We've previously documented the wonderfully instigation-happy writing style of Alexia Tsotsis, the TechCrunch blogger who clearly knows something about severance packages at AOL that everyone else doesn't. Because she's at it again, writing like she wants to get fired, or at least test the limits of TechCrunch's autonomy and/or Arianna Huffington's patience. Read More
Consider the social media editor: Her background and ambitions are journalistic, but because she possesses the very basic people skills required to navigate social networks, she awakens one morning to discover she's become a so-called "Twitter monkey." Read More
Glamour Magazine is a lady magazine that can best be characterized as somewhere between "Tactful Cosmopolitan" and "Less Scary Vogue." It's probably one of the more distinctly moderate womens' interests magazines. Which is why it's odd and kind of comical to see them teaming up with one of the most chic boutiques in the country—Opening Ceremony—to sell a $100 sweater. Of a cat. Read More
Former New Yorker managing editor Kate Julian (who most recently ran Slate's Double X) has been named a senior editor at The Atlantic. She will oversee the magazine's "Dispatches" section and edit features. Oh and her office is next to something called the Roanoke Room. What else do you need to know? Read More
AOL and Huffington Post are launching a "never-ending talk show." The commenters are allowed to Skype in for a segment called "Defend Your Comment" [NYT]
GQ has hired Walter Kirn for its politics blog, Death Race 2012. [WWD]
Are you a Superbowl connoisseur, casual, or curious-but-clueless? [WSJ] Read More
More than a year after Hugo Lindgren took over as editor in chief, The New York Times Magazine is still evolving. Last month it debuted a new column: “They’re Famous! (On the Internet),” by Gaby Dunn, a 23-year-old stand up comedian who has written for Thought Catalog and GOOD.
Unlike the short-lived “Last Month on the Internet” column, a sort of collage of found Internet gems, “They’re Famous!” takes Internet personae for its subject matter but otherwise sticks to the conventions of traditional journalism.
As far as Internet correspondents go, Ms. Dunn is practically embedded.
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The New York Times opinion writer Virginia Heffernan has taken a newsroom buyout, Politico reports. She's headed to Yahoo News, where she will write a weekly column about the intersection of technology and politics in the 2012 election and host a video interview series. "I want to talk to tech people, and new media Read More
Yesterday, the New York Times broke news of blogging platform and social media network Tumblr's new editorial project. The project was characterized as something that will be "documenting the Tumblr service and marketing it to users."
In the same article, the project's editor-in-chief—(2011 NYO Media Poachable) Chris Mohney, who will be leaving his post as the Vice President of Content at BlackBook—explained that it will avoid "forced attempts at corporate boosterism." This is odd, because a forced attempt at corporate boosterism is exactly what this nebulous project sounds like. Then again, Mohney (who, before BlackBook, was an editor at regular Tumblr-antagonist Gawker) will be manning the project with Jessica Bennett, a journalist leaving her post at Newsweek/The Daily Beast to jump on board. Read More
A former TechCrunch employee—in the great tradition of many a former TechCrunch employee—is going after the site, asking them on Twitter: "not trying to be a dick but are you still a news site?"
The egregious offense of journalism Lacy offered up for her case? Read More
MSNBC PoliticsNation host Reverend Al Sharpton said in a statement that he was "shocked and grief stricken by the reported news of the suicide of Don Cornelius, the creator of Soul Train." Read More
The New York Times reporter formerly known as The Nocturnalist isn't the only one working a new beat in 2012.
Between Dominique Strauss-Kahn and the "rape cops," 2011 was a big year at the Manhattan State Supreme court. Courthouse reporter John Elgion, for one, is moving on, to Albany, where he will join the paper's statehouse team. Russ Buettner, author of the "Abused and Used" series, will succeed him on the failing-to-convict-creeps-beat. (Totally unrelated, we're looking forward to any Greg Kelly coverage!) Read More
Last week, Longreads and New York magazine put on a “Behind the Longreads” panel to explain the cost- and time-inefficient path to the #longreads Twitter stream.
The panel was hosted by New York editor-in-chief Adam Moss and three of the magazine’s contributing editors, Wesley Yang, Jessica Pressler and Dan P. Lee. All three of their pieces had been put up for National Magazine Awards, Mr. Moss said, and all three were edited by David Haskell, New York features editor and part-time moonshiner, who was seated in front row. Read More
Gianna Palmer is a guest blogger for Betabeat.
AOL released its fourth quarter earnings report today and not shockingly, profits are still falling. Q4 net income fell 66 percent to $22 million (23 cents a share) and revenue slipped 3 percent to $576.8 million. CEO Tim Armstrong seemed pretty happy, though.
"AOL took a large step forward in Q4 and I am very pleased with the way we ended the year," Armstrong said.
At least one reason for Armstrong's cheery outlook: AOL saw its ad revenue increase 10 percent to $363.8 million. To what does it attribute this growth? In part: its hyperlocal news effort Patch. Read More
On a recent post-NFL season Monday night, 7.3 million people watched a remake of Hawaii 5-0. Another 6.7 million watched Castle, a crime procedural that’s safely avoided buzz for four seasons. A crowd less than half that size, 3.2 million, watched an American furniture manufacturer tearfully repent for outsourcing the family business, met a real-life moon colonist, and saw a chimpanzee flip through a children’s book. “They like to look at the pictures,” the voiceover explained.
They had landed on the three-month-old newsmagazine Rock Center, NBC’s prime time bid to recapture an audience for TV news by offering a looser format in which to showcase Brian Williams’s formidable charisma. Mr. Williams’s sensibility is so deeply ingrained in the programming that Rock Center executive producer Rome Hartman likes to say that, when it’s working, it feels like “Brian’s playlist.” Read More
Game Change, John Heilemann and Mark Halperin's gossipy, somewhat controversial bestseller about the 2008 presidential campaign—filled with plenty of juicy Sarah Palin anecdotes—recently received the HBO adaptation treatment. Julianne Moore's role as the former Governess of Alaska and vice-presidential would-be is one of the more highly anticipated actor-politician roles in recent history. And Read More
