Tribune CEO Totally Changing the Game @2:40 PM
I'm not totally opposed to the list of words and phrases banned by for use on WGN radio by Tribune CEO Randy Michaels (a gentleman just described by a former Tribune employee as "crazy/evil.") Some of his banned words are clearly just weird pet peeves of his ("famed"? "diva"? "false pretenses"?) but others—"under siege"! "under fire"!—are the sad things you hear endlessly if you ever turn on talk radio, which of course you don't, because if you're reading a blog you're probably not a full-time cab driver. What's really fascinating is that this list has almost no overlap with the list of words you should never use in writing. But then when do newscasters ever actually say "arguably"? Sad though that Michaels' toady, WGN's news director Charlie Meyerson, then instituted a system in which coworkers will rat each other out for using any of these 119 words and phrases. Can you imagine the stress of trying not to say 119 things while babbling about nothing? 7
The Disaster of One Madison Park @10:40 AM
My obsession, "One Madison Park," the super-skinny building that went up at the foot of Madison Ave. and 23rd Street, looming over Shake Shack, mostly full of full-floor apartments that we thought had been all bought up by rich Irish people (not rich any more!) and Arabs (some rich still!), has turned out to be a total shit-show in the finest New York tradition. This is a very bad scene. Now the co-builders are suing each other, the debt-holding bank is suing the builders for foreclosure, and there are also a dozen other lawsuits floating around. Some of the most fascinating stuff: when the builders couldn't sell units back in the glory days of 2007, the builders brought on an ad guy. His fee? Two apartments and $800,000. Ladies, we are all in the wrong business. Annnnnd here comes the punchline: now, "about a dozen of the building’s 90 condos are occupied." Oof. 30
New Word Rates In Journalism: 60% of 1 Penny @10:00 AM
Job Description:
• Write articles (20 articles within 5 days).
• Min 500 words for each article.
• This project should be completed within 5 days.
• You only will be pay total of $60USD upon completion of all articles.
• 100% correct punctuation and grammar!
That's 10,000 words. (To be written in five days.) For 3/5ths of 1 penny per word. Is this Dickens? 14
On the Internet, No One Has To Know You're A Lady. Problem Solved! @4:10 PM
Ladies! You are doing it wrong, reports a lady who has been working as a man, on the Internet, for the last three years: "Taking a man's name opened up a new world. It helped me earn double and triple the income of my true name, with the same work and service. No hassles. Higher acceptance. And gratifying respect for my talents and round-the-clock work ethic. Business opportunities fell into my lap. People asked for my advice, and they thanked me for it, too." It's totally true! I get totally different sorts of emails (and email response rates) from people who think my name is a lady-name. Then they find out I'm a man and they give me whatever they want. True fact! (via) 21
No More 75-Person, Chartered Plane Fashion Shoots At 'W'??? @9:20 AM
Apparently the consultants are wrapping up at Conde Nast, with a report due in a few weeks. Through the process, it sounds like some staffers have had some stunning realizations! Here's what one Nastie says: "You don't need to send an entire posse to Joshua Tree for a shot in the desert! Who cares! If the photographer is good, and the clothes are good, the models are good, it's fine-you can shoot downtown." HERESY! 6
The Bookmobile: How To Get Free Vet Care, from "Secrets of a Stingy Scoundrel," by Phil Villarreal @3:00 PM
Phil Villarreal is a Consumerist contributing editor and an Arizona Daily Star reporter. His new book, "Secrets of a Stingy Scoundrel: 100 Dirty Little Money-Grubbing Secrets," is a guide to being an insanely cheap person. He is also on the Twitter, natch, where he teaches you how to get $12 shoes. In this excerpt, he teaches you how to get free pet medical care. Also the book has a chapter on timing your breakup to pay for fewer birthday and Christmas presents. READ MORE 8
The Top Three NYC Wonks: It's Lonely at the Top @10:29 AM
This is a very sad story about the top three wonks in New York City: Jefrey Pollock, Howard Wolfson and Josh Isay, all campaign ops super-spooks. Oh, they were friends, and then not friends, and then friends again, and sometimes their wives worked out together, and they were very young and now less young, and some of them got weird and now only eat salads and don't talk to people much, and some of them were already weird and phobic and just got weirder and more phobic, and sometimes Howard was making $40,000 a month (like right now!) to manage the talking points for the hotly-contested (kidding!) Bloomberg mayoral campaign. (Note to all of you with your sub-$40K a month income: you're doing it wrong.) This is the perfect primer for those looking to understand how New York City politics works now, but you are warned, you won't feel happy when you know. 8
The Gay Divorce Has Traditionally Been the Disposal of Property @11:51 AM
To be fair, I was hard on the life of the sexless straight man this morning, so let us also consider the horrible, sad breakups of the gays, regarding which you should really watch this slideshow about the semi-dissolution of property just as a gay marriage is aborted. The wedding became an awkward party! And their breakup is very diffuse! One gay was mad at the other gay about his blog? And they were both being "mean" to each other? I don't know…. READ MORE 27
2 out of 3 Straight Men Have Sex Only Once A Week Or Way Less @11:02 AM
It only occurred to me later in life that the lot of a straight man was a terrible one. They think about sex all the time—but so rarely have it. So here is the most recent ridiculous survey about sex (from an alleged 50,000 male readers of men.style.com AskMen.com! (Whoops!)) and it finds that 28% of men have sex less than one time a month! Gah! Haha! Wow! Surprisingly, 87% of men also report being dissatisfied with their sex life. I BET! READ MORE 36
'NYT' Second Quarter: Ad Revenue Down 30% Over Last Year @9:22 AM
Well. Today's New York Times announcement of 2nd quarter revenues had some weirdness! For one thing, CEO Janet Robinson & friends trumpet their 1.5% climb in circulation income, because of their raised price. Um, they raised the price three times in the last two years, including in May, the middle of this second quarter, and that last was a 33% price increase to the weekday paper. I do not believe that this 1.5% increase in newsstand and subscriber income "shows the value our newspapers provide day in, day out to our readers." I think it shows that the price raise barely offset the loss of a lot of subscribers and newsstand sales. READ MORE 7
Conde Nast: Just Trim Your F'ing Budgets Already Maybe @9:30 AM
Now that Conde Nast has sent all its employees into a giant, flipped-out tizzy by announcing the onslaught of the McKinsey consultants—"This is an elaborate way to get the editors to trim their fucking budgets"!—one has to wonder: exactly how much does a McKinsey overhaul cost? I literally have no idea—if you do, please let us know—but I imagine it is a significant sum. But whether it is astronomical or merely outrageous, really, what a waste. How hard is it to understand the trends in one's own industry, then assess where one is overspending, talk with pals at other companies, and then trash your budget, hire younger talent instead of old, stupid and expensive talent (cough Annie Leibovitz), fire everyone who made the company's websites a disaster and promote the people who made them work, and carry on? Oh and close down sad old Details, I guess, too bad too, but there are only so many months that its editor can "consider" pieces and then decide he hates them at the last minute, leaving his staff (which has outrageously high turnover) in a constant state of not ever getting anything done while he is watching fashion shows. Also how many times can you teach men how to tie a tie? 5
'Boston Globe' Announces New Digital Reader Application Thing! @10:55 AM
OH GOD. The Boston Globe just rolled out their Globe Reader! It appears to be a computer application available for print subscribers to the paper, so they can now get a "daily" download of Boston Globe content. It's like a PDF, but with links, and with its own application! I don't know how to squeeze it onto my iPhone! This is humiliatingly painful. Do watch the video (sorry, it's not embeddable, because GOD FORBID). It's like their shiny new product comes with a built-in keyboard cat to play the Globe off the world stage. Also, the New York Times announced today a new licensing plan—now they'll sell your own news publication their news stories that have not yet been printed in their physical paper. Revolution! I am being mean because all of this makes me sad. 11
'Away We Go' Gets Hammered @10:10 AM
Away We… RUH ROH! The world's most charming preview, for Away We Go, is apparently for a movie that is less charming than it might be! "The main sin of 'Away We Go' is simple dullness," says the Liberal Web Times. And then there is a real rib-roasting of Sam Mendes in The Paper That Old People Get Delivered in Westchester. READ MORE 26
Huge Swath Of Gay Porn Mags Shutter @2:32 PM
Mavety Media Group has shut down "Mandate, Torso, Honcho, Inches (and all of its ethnic permutations) and Playguy." 26
