Surfing Editor’s Ride Is OverMeanwhile, Google doesn’t understand why the AP is so angry when it’s just trying to help them, and other news on the changing media.
Anti-Feminist Sues Columbia Over Women’s Studies ProgramRoy Den Hollander, the guy who sued against ladies’ night promotions at nightclubs, is at it again. Plus, no one cared that the New York ‘Times’ raised its cover price, and Lehman sells a key asset.
company town
Michael Phelps Is Gold for NBCPlus, lawyers make criminals sing (to ‘Don Giovanni’), another spectacular apartment you can’t afford hits the market, and more, in our daily industry roundup.
Katie Couric and Sean McManus: Chipper at CBS in Spite of It AllMore troubles for Sam Zell, Heather Mills is coming to town, and half of Bear Stearns employees are facing the ax. Click through to read the rest of our news roundup from the fields of media, law, finance and real estate.
company town
Just in Time for ‘Times’ McCain Scuffle, ‘Time’ Editor Says Papers Shouldn’t Endorse CandidatesMEDIA
• What is the New York Police Department’s policy for awarding press credentials? Journalists wonder the same thing. [NYT]
• Time managing editor Rick Stengel ponders why newspapers endorse political candidates at a time when news consumers doubt the objectivity of the media. [Time]
• Details of the deal that Newsweek struck with George W. Bush’s former brain have emerged: It’s a two-year, sixteen-column contract. [NYO]
company town
Finance Types Split Over Hillary and RomneyFINANCE
• Wall Street hopes Hillary has a super Super Tuesday, but private equity is standing by one of its own. Fourth-quarter campaign-financing reports show Senator Clinton taking in the lion’s share of donations from the Street’s top ten financial firms. Meanwhile, Bain Capital co-founder Mitt Romney is still tops among the PE crowd. [NYT/Dealbook]
• So, what’s it gonna be, boy? Stuck between Microsoft’s rock and Google’s hard place, Yahoo! CEO Jerry Yang has limited options for saving his company at his disposal. [NYP]
• If you believe the latest hype, Citadel is paving the way for an IPO after all. Ken Griffin’s asset-management firm has split its proprietary hedge-fund business from its client-based options-making business. “Legally, it makes it cleaner,” said Josh Galper in an interview. [Bloomberg]
company town
Joseph Lewis Doesn’t Play BridgeFINANCE
• Henry Kravis failed to come to terms with top banks on financing for his all-important $26 billion buyout of First Data, the first in over $300 billion worth of LBOs that the banks need to get off their books. Negotiations will be pushed back another week, but it’s not looking good. [DealBook/NYT]
• The new rumor on the Street is that Joseph Lewis, the billionaire British currency speculator, bought into Bear Stearns on the advice of longtime Bear broker Kurt Butenhoff. The previous rumor, that Lewis got the idea from CEO Jimmy Cayne while playing bridge, seems unlikely since Lewis doesn’t even play bridge. [CNBC]
• Thanks to their friends at NASA, the CEOs of Google can park their three private jets — including a huge Boeing 767 — just seven minutes away from the tech-giants headquarters. Something tells us no Manhattan CEO’s helicopter perks will beat that. [NYT]
gossipmonger
Quarterback SackedBridget Moynahan won’t actually see Tom Brady and is only giving him limited access to their newborn son. Late New York Giants owner Wellington Mara’s eleven kids are going through problems, both personal and business-related. Christie Brinkley didn’t attend the Hampton Classic Horse Show because Peter Cook and a new girlfriend were inside. Note to male tennis players: Do not date Martina Hingis. Julia Stiles helped boyfriend Jonathan Cramer install one of his sculptures on Central Park North. Jack Nicholson once jumped out a window after Hunter S. Thompson pulled a gun out in a house. Music mogul Irv Gotti made it to day three of a $10,000 World Poker Tour event. A former Stuyvesant High School student of Frank McCourt said the Pulitzer Prize winner was not a great English teacher. James Blount hooked up with another model, this time in Malibu.
in other news
Google Transit Set to Make Buses Usable by the YoungIn another grand leap forward for mobile New Yorkers, someone other than the MTA is once again making public transit easier. Google is poised to launch Google Transit for the city, which will make it possible to search for directions from one place to another, using the quickest subway or bus route. (You know, sort of like HopStop.com but with the power and popularity of Google)The system is already in place for several other U.S. cities, including Tampa, Dallas, Portland, and Seattle. When they implemented it in Duluth, public bus use shot up 12 percent. This is genius, though the MTA’s routine unannounced delays and murky service changes are likely to throw a lot of wrenches in the gears. After all, can a computer algorithm possibly pre-calculate “goddamn-sick-person-on-the-train ahead-of-us”–related delays?
Google May Start NY Transit Maps to Boost Ads [Bloomberg]
Google to Map the Subway [Subway Blogger]
Earlier: Facebook to Reduce Rage, Increase Hookups on Subway
intel
With Street View, Google Has Won Victory Over Ourselves. We Love Big Google.
As you may have heard, Google this week rolled out another beta feature that will soon, depending on how things play out, either prove an innocuous time-waster or some sort of privacy-ending, terror-enabling, total-surveillance nightmare. It’s Street View, and it’s exactly what it sounds like: a ground-level Google Earth that plants you smack in the middle of a street rather than floating above it. New York is one of the few cities to get the early treatment, with most of the Manhattan grid and good chunks of the outer boroughs already covered. Once plopped down at an intersection of your choosing, you can take in a 360-degree view or “walk” up and down the block; storefronts distend woozily around you, and parked vehicles dissolve into nothing where the photos are stitched together. As trippy as the experience is, we’re a little intrigued about Street View’s next step. What happens when the company photogs have traversed all the places with, you know, streets? Volunteers roaming every hill and dale taking pictures? Flying unmanned Googledrones scouring the countryside? Of course.
Street View demo [Google]
intel
Ove Is All AroundWe enjoy Google’s longstanding tradition of altering the search engine’s logo to commemorate various holidays and notable events. But we also wish — today, especially — that the logo designers consistently remembered their company’s name includes an L. Other than that, well, Happy Valentine’s Day to you, too, Googe.
company town
Yeah, We Should Have Gone to Law SchoolLAW
• Simpson Thacher & Barlett has raised first-year associate salaries from $145K to $160K. Expect the rest of the white-shoe firms to follow suit. [Above the Law]
• Lawyers dissed in Oscar nominations. Whither Atticus Finch? [Law Blog]
FASHION
Is Valentino retiring? The rumor straight from yesterday’s couture show has the designer stepping down in July. [Fashion Week Daily]
• The latest Chanel accessory: furniture. The company is commissioning a red chair inspired by a Swiss Army knife. [WWD]
in other news
How to Work at Google, New York EditionNow that Google has set up its big new digs in New York, are we to be beset by articles on each Googly yogurt in every Google-indexed refrigerator? Apparently so. On the heels of this weekend’s “Sunday Styles” exposé on Google’s New York culture, today’s Times brings news of Google’s new hiring practices, including a 300-plus item questionnaire that will be flung before all applicants like so many Scantron gauntlets. We’re fond of the company — we’re very attached to our ability to stalk blind dates with impunity — but we’re worried that the job application, which considers factors like dog ownership and world records set, may be stacked against potential employees for the Gotham branch. After the jump, our suggested regional tweaks. Remember to fill in your circles completely and make your marks dark!
grub street
Google Opens New Cafeteria, Induces Mass Jealousy
Google moved its New York headquarters into the old Port Authority building in Chelsea a few months ago, and this week its fabled cafeteria finally opened. Grub Street has Wednesday’s opening-day menu, and, well, let’s just say we’re no longer quite as enamored of 444 Madison’s (usually) beloved Inhouse Nosh Café. Hanger steak, striped bass, ice cream imported from the Bay Area — and that’s just the beginning. Check out the whole thing at Grub Street.
New Google Cafeteria Crushes Competitors’ Cafeterias [Grub Street]
