(L to R) New York Magazine editor-in-chief Adam Moss, contributing editors Steve Fishman, Vanessa Grigoriadis, Jennifer Senior

New York and Byliner celebrated the launch of their new eBook yesterday with a live reading from three of the featured writers. “New York Magazine’s Most Popular” is the very first eBook that New York has published, and features 26 of the magazine’s most popular stories from the past five years, one of which is a book excerpt from John Heilemann and Mark Halperin’s Game Change. Web analytics were used to determine the most popular stories, and among them were Steve Fishman’s “The Madoff Tapes,” Vanessa Grigoriadis’ “Growing up Gaga” and Jennifer Senior’s “All Joy and No Fun.” These three writers read excerpts of their articles and talked about the writing process with New York editor-in-chief Adam Moss and Byliner.com editor Michael Solomon. Interestingly, Moss said that these pieces and their fellow most popular cohorts were not the ones that were most popular on a day-to-day basis. Rather, they had accumulated their popularity over time, and the content “was actually the more substantial, meatier stuff that we did.” Read more

New York and Byliner are partnering for a live reading of some of New York’s most popular stories from the past five years.

On Monday, July 16 at 7 pm at The Half King in Chelsea, the two publications will have live readings by Steve Fishman (“Bernie Madoff, Free at Last”), Vanessa Grigoriadis (“Growing Up Gaga”) and Jennifer Senior (“All Joy and No Fun: Why Parents Hate Parenting”).

Each will be reading their articles that are included in a new e-book from New York, which features 25 of readers’ favorite pieces. Afterward they will be taking questions from the audience.

For more details, check out the invite here.

The S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications has unveiled the 2102 Mirror Awards finalists. Winners will be announced June 13, at an event hosted by Anderson Cooper.

Below is the complete list of finalists.

Read more

EXCLUSIVE

As FishbowlNY first reported, lawyers for Denise Brown and Nicole Brown‘s are furious over this week’s New York magazine article by Vanessa Grigoriadis chronicling the O.J. Simpson book debacle and subsequent fall of Judith Regan at News Corp — specifically, the Brown family’s involvement in HarperCollins’ attempts to pay them off with profits from the ill-fated If I Did It book project.

New York magazine’s response, via spokesperson Serena Torrey:

New York’s story reflects the facts as we know them. News Corp. executives present at the meeting in Indianapolis say that one of the lawyers there was representing the Brown family in the negotiation. The Brown family maintains that that is not the case. A day after a prospective settlement was hammered out and presented, the Brown family conclusively rejected it. While Vanessa Grigoriadis called the Brown’s lawyer for comment 24 hours before final closing, we are sorry we were not able to represent the Browns’ position fully in the article.

Torrey adds that the magazine first became aware of the Browns’ complaints via FishbowlNY — when we obtained and posted a faxed letter from Brown family lawyer Natasha Roit to New York — and that it never arrived at New York‘s offices or those of its owner, Bruce Wasserstein:

Incidentally, the only place we’ve seen this letter is on your site today. It never arrived in any offices associated with New York magazine or Bruce Wasserstein.

EARLIER:

EXCLUSIVE

The family of Nicole Brown is demanding a retraction and correction to assertions made by Vanessa Grigoriadis in her article published by New York magazine yesterday chronicling the O.J. Simpson book debacle and subsequent fall of Judith Regan at News Corp.’s HarperCollins.

In a faxed letter to New York magazine owner Bruce Wasserstein obtained by FishbowlNY yesterday, attorneys for Denise Brown and Nicole Brown’s family claim that the article contains “blatant and intentional factual misrepresentations” about the Brown family’s involvement in HarperCollins’ attempts to assuage them with payout profits from the ill-fated If I Did It book project. [UPDATE: New York tells FishbowlNY that it stands by its story, and contends it never received the letter.]

The lawyers for the Browns contend that a key part of Grigoriadis’ story — about News Corp. reps flying to Indianapolis to meet with the families to “hash out details of a payout” is “patently untrue”:

“Neither the Browns nor any representatives of the family participate in any such meeting … they did not fly to Indianapolis, they did not ‘sit down’ with HarperCollins, they did not ‘hash out’ any details.”

Indianapolis, the lawyers point out, is the hometown of the attorney for Fred Goldman and “has nothing to do with the Brown family.”

Grigoriadis wrote that “the Browns had been agreeable to the payout of about $5 million” but that Denise Brown went on the Today Show to proclaim the family’s rejection of NewsCorp’s “hush money.” “The Browns did not agree to a payout,” says Brown attorney Natasha Roit.

“While your writer contends that NewsCorp was grappling with their sense of regret, from the moment the Browns contacted me, both myself and Denise Brown were barraged with phone calls not only insisting we accept a payout, but do so within a time limit, as NewsCorp wanted a press release noting the family’s acceptance and acquiescence to their project moving forward.”

Roit also claims the magazine did not give her a fair chance to respond to Grigoriadis’ assertions.

“Specifically, your writer, Vanessa Grigoriadis, contacted me for comment about these items last Friday when I was unavailable in Court. Upon return, I called her back and advised her that her information was untrue and that I could substantiate the same. Having not heard from her over the weekend, I called again today, and, again, received no response. You went to print without making the correction or even including a denial. … Your writer knew at press time that information was available to counter her ‘source’ and intentionally chose not to pursue it.”

UPDATE: New York Responds To Brown Family