Archives: September 2010

— DIANE CLEHANE

It was SRO at Michael’s today with moguls Jack Welch and David Geffen holding court at their respective tables while the celebrity du jour, none other than George Hamilton, caused more than his fair share of double takes. We overheard one fan gush, “I loved you on Dancing With the Stars!” (So did we, but we’re too cool to say so.) Meanwhile, the rest of the crowd was so busy air kissing and table hopping between bites it’s a miracle anyone actually got to eat anything. We’re glad we did, because the new fall menu is fabulous!

I was joined today by Debbie Phillips, life coach and founder of Women On Fire, and Sophfronia Scott, author and founder of The Done For You Writing & Publishing Company. Debbie is busier than ever with her Women on Fire tea parties that have been helping women from all walks of life ignite their true passions since 2004. She’s hosting one at Lady Mendl’s Tea Salon in Gramercy Park on Friday, and there are others scheduled for Columbus, Ohio, Boston, Santa Fe and Naples this fall. Debbie is on track to reaching her important goal of “connecting 50,000 women to each other” through Women on Fire this year. You go, girl!

Sophfronia, who I first met when we worked at People together another life ago, got to know Debbie after she attended one of her tea parties. She is really on a roll. This mom of an adorable six year-old boy has been regularly cranking out books since she published her first novel All I Need to Get By in 2004. She recently published How The Fierce Handle Fear: Secrets to Succeeding in Challenging Times (Two Harbors) in which she compiles words of wisdom from high rollers, including Donald Trump and Jack Canfield. Just how does she juggle it all? “I can write for about four hours at a time; then I have to get up and do something else,” Sophfronia tells me. See, it’s just that simple.

Here’s the rundown on today’s crowd:

1. The “Imber Gang”: Dr. Gerald Imber, Jerry Della Femina, Jeff Greenfield, Andy Bergman and Michael Kramer

2. Peter Brown and Grace Hightower (That’s Mrs. Robert De Niro to you.)

3. ‘Mayor’ Joe Armstrong

4. Alan Grubman, David Geffen and Bob Daley

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To mark the 25th anniversary of Breast Cancer Awareness Month, Scholastic Parent & Child is dedicating its October issue to help fight the disease. The magazine will donate a portion of October subscriptions to the cause.

In addition, the October issue is an “all-pink” edition.

“…We decided to visually have pink on every page to support and increase awareness of breast cancer to our 8.1 million readers,” said Risa Crandall, publisher of Scholastic Parent & Child. “Scholastic Parent and Child is the only magazine to dedicate the entire issue to a cause, and we are thrilled to have Sheryl Crow as our cover based on her role as a mom of two children and her advocacy to bring breast cancer screening to all people.”

The special issue hits newsstands on Friday, October 1.

Across the pond, the BBC Trust has been steadily moving forward with the impending sale of its various magazines, prompting speculation over which media company will eventually scoop them up.

According to UK’s MediaWeek (not to be confused with Mediaweek), National Magazine Company and Hachette Filipacchi are two of the bigger names thought to be in the running. National Mag, owned by Hearst, publishes recognizable names like Men’s Health and Harper’s Bazaar in the UK, and Hachette Filipacchi publishes popular women-oriented magazines like Elle.

BBC Magazines include such titles as Top Gear (also a TV series), BBC Food, and 85 others.

Experts who spoke with MediaWeek felt that, on the one hand, National Magazine Company has the variety and scope to compliment BBC Magazine’s portfolio, whereas Hachette would benefit from expanding its offerings with car and food-oriented titles.

Here’s a fun new offshoot to look forward to (or dread, if you’re a parent come holiday time): WWD is reporting that Lucky is launching a new, thrice-yearly magazine called Lucky Kids aimed squarely at kids and the parents who financially support their whims.

The magazine is due out in April, September and December of next year and is set to be polybagged to 300,000 lucky subscribers (Eh? See that?), with 50,000 newsstand copies selling for $4.99 each.

Lucky Kids is rumored to be just the beginning of the new offerings the brand has planned under its new editor in chief, Brandon Holley. Not bad for week two of a new gig.

Financial news giant Bloomberg is about to launch an online site specifically targeting government officials and industry executives.

The Washington Post reports that the web-based government news and information venture will be called BGov.com.

The site is scheduled to be up and running by the start of the new year.

The report says Bloomberg will hire more than 100 people in Washington to work on the website.

Last year, Bloomberg, in an effort to consolidate the radio and TV divisions, laid off more than 100 people in their worldwide bureaus. The majority of job losses, though, took place at their New York headquarters.

And the National Journal keeps on hirin.’ The latest addition to the National Journal Group is David Beard, who will take on the role of deputy editor in chief and online editor.

His duties include overseeing the National Journal‘s websites — both subscriber-based and free — and working with its editorial team in the new digital-first National Journal newsroom.

Beard is currently editor of Boston.com, the Boston Globe‘s online home.

As we reported on Monday, Jodi Applegate is set to anchor the WPIX weeknight newscasts at 10 p.m., and with that, the veteran team of Jim Watkins and Kaity Tong has been reassigned.

News director Bill Carey told FishbowlNY that a move like this became essential.

“It’s necessary to make a big change at Channel 11,” Carey says. “I don’t think it’s any secret that we’ve never been one, two, three or four in the ratings.”

So now Carey, who joined WPIX in 2009, makes his biggest splash at the station. He switches the likeable tandem of Watkins and Tong for another popular personality in Applegate.

“Jodi exemplifies a mix of characteristics that we find compelling,” Carey says. “She knows the market; she’s worked at a competitor and has a competitive fire.”

More from Carey follows the jump.

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• The Awl: If you watch but one video featuring a stuffed badger today, please, let it be this one. You watch too many clips on Fleshbot anyway.

• PRNewser: To say Segway has a PR problem is something of an understatement.

• The L Magazine: BroCon exists.

• WebNewser: Oh, did something happen at Aol today?

Chalk up a hire for Newsweek: the weekly news magazine — which will move under new owner Sidney Harman‘s control this Friday — has tapped Rhona Murphy as its global publisher.

Murphy will be in charge of overseeing the publishing operations for the magazine and will head advertising sales and marketing units across the United States, Asia, Europe and Latin America. In addition, Murphy will continue to be responsible for Newsweek‘s business interests outside the U.S., including circulation and licensing.

She has worked as the publisher and managing director of Newsweek International since 2008 and previously served as international publisher. She began as an associate publisher, director of international sales back in 2002.

Before joining Newsweek, Murphy worked as the managing director for the Dow Jones Company’s Southeast Asian sales and then as the managing director for North American sales for Dow Jones International.