Archives: December 2009

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It’s time for us to sign off and head out to celebrate the end of 2009. Before we go here’s one last round up for the year:

TVNewser: How many Sunday shows will get a new host by the end of 2010? What will Lou Dobbs and Glenn Beck be up to by this time next year? Cast your vote in the TVNewser 2010 prediction challenge polls.

AgencySpy: If this was “the worst year in advertising”, then we can only go up from here, right? Right?

New York Times: Will we have Fox on Time Warner Cable tomorrow morning? Negotiations are still continuing in the eleventh hour, so News Corp. might pull its channels as we ring in the New Year.

Gawker: And some good news to end the year: a series of exclusives have boosted Gawker‘s traffic during the typically slow month of December.

And finally…Happy New Year from FishbowlNY! May you have a fun and safe celebration tonight and a prosperous and productive 2010.

–Amanda and Drew

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Calling covering the media “futile,” Matt Haber, currently writing about the industry at Portfolio.com, said today that he is leaving his post — and his position as a media reporter. We can’t say we don’t know how he feels.

Explained Haber, eloquently, of course:

“Reporting, blogging, aggregating, and thinking about the media on a daily basis feels increasingly like a fool’s errand. Tracking the narrative — not just of an industry’s decline but of all the incremental steps being taken to revive whatever remains salvageable for the platforms and consumer habits of the future — is futile, at least for the time being. In order to get a little perspective — and, to be honest, some rest — I’ll be stepping away from the daily media beat, at least for the foreseeable future.”

Haber is no stranger to the horrors of 2009 that claimed countless jobs this year, having been among the ranks of those laid off. He told us “All’s well,” after The New York Observer axed a slew of reporters in June, and then started writing for Portfolio.com, the revived Web site of the shuttered Condé Nast business pub, later this summer. In his parting missive, Haber doesn’t miss a chance to comment on the existence of the site where he ended up:

“The very existence of this website after the spectacular 2007 rollout and 2009 fold up of Condé Nast Portfolio is proof that sometimes the damsel does get saved before the train runs her over.”

The train doesn’t seem to have missed Haber this time around. We’ll be pouring one out for him tonight.

Pressing On –Portfolio.com

Previously: Breaking: Layoffs At The Observer

(Photo via flickr)

This isn’t so much a New Year’s prediction as a New Year’s fact: Joe Francis and his publicist have already declared war on Gawker for naming him Douche Of the Decade and pinning the term “rapist” (now changed to “alleged rapist”) to the “Girls Gone Wild” entrepreneur.

Mediaite contacted Francis’ publicist, since the man himself didn’t seem to be taking the case very seriously (he sent the original threat of a lawsuit to Nick Denton with a CC to every major gossip writer in town, and included a shirtless picture of himself) but she assured the Web site that, “Mr. Francis is still proceeding with the suit against Gawker.”

He plans to file the suit on Monday, after the holidays, the publicist said.

Though Gawker hasn’t received the papers yet, we doubt they’ll change their stance by then (if the company’s reactions in the face of a suit launched earlier this year by Eric Dane and Rebecca Gayheart is any indication). Too bad Francis can’t just sue Gawker’s readers, who are the people that actually voted him to the King Douche spot. Maybe he’ll try that next.

Read More: Happy New Year? Joe Francis Plans To Sue Gawker On Monday — Mediaite

Joe Francis: Gawker’s Douche of the Decade –Gawker

Previously: Francis Threatens Suit

Will 2009 be remembered as the year that new media companies, under less duress than traditional print organizations, stopped Scrooging around and started giving back — or at least encouraged their readers to?

Two months ago, The Huffington Post launched its first charity-oriented vertical site, HuffPost Impact, which celebrated Christmas with its socially-conscious 12 days of Giving. And Tina Brown‘s Daily Beast heralded its own vertical, Giving Beast, just one week later.

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When our friends at Folio magazine asked us to contribute to their compilation of media predictions for 2010, we knew we had to include something about non-profit journalism organizations. Here’s part of what we said:

“Media companies will also be looking to partner up in order to pool resources and keep costs low. Non-profit journalism organizations and Web sites that rely on citizen journalism are a good place for traditional media to look for partners.”

Of course, we were thinking of sites like ProPublica, which we wrote about yesterday with respect to its use of crowdsourcing. And long-standing non-profit news organizations like NPR and PBS continue to expand their hyperlocal coverage and online presence. But 2009 also saw the launch a few big non-profit journalism ventures, like The Texas Tribune and The Huffington Post Investigative Fund. They’re poised to grow in the coming year and may become an important part of the media dialogue.

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In today’s Editor & Publisher deathwatch news, editor Greg Mitchell revealed today that there are parties interested in buying the now-defunct newspaper trade, but a deal is not likely to happen for a few weeks.

“Several possible buyers have stepped forward but any final agreement, we’re told, is at least two weeks away. There appears to be a good chance that Editor & Publisher will resume but we cannot say when or in precisely what form.”

Since the magazine’s staff was unable to find a buyer before they were scheduled to vacate E&P‘s offices today, the pub has suspended its operations and staffers are packing up as we speak. Mitchell said E&P‘s Web site and its two blogs — “Fitz & Jen” and “The E&P Pub” — will stay still be online, but won’t be updated.

However, it looks like the staff will be updating a new blog, E&P In Exile. Launched today, the site tells readers, “Stay tuned here for news, links and commentary by once and we hope future E&P staffers.”

Hopefully the New Year will bring better news for Mitchell and the rest of the E&P staff.

E&P Suspends Operations — Good Chance for Return –Editor & Publisher

Previously: E&P Staffers Prepare To Vacate Offices This Week

Earlier this month, The New York Post asked its readers to vote for the best front page of the decade. Despite our vote for former New Jersey governor Jim McGreevey‘s “I’m Out” cover, the win went to a sentimental favorite: a special September 11 cover.

Since we agree 9/11 was the biggest moment this decade, we’ll have to admit it’s a good choice.

‘Front’ view of the 2000s –New York Post

Previously: Vote For The Best New York Post Cover Of The Decade

Yesterday, on the mediabistro.com Morning Media Menu podcast, I had a chance to reflect on the most influential moment for me in the past decade — and one that has affected my career in the media. Menu hosts Jason Boog, the editor of GalleyCat and AgencySpy‘s Matt Van Hoven also weighed in on what they considered to be the biggest moments of the past ten years.

For me, the seminal moment of the decade was September 11. I was a freshman in college at the time, a week into studying Communications 101 at Boston University. The planes hit the World Trade Towers as I was getting ready to go to that very class that morning. When the next class rolled around two days later, my professor — also the dean of the communications school — put a picture of someone diving off one of the WTC buildings up in front of the class and asked us if we, the future of the media, would have published or broadcast the photo. My reaction to the photo, and my own personal answer to that question, have shaped my view of the media and my job ever since. Having looked upon that photo countless times throughout my first semester in college, I have yet to see it ever again.

Jason also picked a moment in the past ten years that has deeply affected me and so many others in this field — the toppling economy and the massive layoffs in the media industry that have followed. “It’s a rough environment to work in and I think it shakes us,” he explained. “And I think we are going to be a tougher generation for it.”

Matt said the biggest moment for him this decade was “the return of the American war machine.” “Just the change of the American culture globally has been very interesting to watch, and I really hope people get back to the place where they love us again, instead of hate us,” he added.

Now I’d like to crowdsource a little bit. What were the biggest moments for you in the ’00s? Share your thoughts in the comments below.

When the government targets traditional journalists seeking information about confidential sources, reporters like Judy Miller can at least rest easy knowing they have the full force of news organizations like The New York Times (and their lawyers) behind them. Even if they end up spending some time in jail after refusing to name names, they have stood up for their journalistic ethics and probably haven’t had to shell out any of their own money for sky high legal bills.

But what happens when bloggers are the subject of a government subpoena? That is the situation going on right now with at least two travel bloggers, Christopher Elliott and Steven Frischling, who published a leaked TSA document spelling out its security measures following the attempted terrorist attack on Christmas Day.

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