Michael Wolff is the author of many books, including most recently The Fall: The End of Fox News and the Murdoch Dynasty. He also wrote a best-selling trilogy about the Trump White House: Fire and Fury, Siege, and Landslide. He has been a columnist for New York Magazine, Vanity Fair, and The Hollywood Reporter, twice winning a National Magazine Award.
Hillary’s Nixon ProblemShe’s armored, defensive, uneasy. We question her motives, her ambition, her honesty. We might even see her as our dark side. And we’re not thro […]
Runway RunawayFashion is media, and judging by the number of photographers, it’s more important than the presidential election. Our columnist got a seat in th […]
Al Gore RhythmIn the science of elections, everyone overlooks the iron law of reversals: If you’re up, then you’re going to be down. Why can’t the candidates […]
Cruise ControlHigh above Sixth Avenue, a techie genius plots to take over drive time, using a fleet of satellites to knock out local radio. Meanwhile, who kil […]
Boys to MenMen’s mags were once for – and edited by – men of consequence. Then came the beer-and-babes revolution. Can “Details” make men and magazines m […]
Survivor GuiltI’ll admit it: I missed out on this year’s most pressing cultural event. Guess I was distracted by the conventions and that Russian sub. What a […]
Speech ReachWhat do politicians do? They talk … to constituents, to contributors, to lobbyists, to each other. So why are they such bad public speakers? […]
L.A. NonstoryNothing wrong with the conventions that turning off the cameras wouldn’t fix. Admit they’re sales meetings, not news events, and maybe even Al G […]
B-BoyGeorge W. went to business school when all the overachievers went to law. But we like him because he’s the bimbo who brings the beer to the party.
Free Harry!From the beginning, Harry Potter has been the poster boy for the power of Amazon. Is that why Jeff Bezos was practically giving the book away?
The GigawitsA couple of old vaudevillians are poised to become electronic publishers and turn the book business on its ear. That is, if they can get anyone […]
CollaboratorsIn selling out to the French, is Edgar Bronfman surrendering American media hegemony to yet another European media supremo? Or has he just found […]
The LiquidatorYour burn rate’s too high, and time is running out on your Internet dream. If you call Fred Seegal, you can salvage something – but it may be t […]
Use the SchmoozeWhy is Al Gore media-challenged? Could it be that while he was trying to “make a difference,” he never learned how to make a sale? The Democrats […]
Parenting: Honey, I Wired The KidsIn our digital household – which has the computing power of a small company – the kids fight for cell-phone privileges, AOL accounts, and comp […]
Parenting: Honey, I Wired The KidsIn our digital household – which has the computing power of a small company – the kids fight for cell-phone privileges, AOL accounts, and comp […]
So Wrong He’s RightContrarian market watcher James Grant spent the last decade sticking to the fundamentals – and being wrong! Now the Fed’s on his side, so will […]
The InsidersTwo clever old-media guys just launched Inside.com, which has everybody in the business asking, “Does this change everything?” While they wonder […]
Girls! Girls! Girls!Has the mayor’s taste for women turned him from a self-righteous scold into a vulnerable man with a heart? Or is this midlife crisis as politica […]
Slap HappyOn the Web, our secret hungers, passions, and fetishes are highly lucrative – as the author discovered when he got to the bottom of a college c […]
Dot-Com BombWe’ve all been waiting for the next Great Web Wipeout. But the Orwellian technology geeks never imagined the fuse would be lit by an old-media m […]
Bullet TrainE-books were a slow train coming until Stephen King put some propulsion behind them. Will clubby, head-in-the-sand publishers catch this ride or […]
Yin Eats YangWith PlanetOut’s purchase of “Out” and “The Advocate,” Tom Rielly, its chief homosexual officer, has finally unified gay media’s divided soul.
Checkout CloutJann Wenner has unleashed his new ‘People’-killer magazine, ‘USWeekly.’ His secret weapon? Not celebrity snaps and juicy dish but 200,000 superm […]
Huey and the NewsFortune editor John Huey wanted to be a bon vivant like Esquire’s Harold Hayes. But he ended up as a business weenie – and the life of the part […]
Bond TradingAt TED, the new-media version of a Mafia wedding, you rub elbows with the dons and capos of the Internet world and become an instant member of t […]
Queen for a DayWhy does network television suddenly seem to be back in the fifties, with “Millionaires” and wannabes on every channel? Welcome to TV for losers.
;-) :-) :-0 :-(As broadband looms over the entertainment industry, the kings of comedy huddle in Aspen to worry over the fate of storytelling – and who will p […]
How I Got Over My Al Gore-a-phobiaYes, he’s wonky. But shouldn’t our leader know his stuff? Yes, he’s stiff. So was Abe Lincoln. Gore has what it takes to be a fine president – […]
How I Got Over My Al Gore-a-phobiaYes, he’s wonky. But shouldn’t our leader know his stuff? Yes, he’s stiff. So was Abe Lincoln. Gore has what it takes to be a fine president – […]
Waiting to ExhaleFor Geraldine Laybourne, the queen of pure content, the real battle won’t be for viewers but for cable space. Will women care enough to declare: […]
Mogul on the VergeCan a strictly below-the-radar mogul take a group of creaky computer magazines and refit them (and himself) for the new economy?
Happy New MediaThe AOL-Time Warner merger has everyone shell-shocked. Is this as big as it looks, Munich Pact big? And where is the reporter from the corporate […]
Mr. Shawn’s Lost TribeThe language and rituals and customs of the old ‘New Yorker’ are fast being forgotten. Renata Adler, with her first book in fifteen years, is th […]
I Predict . . .Amazon will be the Atari of the nineties. Gore will make his no-television pledge stick. Old media buys new media with dot-com ad dollars. Stand […]
Hot TypeOne reason Keith Kelly’s column is the first read in Media City is that, unlike some of his colleagues, the “Post” reporter appears to have only […]
Hell No, WTO!Will we all look back on the Battle in Seattle as the first eruption of the anti-brand revolution, or was it just a nostalgic moment?
The E DecadeE is for electronic, for equity, for entrepreneur, and, even for erotica. But most of all, E is for the greatest economic boom the […]
The E DecadeE is for electronic, for equity, for entrepreneur, and, even for erotica. But most of all, E is for the greatest economic boom the […]
Meet Roger BlackHe pioneered the use of computers in design, cut the best deals, and made himself synonymous with the modern magazine. And he doesn’t break a sw […]
The Jihad DefenseEverybody laughed at Microsoft during the trial – and now the judge has come down against the zealots in Seattle. Could this have been the plan […]
Fast ’n’ HotWhat’s the hottest new magazine out there? It’s not the one about celebrity cachet and power. It’s the one about the new economy, stupid.
Epstein UnboundFreed from the shackles of corporate publishing, aging editorial wunderkind Jason Epstein has one last trick to show the book business.
Free PressThere seems to be a shortage of small rich men who want to be press barons. Leonard Stern’s selling. Arthur Carter’s tempted. Maybe they just ne […]
Dutch TreatAll hell broke loose when Edmund Morris invented characters for his Reagan biography. But how else could he tell the story of that surreal presidency?
Citizen WolffWe have entered the Age of the Wing Nut: In politics, just about everything counts more than competence. (So does that mean this columnist has a […]
Publish and PerishA writer is only one book away from career disaster today. Just ask best-selling author Joe McGinniss what it takes to market a book once the s […]
Dais ex MachinaThe new-media conference circuit has become the “Pilgrim’s Progress” of high-tech devotion – it’s a traveling old-boy network, and invitations […]
Sell HighEveryone is talking about distribution, content, synergy, and succession in the CBS-Viacom merger, but the deal is really Mel Karmazin selling W […]
Eyes Wide ShutAs the summer movies pass into history, it is becoming painfully clear to everyone but the studio executives that the blockbuster, brand-support […]
