Archives: March 2010

• PRNewser: Publicist Susan Blond demonstrates why elevator operators and door men are better than husbands. And not just in terms of elevator sex.

• FishbowlLA: The brave souls at FishbowlLA decided to give Chatroulette a whirl. Improper spelling and requests for boob shots abounded, which makes us wonder if there’s any real difference between this and dating in New York.

• Mashable: YouTube is going to look different from now on. Comments of “lol this is gaay no ofense” will remain.

• The Post: Ohio University President Roderick McDavis granted tenure to journalism professor Bill Reader even though others in the administration thought he was sort of a dick and accused him of carving the words “truth” and “comfort” into his arms and threatening them. Reader denies these allegations.

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.

Joe Pompeo is leaving his post as managing editor of the New York Observer for the Business Insider, where he’ll help staff their media news blog, “The Wire.” There, he’ll join another former Observer writer, Gillian Reagan.

Henry Blodget, Business Insider‘s editor in chief and CEO (and one half of the great Twit Fit of 2010), was uncharacteristically succinct when asked about the new hire by the Village Voice: “World domination! Thrilled to have Joe.”

David Mills, newspaper reporter turned writer for acclaimed TV dramas, died Tuesday of a brain aneurysm. He was in New Orleans working on a new HBO series, “Treme,” which is currently in production. New Orleans Times-Picayune writer Dave Walker this morning confirmed his death, citing an HBO spokesman.

A longtime collaborator with “The Wire” creator David Simon, Mills wrote for “Homicide: Life on the Street,” “NYPD Blue,” “ER,” “The Wire” and other shows. He won two Emmies for his work on the HBO miniseries “The Corner,” another Simon collaboration. Before finding work in television, Mills wrote for The Washington Post and other publications.

“HBO is deeply saddened by the sudden loss of our dear friend and colleague David Mills,” the network said in a statement. “He was a gracious and humble man, and will be sorely missed by those who knew and loved him, as well as those who were aware of his immense talent. David has left us too soon but his brilliant work will live on.”

Pennsylvania’s Seton Hill University announced yesterday that they will launch the “Griffin Technology Advantage Program” wherein each full-time student enrolled at the school will be given an iPad beginning with the 2010 fall semester.

Administrators say this will facilitate the way students work and share their research with others. They also hope that students will be able to download their courses’ reading materials onto their iPads directly through Apple’s iBookstore, thus, as university president JoAnne W. Boyle put it,”lightening their backpacks.” In addition to the iPads, incoming freshman will also be given MacBooks, which the school will replace in two years. Upper classmen have the choice of opting into the laptop program should they wish.

The Griffin Technology Advantage Program also includes resources to provide students with a completely wireless campus and technology training for faculty. While the university says it has absorbed some of the cost of the iPads, students will also be charged an additional $500 per semester to help pay for the program.

George Fox University also recently announced that it would offer new freshmen a choice between the iPad and a MacBook included in the cost of tuition. So, while debate wages on as to whether the iPad will save or kill the magazine and newspaper industry, it hopes to at least give a leg up to future English majors / bloggers.

Bloomberg, the giant business-information provider, broadcaster, and publisher of Bloomberg.com and Bloomberg BusinessWeek, has hired Oke Okaro from ESPN to head up its global mobile business, the company announced today.

Okaro was previously vice president of mobile at sports-news empire ESPN, where he helped ESPN become a major player in the mobile sports category.

“Oke’s expertise and vision will be invaluable as we expand our strategy of delivering first rate multimedia content across every screen, from the Web to television to mobile devices of today and the future,” said Bloomberg Multimedia CEO Andy Lack in a statement.

(h/t paidContent)

This week, several people have floated the idea that Apple’s iPad and similar devices could revive the atrophied art of long-form, investigative journalism. After all, one can still hope that the human mind hasn’t lost its appetite for pages-long reads that delve deep into crucial issues of our time. What’s more, mobile tablets loosely approximate the feel of magazines, but don’t carry the burdensome distribution costs of their print brethren.

In a Monday interview with Katie Couric, Time executive editor Nancy Gibbs said that e-readers offer a superior platform for long-form writing:

You know, the — the one problem with — with the Internet for journalists who like doing long form is that any story that’s going to involve 16 screens [on]] the Web page, that’s asking a lot of people. But these devices that are designed to read books on, you certainly can imagine people being happy to read three- and four- and 5,000-word long form journalism stories on. So I think, actually, there promises to be a renaissance of the kind of serious investment journalism and storytelling that, you know, we all love to do.

And now today, Newsonomics blogger Ken Doctor takes a similar view.

The web’s always been about quick news reads. Perhaps, the tablet can recreate the pleasure of long-form journalism reading. My guess: it depends on the journalism. Graydon Carter makes the good point that storytelling endures, online and off. Maybe the tablet newly nourishes it.

In a moment of heated debate over the viability and value inherent in different types of digital content, it’s at least comforting to think that technological innovation may resuscitate a type of journalism that’s taken a few hits over the past couple of years.

Time Inc., together with Greek communications company Imako, is launching a Greek version of People “at the end of March,” which, oh look, is today!

Although the magazine already has some international and foreign-language exposure (People also publishes in India and Australia, and People en Espanol caters to an American audience), the Greece edition of People is the first foreign-language version distributed in a foreign country.

Nansy Zabetoglou is heading up the newsroom as People Greece‘s editor in chief. Katerina Nika, formerly at Maxim, is advertising manager. Olga Tsaousi, formerly of InStyle, is advertising manager.

Says Imako Media’s press release, presumably originally written in Greek:

PEOPLE has a unique blend of celebrity, news, entertainment, service and photography. The magazine is trusted by celebrities and real-life heroes alike to tell their stories with accuracy and fairness. Each week readers are offered the chance to delight in the pop culture landscape, but, along with that escapism, there are opportunities to be inspired by the generosity and grace of everyday individuals.

Vogue.com has named Alexandra Mack, former managing editor of Interview, to the newly-created position of managing editor for the Web site. She will report to online editor Caroline Palmer, with Anna Wintour acting at the site’s editor in chief.

Vogue.com, part of Style.com, has been working to become a stand-alone site with additional, Web-exclusive content sometime this year.

According to a spokesperson at Vogue, the site will be staffed “accordingly” as it continues to grow.

Karen Tumulty will be leaving her 16 year stint at Time magazine to become the Washington Post‘s national political correspondent. While at Time, Tumulty penned cover stories and contributed to the magazine’s “Swampland” blog. She will begin her new position on April 12.

The memo announcing Tumulty’s new position, via Politico, appears after the jump.

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Earth-friendly bimonthly Natural Home is debuting a new look for the May-June issue. The tree-hugging lifestyle magazine has bumped up its page count from 80 to 100, and readers also get more photos on heavier, 95% recycled paper. Newsstand buyers take note: In conjunction with the redesign, the cover price from $4.99 to $5.99, although the annual subscription rate is unchanged at $21.

“Subscribers are getting a higher-quality product, and we’ve enhanced the magazine in ways that should bring us new newsstand opportunities,” said Bryan Welch, publisher and editorial director, in a statement.

Natural Home is part of the Ogden Publications stable, which also carries Mother Earth News, Utne Reader, Capper’s and Grit.

Pictures of the new look vs. the old one after the jump.

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