Gourmet, Two Bridal Titles, Condé Nast Officially Announces Its Digital Magazine Initiative

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Multimedia company Radio One announced today that it is suspending publication of its bi-monthly magazine Giant, while launching the Web site GIANTLife.com in order to “super-serve a highly underserved audience” of affluent African Americans ages 21 to 34. Radio One acquired Giant three years ago, the company said.

“Over the past three years, the print version of Giant magazine has grown in advertiser support and fostered a loyal following among readers both online and off,” said Tom Newman, president of Interactive One, Radio One’s digital arm, in an announcement today. “The economic downturn has had a tremendous impact on print media and we had to make the decision to suspend printing the publication.”

Newman added that the shift from the print to the online and interactive format will be able to better serve Giant‘s readers and advertisers.

Allhiphop.com reports that the last issue of Giant, featuring Alicia Keys on the cover, will hit newsstands on December 15. Meanwhile, a post on Giant‘s Web site announcing the launch of GIANTLife.com says the site will launch with an exclusive video series, “Cover Stories”, hosted by Interactive One’s chief content officer Smokey D. Fontaine. The debut episode will feature Giant magazine cover subject Keys.

“Giant Magazine is now…GIANTLIFE.COM,” the post said.

Full release after the jump

Related: Another Magazine Death: Vibe Reportedly Closing

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Although we have a week before the deadline for the voluntary buyouts at The New York Times, some information about who is planning to take the deals are already starting to leak out.

Michael Calderone at Politico reports today that Washington, D.C.-based Times reporters Stephen Labaton and Neil Lewis are planning to take the buyouts.

Calderone reports that Labaton, a senior writer with 23 years of experience at the paper, doesn’t expect to work in journalism after leaving the Times. Lewis told his fellow staffers that his future plans involve teaching a course at Duke Law School while still writing obituaries for the Times on a contract basis and “exploring other writing opportunities,” according to Calderone.

The Times‘ executive editor Bill Keller announced last month that the paper needed to layoff 100 newsroom staffers and was seeking voluntary buyouts as the first phase of the job cuts. Employees were given 45 days to decide on the buyout offers, and we’re expecting more names of takers to start rolling in soon. Know anything? Send us an email or leave an anonymous tip in the box on the right.

NYT’s Labaton, Lewis taking buyouts –Politico

Previously: Memo: Times To Layoff 100 Newsroom Staffers

PBS is making some big changes to its powerhouse “NewsHour” program. Starting December 7, the show will no longer be “The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer”, but “PBS NewsHour”, though longtime host Jim Lehrer will stay on with the show as an executive producer.

But the title of the show and the reduction of the role of its main anchor are not the the only differences for the program: “NewsHour” will also be teaming up with digital news site GlobalPost to supplement its international coverage. With GlobalPost’s host of correspondents from around the world, Linda Winslow, executive producer of “NewsHour”, said the year-old current events site has much to offer the PBS program. “The NewsHour is committed to in-depth coverage of international news, yet we cannot to do it all ourselves,” she said in an announcement about the partnership.

The truth is, publicly funded news can only pay so much for original reporting, and striking a deal with a young digital company to provide content may be the most pragmatic way to stretch the network’s budget. Meanwhile Lehrer is realistic about stepping aside for a rotating cast of new hosts on the show, as he told Howard Kurtz of The Washington Post, “I still have the hunger…I didn’t have the hunger to do it all by myself. But I really have the hunger for it to be done, and done well.”

Press release after the jump.

Read More: PBS, changing ‘NewsHour’ to preserve it –Washington Post

Previously: “Newshour” Gets An Overhaul

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Mediabistro.com already brings you exclusive news and interviews, but we thought we could do better. So in our new weekly video series, Media Beat, we’ll speak with the biggest names in media for an intimate sit-down about their careers and the latest happenings in the business.

It’s only fitting that we kick the series off with media legend Ken Auletta of the New Yorker. In this first episode, Auletta talks about his book, Googled: The End of The World As We Know It, and which traditional media companies he thinks are thriving in the Internet Age.

PART 2: Media Beat: Ken Auletta Is a Business, Man.

PART 3: Tomorrow, Auletta tackles the elephant in the room: Conde Nast’s longtime resistance to the web.

Writing as a “career” isn’t easy, in part due to the fact that no company will let you treat it like one. Journalism, whether it be for an online publication or traditional print media, is no longer considered a full-time job, even when it is. From freelancers to permalancers to contractors, no matter what you call it, you’re still filing a 1099 at the end of year, paying taxes out of your own pocket, and not receiving vacation or sick days, health insurance or any of those other benefits that are afforded to even those in the fast-food industry.

But there’s hope: word today is that Nick Denton — whose uncanny ability to predict the next financial trends in digital media and apply them to Gawker Media has allowed his sites to stay solvent in the industry-wide meltdown — is now offering his employees the choice to become full-time employees and work five days a week or stay as contractors and work four days every week.

Though we don’t know what kind of benefit system Denton’s got set up, at least this way if layoffs hit flagship Gawker and its sister sites again, those let go will be able to get unemployment benefits without going through a lengthy legal battle.

We can only hope that other publications will follow suit and extend to the people who create their content the same benefits they do their janitors.

Read More: Gawker Media Goes Legit –The Awl

Doree Shafrir’s Thoughts

Nick Denton’s Twitter

Nieman Journalism Lab assistant editor Zachary Seward revealed on Twitter today that he is leaving the Harvard-based journalism blog to join WSJ.com in New York.

The Wall Street Journal looks to be one of the few media outlets currently bringing on new staff as opposed to letting them go (except for its Boston bureau), and it’s currently seeking reporters to cover local New York beats. Seward told us he’ll be working in a newly created position of outreach editor for The Wall Street Journal Online, starting at the end of next month. We’re happy to welcome him to New York, but we’re going to selfishly miss his excellent coverage of the media.

Previously: Wall Street Journal Looks To Hire Local NY Reporters

The Tiger Woods car crash and scandal was the biggest news on today’s mediabistro.com Morning Media Menu podcast. Hosts Jason Boog of GalleyCat and AgencySpy‘s Matt Van Hoven were shocked by the amount of coverage the event has received since the weekend, noting that CNN quoted The National Enquirer about the story, a nod to the shift of the national conversation on the subject.

“There’s a certain glee that the media has when someone who is big and perfect like Tiger Woods falls,” Jason said. “They pounce ten times harder than they would if say, Britney Spears would have had the same thing happen to her over the weekend.”

“If you’re an important or famous person today, you just can’t have an affair,” Matt said. “It just can’t happen. You’re going to get busted…Shame on Tiger, who seems like a smart guy.”

Also discussed: Jim Lehrer‘s plans to leave PBS‘s “NewsHour” and Barnes & Nobles’ Nook e-readers selling for high prices on eBay.

You can listen to all the past podcasts at BlogTalkRadio.com/mediabistro and call in at 646-929-0321.