Parties

MediaElites.com's Aaron Gell and Drew Grant, Advertising Age's Nat Ives and Jeff Bercovici of AOL Daily Finance

Last night's Holiday Blowout hosted by MediaElites.com at 200 Orchard had all the ingredients for a good old new media holiday party: open bar, a feeling of good will (donate an old coat!), plenty of media types milling around and Big Buck Hunter. Sometimes reporters just need to let loose, and we'd rather they did it with a video game and a big plastic gun, because it's just so much more fun that way.

Representing MediaElites.com (formerly ASSME) in the crowd was founder Aaron Gell and our fellow Fishbowl-er Drew Grant. We also spotted all the usual suspects, including many former FishbowlNY editors, Dylan Stableford, Rachel Sklar and Glynnis MacNicol.

We also learned that media party-goers can give as good as they drink; after asking attendees to each bring an old coat to donate, MediaElites carted away five nine garbage bags full of outerwear.

And as for Big Buck Hunter, we hear the big winner of the evening was media blogger Jeff Bercovici of AOL's Daily Finance, who swiftly defeated Advertising Age's Nat Ives and publicist Shawna Seldon of the Rosen Group. Glad we sat that one out.

More pictures after the jump.

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Last night, members of the New York media gathered to toast The Atlantic and the incredible year the publication -- and its parent company -- have had.

There was plenty to celebrate. This year, the title reported a 16 percent increase in advertising revenue, thanks to a 115 percent increase in digital revenue. Events and subscription revenues also saw a boost, with digital subscription revenues climbing 158 percent. What's more, 2009 saw the launch of the company's new digital property, The Atlantic Wire, as well as politics, business and food channels on TheAtlantic.com.

"We had such an incredible year," publisher Jay Lauf told us last night.

And there were plenty of people on hand last night to celebrate that year with Lauf and The Atlantic's president Justin Smith, including Glynnis MacNicol and Rachel Sklar of Mediaite.com, All Things D's Peter Kafka, John Carney of Silicon Alley Insider, New York Times reporter Brian Stelter and PRNewser editor Joe Ciarallo.

More pictures after the jump

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Saveur Publisher Merri Lee Kingsly and Editor-in-Chief James Oseland have a great time at their holiday party Tuesday night

We've been to enough media parties to become very well-versed in how to delicately eat hors d'oeuvres while chatting with someone and balancing a glass of wine. We know to steer clear of the mini sliders and stick to anything that can be consumed in one bite.

But when we arrived at Saveur's jam-packed test kitchen-cum-party space on Tuesday night, we knew we would have to throw all our party rules out. The theme of the potluck party was simplicity and celebration, and it was catered by some of the best chefs in the biz, who mingled among the crowd or served their food from steaming chafing dishes themselves. And never mind that one-bite rule; we dug into Scott Conant's balsamic glazed ribs, Christopher Lee's black truffle and bucheron cheese potato gratin and chocolate cupcakes topped with caramel buttercream and crumbled bacon, which sounds weird but was delicious.

After a successful year that saw Saveur leading its category in ad sales, publisher Merri Lee Kingsly was absolutely beaming as she and editor-in-chief James Oseland welcomed all the participating chefs, including Marco Canora, John DeLucie, Alex Guarnaschelli, Gavin Kaysen, Michael Laiskonis, George Mendes, Seamus Mullen, Pichet Ong, Zak Pelaccio, Michael Psilakis and Bill Telepan.

The chefs, with Kingsly and Oseland

More photos after the jump

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Last night, mediabistro.com kicked off the holiday party season with its own candy cane maritini-soaked shindig. We got to Tribeca Cinemas early, commandeered a big bowl of popcorn and snagged a spot at the bar, where we could get a good view of the party-goers on their way in.

Some of our fellow bloggers were also in attendance, in addition the event's bubbly hostess, mediabistro.com's senior editor Donya Blaze (left). TVNewser editors Chris Ariens and Kevin Allocca, as well as GalleyCat editor Jason Boog, were all there, mixing and mingling with the crowd.

TVNewser editor Kevin Allocca, Mediaite.com's Steve Krakauer and TVNewser's Chris Ariens

More pictures after the jump

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eMedia Vitals is not your normal aggregation site. Instead, it lends its arms out to publishers and content producers as well. While most aggregators are content to just piggy-back on other people's content and get whatever pageviews or ad sales are to be found out there, eMedia working with them to create revenue for their product.

Last night, the new media company held a launch party at New York's social bar. Pictures after the jump.

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If all the recent layoff news has driven you to drink, then you're in luck.

Next Tuesday, mediabistro.com is throwing a cocktail party at Tribeca Cinemas hosted by yours truly, FishbowlNY editor Amanda Ernst. There will be $5 beer and wine, networking and a chance to commiserate, swap war stories, make new friends or just trade gossip.

Here are all the details:

When: Tuesday, November 10, 6:30 - 8:30pm

Where:
Tribeca Cinemas, Lower Lounge
54 Varick Street
at Laight Street
New York, NY

RSVP here

Hope to see you there.

(Photo via Flickr)

Last night, New York public radio station WNYC threw a gala at Gotham Hall to celebrate its recent acquisition of New York's classical radio station WQXR and honor its former owner, The New York Times Co.

Hosted by Alec Baldwin, the evening featured performances by folksinger Judy Collins and opera diva Deborah Voigt. David Sanger, a New York Times correspondent and host of the "Washington Report" on WQXR -- and grandson of the station's founder Elliott Sanger -- presented the Times Co. with an award, accepted by Times publisher Arthur Sulzberger Jr., commemorating the company's stewardship of WQXR since 1944.

Later, Baldwin announced that the winner of the evening's raffle would get a radio -- actually, an Internet radio tuned to WQXR. "The New York Times got a piece of glass, for the millions and millions of dollars they've coughed up," he said. "A piece of glass. The winner of the raffle gets a radio."

(Video and more pictures after the jump)

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Richard Blakeley and Nick McGlynn - Image via Random Night Out

Last night, media bar Destination (co-owned by Dan Maccarone of Hard Candy Shell, which has redesigned major media sites from Gawker to Eater) hosted a book release party for This Is Why You're Fat, a meme-to-book deal in the six figures co-written by Gawker videographer Richard Blakeley and Buzzfeed's Jessica Amason. The event was co-hosted by Obliterati, a monthly media party started by Nick McGlynn of Random Night Out after Blakeley discontinued his Media Meshing soirees last year.

Earlier in the day, Amason hosted a book release celebration of her own, asking dedicated foodies to travel between six food trucks around the city, order a special This Is Why You're Fat-inspired culinary creation and post pictures of themselves eating it to Twitter. The event, dubbed the "Eat N Tweet Challenge," kicked off at 11 a.m., and by the time we made our way to the Van Leeuwen Artisan Ice Cream at 5th Ave and 23rd St. at 1 p.m., McGlynn had already claimed victory. His prize? A private party for 25 friends, catered by the food truck of his choice.

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We spent last night with a group of single men eager to take their shirts off.

No, it wasn't a Chippendales performance, but Cosmopolitan magazine's party to celebrate the hottest bachelors in the U.S. -- with one hottie representing each state.

"We look for pecs and personalities," Cosmo editor Kate White told us about the magazine's bachelor selection process, minutes after she had found herself surrounded by a parade of shirtless men. "It's also a good way for us to get into men's heads. It's sort of a petri dish of American men."

White spent the beginning of the evening standing on the end of a catwalk introducing the single men -- many of which decided to remove their shirts to show off well-toned pecs and six-pack abs. "What happens at the Cosmo bachelor party, stays at the Cosmo bachelor party," White said. Later, after forgetting to announce Illinois' bachelor, White said, "I hope you know I'm going to be fired in the morning for that."

In years past, the event has culminated with a selection of the hottest bachelor in the country, but White told us that due to the economy, all of the selected bachelors would be winners this year. From the buzz around the party (and our own opinions) Ohio bachelor Matt Smith would surely have won the crown had it been awarded this year. We also got a chance to talk to bachelors from Oregon, Wyoming, Massachusetts and Connecticut. Oklahoma representative Alain Le told us that while in New York he had tried to hit on Mary Louise Parker and Jane Krakowski at a bar, having no idea who they were. "They had to look themselves up on their iPhones to show me they were famous," he told us. Aw, so cute.

Above, you can watch our video from the night, including White's comments on the catwalk and the shirtless man parade. After the jump, more photos from the night.

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On Wednesday, we took a rare dip in the advertising world to check out the celebration commemorating the first anniversary of One Club/Aversity, a non-profit organization established to promote multiculturalism and diversity in creative media industries like advertising.

Founder Julius Dunn and members of the program's advisory board like David Prince, Singleton Beato of JWT, Sallie Mars of McCann Erickson and One Club's Tiffany Edwards made quick speeches paying tribute to the important initiative, then a DJ and Smirnoff drinks got everyone into a party mood.

More pictures after the jump

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