Magazines

Last month Time Inc. launched an initiative called "Assignment Detroit," in which Time journalists committed to "living in and reporting from the city of Detroit" for one year.

We're only a month in, but Amanda Ernst, editor of our sister blog FishbowlNY, decided to check in via Skype to see how things are going. Earlier this week she chatted with Time magazine correspondent Steven Gray, who lives in the Motor City house the news magazine is using as its Detroit bureau.

Here's one segment of their Skype interview below. You can find more at FishbowlNY.

LIFE.com will use technology from video-creation platform Animoto to create animated video galleries of some of its classic photography.

This initiative marks LIFE.com's video debut, and the galleries will be accompanied by specially selected music.

Videos that debuted on LIFE.com Friday include Being There: VJ Day, Classic NY Yankees, Steve McQueen: King of Cool, Grace Kelly's Wedding, LIFE Goes to France and Martin Luther King Jr.'s 1963 March on Washington, with others to be added throughout the year.

LIFE.com president Andrew Blau said:

The mission of LIFE.com has always been to share great photography and allow users to "see their world" through these images. We are thrilled to expand on this mission by partnering with Animoto and allowing users to view these galleries in video format, giving an added layer to the user experience with music and motion.

And Animoto CEO and co-founder Brad Jefferson added:

The LIFE brand is known for iconic photography and we're honored that LIFE.com is trusting Animoto's video-creation platform to communicate the stories of their beautiful photo galleries in video format. We're equally excited that LIFE.com is making LIFE photos available on Animoto.com to enhance users' ability to tell stories through their Animoto videos.

Fortune magazine's just published (online) list of "Business's Hottest Rising Stars" under age 40 features several familiar names in the world of social media.

Coming in at No. 2, trailing only Google co-founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page, is Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, whose early business card title was "I'm CEO, bitch." I'm sure Dave Chappelle would have been honored.

(A digressive complaint: Just once, couldn't the creators of these lists separate Brin and Page? It's not like they're Siamese twins, though apparently they still share an office. Plus, in a realistic world, isn't one at least slightly more hot/smart/important/cool than the other? Google workers, feel free to use our anonymous tip line to choose the more valuable co-founder, or post a comment below. Another thing, this is supposed to be a list of "rising" stars. Wouldn't you agree that two guys whose company is now the subject of anti-trust investigations have, you know, already risen?)

At No. 5 are (here we go again with the pairs) Biz Stone and Evan Williams, co-founders of Twitter. I think Biz is more important than Ev. (Actually, I have no idea; I'm just trying to get the ball of controversy rolling.)

Marc Andreessen grabbed the No. 10 slot. Another anachronistic choice, in my view. The Netscape founder has been around forever, it seems. But he did start social networking platform Ning, so he qualifies as a socnet player. In his profile, Andreessen says his "stress reliever" is "hard alcohol." Uh-oh. That can't be good.

No. 18 on the Fortune list is "Pony" Ma Huateng, founder and CEO of Tencent, an instant messaging service based in Shanghai, China. Fortune tells us that "ma" is the Chinese word for "horse." Hmm. Lucky guy.

For the full list, click here.

The Economist is trying to economize, as it will launch a new pay wall Oct. 13, with the major difference from its current structure being that the current week's print edition will only be available to subscribers.

Non-subscribers will only have access to all content more than 90 days old, rather than all content from the past 12 months.

The Economist Website publisher Ben Edwards said:

The Economist brand has innovated and expanded online, moving beyond making the magazine available via the Internet to become a hub for intelligent discussion and debate. Our intention is to continue to develop intelligent discussion as a free, advertising-supported experience, but to charge for the weekly magazine online.

Through "This week's print edition," we offer readers an online experience of reading the magazine. We consider this to be a premium reading experience and plan to develop the online edition of our magazine for our most loyal and engaged readers: subscribers. We will continue to encourage both subscribers and non-subscribers to participate in the extraordinary discussions we host on www.economist.com, Facebook and elsewhere, catalyzed by our breaking news commentary, our blogs and audio-visual content and by our award-winning debates.

Wal-Mart best symbolizes America today, President Barack Obama won't set a timetable for removing U.S. troops from Afghanistan, people wouldn't take health care services from Wal-Mart if the retailing giant offered them, the use of food stamps for high-fat food should be banned, the Obama administration should propose a tax of 50% or higher on the wealthiest millionaires, dining out has been the most difficult thing to cut back expenses on during the recession, affairs and bribes are both bad for politicians, Twitter is a fad that will fade, the likeness of Albert Einstein will be used to endorse products, men would like to trade places with George Clooney for a week and women would like to trade places with Michelle Obama for a week.

Are those the ramblings of an over-caffeinated blogger? Actually, they're the results of the first online poll conducted by 60 Minutes and Vanity Fair, and the two parties announced their joint venture to produce monthly polls, with the results to be made public on the TV show, in the magazine and on their respective Websites, 60Minutes.com and VF.com.

The two parties' goal is to create a national survey that will cover a broad range of questions, versus a more typical poll, which tends to focus narrowly on one subject.

60 Minutes executive producer Jeff Fager said:

It's a collaboration between two outstanding organizations and already, in its maiden effort, the results are fascinating.

And Vanity Fair editor Graydon Carter added:

We very much liked the notion of taking polling to a more diverse place. This can serve as a monthly check up on the American condition, and it will lend itself to humor, as well as more serious topics. The combination of Vanity Fair and 60 Minutes—both of them wide-ranging in their interests, expertise and format—was a natural one.

More than 1,860 issues of LIFE magazine from 1936-72 are now available online via Google Books, giving users access to the issues in their entirety: stories, photographs, advertisements, covers, letters to the editor.

This announcement follows a previous partnership between the two parties, announced in November, under which LIFE made the contents of its image collection available through Google Image Search.

Life Inc. president Andrew Blau said:

LIFE magazine was there for every historical event, cultural shift and pop-culture occurrence. From our first issue in 1936 featuring President Franklin Roosevelt's work-relief project to coverage of Apollo 11, Marilyn Monroe, World War II, the Civil Rights Movement, The Beatles, the beehive and everything in between. Every day we receive requests from readers looking for these issues for research purposes and to find photos and articles featuring family members, hometowns and other memories. Now with these full issues available online, readers will be able to browse through history as it was being recorded.

And Google strategic-partner-development manager Andrew Madden added:

We're tremendously excited to partner with Life Inc. Our partnership will enable millions of people around the world to discover and access LIFE magazine's iconic archive online.

Time launched its Assignment Detroit initiative Monday, which it described as "a year-long commitment to living in and reporting from the city of Detroit."

Assignment Detroit content is available on TIME.com, Fortune.com, CNNMoney.com and SI.com, as well as in magazines Time, Fortune, Sports Illustrated, Money and Essence.

MEDIAite reports that the photographer whose picture of Glenn Beck graces the cover of the current issue of Time magazine says she purposely tried to make the darling of angry right-wingers look bad.

Noting that the photo used on Time's cover was from a shoot done last year by photographer Jill Greenberg, MEDIAite's Steve Krakauer writes:

It's an interesting choice. Greenberg is known for her liberal views - and she's being very upfront about her use of this opportunity to take revenge on those who attacked her.

Greenberg brought up the cover on Twitter (she goes by the ironic handle @JillManipulator). Here's her comment:

"exactly a year after my right wing attack, i am retouching one of my attackers for a magazine cover. leaving blemishes of course."

It's hard to understand why Time chose to use an old picture of Beck for its current cover in the first place, other than to save money. But it's highly unlikely Greenberg had a say in which picture the magazine would use for its front. Also, if you watch the video of the photo shoot below, Beck willingly goes along with her suggestions that he make a series of extremely unflattering faces.

And while it's doubtful that the man who describes himself as a "rodeo clown" is terribly bothered by the cover, his ardent supporters are sure to point to this as another example of liberal media bias. But certainly in the case of Greenberg, it's hard to deny.

(Also see Does This Domain Name Defame Glenn Beck?)

CrunchGear news editor Peter Ha joined TIME.com as technology editor, where he will cover "everything from gadgets to video games to technology news to science fiction," TIME.com said.

TIME.com managing editor Josh Tyrangiel said:

Peter's enthusiasm for all things nerd make him a great new voice for TIME.com. And while we can't say right now what he'll be launching on the site, stay tuned.

Ha said in a post on CrunchGear:

I've witnessed the rise of CrunchGear from the beginning, and I can't help but feel a little sad to part ways with something I've let encapsulate the last three years of my life. Blood, sweat and tears as they say. But it's time to move on and work on something new and different. I'll be moving on up to midtown where I'll be joining TIME.com to launch something the likes of which you've never seen before. It's a daunting task, but I'm elated and I hope you'll stop on by when we launch later this year.

New York magazine's Nymag.com feels like kicking back in front of the television and watching some sports, so it is launching two new blogs Sept. 14 about those very same topics: Surf and The Sports Section.

Surf will feature the magazine's TV critic and editor at large, Emily Nussbaum, who "will bring her intellect and passion for the medium to quick-response posts on everything from the previous night's show to developments in the industry."

And Will Leitch, who will lead The Sports Section, knows a thing or two about sports blogs, having been the founding editor of Gawker Media's Deadspin. Leitch, a contributing editor to New York, and Nymag.com's Joe DeLessio, who has followed developments in sports and sports media at the site's Daily Intel blog for the past year, will focus on not only New York-area sports teams, but the sports world in general.

HBO will be the launch partner for Surf, while Capital One Retail Banking will be The Sports Section's launch partner.

Nymag.com editorial director Ben Williams said:

Will Leitch has been posting frequently to Nymag.com on sports since he joined the magazine in 2008, so it made sense to give him and our other talented sports contributors an online home of their own. Emily Nussbaum has such a compelling voice about television that we decided to highlight her work with a personal blog, as part of larger enhancements to our online television coverage to be unveiled in the coming months.