Jeff Bercovici

Time Inc. Lays Off Money Managing Editor; Eric Schurenberg Called 'A Fixture' by Editor-in-Chief John Huey

Schurenberg
via timeinc.net
Schurenberg

Portfolio's Mixed Media blogger Jeff Bercovici is reporting that Money managing editor Eric Schurenberg has been laid off as the company's cost-cutting jobs elimination plan begins.

Here's what Time Inc. editor-in-chief John Huey had to say in a memo employees:

A fixture of Time Inc.'s business and investing coverage for more than two decades, Eric joined the company as a reporter working for Time Life Books. He worked at a full range of Time Inc. titles including Life, Fortune and Business 2.0; he even spent a year outside Time Inc. launching Goldman Sachs' website for investors, until he realized he was unhappy as anything but a journalist.  read more »

Radar Attracts Media's Living Dead to Posthumous Party at Citrine

Radar Attracts Media's Living Dead to Posthumous Party at Citrine

"I basically started Radar because I didn't want to work at any other magazine," said Maer Roshan, the editor of the recently folded magazine. "And after six years, all of it came down to this."

Mr. Roshan was surveying his party, the night before Halloween, which had become a kind of Night of the Living Dead for journalism. "PRINT IS DEAD! LONG LIVE RADAR!" read the invitation, which was retooled after a recent development at the magazine.

Six days before his staff had been given a couple of hours to pack everything at their desks into collapsible white boxes and shove out, after the sudden declaration from his sponsors that the magazine was officially kaput, his staffers, many of whom have been fixtures in the young journalism scene in New York for years now, mingled with their media friends at the bar, Citrine, in Chelsea; not yet officially opened, the walk-up spot, which looks a bit like a Hell's Kitchen gay bar, has already held parties for Edgar Bronfman Jr.  read more »

Impoco Becomes Executive Editor at Men's Journal

Impoco Becomes Executive Editor at <i>Men's Journal</i>
via mensjournal.com

Jim Impoco has left the Times Magazine after seven months to become the executive editor for Men's Journal, Jeff Bercovici reports.

Report: Al Gore Not Buying Environmental Magazine

Wall: To Have <i>Plenty</i>?
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Wall: To Have Plenty?

It looks like Al Gore won't be buying Plenty after all.

Last week, Media Mob picked up an item from Portfolio's Mixed Media blogger Jeff Bercovici that suggested the former vice president was kicking the tires on the environmental lifestyle magazine.

In an update today, Mr. Bercovici corrects the record:

In fact, it's not Gore but his Live Earth collaborator, media entrepreneur Kevin Wall, who is in negotiations with the environmental title. "He is looking into a few different opportunities with Plenty," confirmed a spokeswoman for Wall. "He's not position to be speaking about what those are just yet." Wall's spokeswoman said the range of possibilities "runs the gamut," but should be narrowed down within the next two to four weeks.

Mr. Bercovici received confirmation from Mr. Gore's people that he's not involved with the deal.

Alas, Poor Buckman

Richard Burton as Some Dead Guy
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Richard Burton as Some Dead Guy

We don't have much to add to this excellent item from Portfolio's Mixed Media blogger Jeff Bercovici, except to say that if knowing Shakespeare quotes on sight is the new standard by which media writers are measured, we've got some some cramming to do.

Mr. Bercovici quotes The New York Post's Adam Buckman's review of Heroes in which he cites this line of cribbed Shakespeare—"There's a divinity that shapes our ends - rough hew them how we will"— and suggests that it's "crazy nonsense" and that its speaker, Malcolm McDowell, "should win an Emmy for keeping a straight face while reciting these lines."

As Shakespeare would say, "Pwnedeth!"

Bercovici: Job Cuts at the Times

Jeff Bercovici is reporting that Bill Keller told staff today that the paper is cutting 100 newsroom positions. Bercovici writes:  read more »

Hillary on Fox

Hillary on Fox

A propos of the friendly argument I had last week with Portfolio's Jeff Bercovici over whether it's in Democrats' interests to appear on Fox News, I should note that Hillary Clinton was on Fox and Friends -- along with all the other major morning shows -- this morning.

So in this case at least, her campaign appears to agree with Jeff.

Fox and the Democrats

Fox and the Democrats
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I have to politely take issue with Portfolio.com's Jeff Bercovici, who agrees with Chris Wallace that Democrats are wrong not to go on Fox News. Jeff writes:

Democrats don't avoid Fox as some kind of sop to the MoveOn.org crowd. They do it for the same reason they limit their press availability in general: because they're afraid of getting tripped up, caught in a flip-flop or a contradiction.

But this isn't quite right, in my view. It's true that, as Jeff says, Democrats are more likely to get tripped up during an interview on Fox News than on other networks. But they didn't start consistently snubbing Fox until liberal activists, led by watchdog groups like Media Matters, made it into an issue...  read more »

Pinging the Sonar: Radar Sets Sail!

Radar's back, baby. And it's bountiful, with a crew of pasty young men laboring night and day. Local well-known job-jumping ne'er-do-wells Jeff Bercovici and Matt Haber and Marcus Baram are all stuffed belowdecks on the Viking slave galleon that is the good ship Maer Roshan. Homeless no more!

In fact, that galley is packed; the two main blogs alone list eleven staffers, giving it, no doubt, the highest staff costs of any weblog site in existence. (It could have been more expensive! Apparently former Radar employee Remy Stern didn't make it to sea, having been chucked overboard at some point pre-launch. (Or perhaps he threw himself over?)) And the "Reviews" section lists a staff of eight.

So clearly she's a seaworthy vessel, yah—if a bit battered about the poop deck.

Reportedly, these new-fangled things called "RSS feeds" will be available later today.