Kent Brownridge Still Stealing Silverware From the House of WennerMEDIA
• Kent Brownridge picked a new fight with his old boss Jann Wenner, poaching ten-year Rolling Stone vet Joe Levy for the top spot at Blender. Brownridge already stole Men’s Journal editor James Kaminsky to take over Maxim. [Mixed Media/Portfolio]
• The OK! issue with the Jamie Lynn–pregnancy exclusive sold only 900,000 copies on the newsstand, well short of the roughly 1.5 million the mag had predicted. [WWD]
• Steve Cohn on the Condé shake-up following so fast on Steve Florio’s death: “It sort of reminds me of The Godfather. They go to the funeral and then they blow everything up.” [NYP]
ink-stained wretches
Graydon Carter to Eat Less in 2008Today, crack WWD reporter Irin Carmon called around to various New York magazine editors to find out their New Year’s resolutions. As you can see, magazine editors have the same hopes and dreams as the rest of us. You know, ones that mostly involve being less fat and shallow:
• Departures editor Richard Story: To have “an ark full of ASMEs.”
• Teen Vogue editor Amy Astley: To “skip Us Weekly and The New York Post and read more books.”
• Vanity Fair editor Graydon Carter: “Less food, more exercise.”
• Food & Wine editor Dana Cowin: “To kick my pork butt addiction and move on to healthier foods like eco-friendly farmed striped bass.”
• CosmoGIRL! editor Susan Schulz: To take up Pilates and cook dinner for her husband twice a month (“Hey, gotta start somewhere!”).
• Men’s Journal editor Brad Wieners: “To do the workout we just published (’40 is the new 30!’).”
• Bon Appétit editor Barbara Fairchild: “With my job, that same 15 pounds I always resolve to lose is with me for life.”
Meanwhile, we notice Graydon ignored our advice on what to resolve this year. But then again, he only has twelve more chances to write a boringly hysterical editor’s letter about President Bush, so we guess that’s understandable.
That Time of the Year [WWD]
Earlier: New Year’s Resolutions for the Best New Yorkers
ink-stained wretches
Jann Wenner Has No Contingency PlanAs Rolling Stone celebrates its 40th anniversary (and celebrates, and celebrates), Business Week’s Jon Fine discovers that 62-year-old founder Jann Wenner has no plans for succession. “I haven’t thought about it all,” Wenner told Fine. Selling the company is “not inconceivable,” he says. But “it’s not on the table now.” In his column, what Fine finds inconceivable is the Rolling Stone’s own staying power. It “astounds” the media critic that a magazine with no emphasis on the Web and a baby-boomer focus manages to have such a cache with advertisers. But as Wenner ages, who will his mini-empire of RS, Men’s Journal, and Us Weekly pass to? A sale would sock Wenner and his estranged wife, Jane, with massive capital-gains taxes, Fine argues, so they’re unlikely to want to sell. In other words, what we expected all along will probably come to pass. Wenner will never let go of Rolling Stone until he is 90 years old and the magazine has to run shots of Bruce Springsteen’s grave to keep up its annual Boss cover quota.
The Last Tycoon of Print [Business Week]
Related: The Odd Couple [NYM]
company town
Fox Business Network: Still Painting the OfficesMEDIA
• Looks like the Fox Business Network has a shitload of work to do on their studio before launching next Monday. They’ve got the requisite bright-red circle hung above the anchor desk, but otherwise the floor’s not even finished. NBC News, on the other hand, finally cut the ribbon on their new 30 Rock studio, which president Steve Capus compared to “the dance floor of the Stockholm Hilton.” Was that supposed to be a compliment? [FishbowlNY/Mediabistro, TVNewser]
• Jan Wenner failed to lure Ed Felsenthal away from the Journal (and Portfolio) and had to settle for Brad Wieners as new editor at Men’s Journal. Wieners has been acting editor since August, when James Kaminsky decamped for Maxim. [NYP]
• Poynter Institute: As a journalist, it’s your “duty” to read the print newspaper. Unclear how that affects bloggers. [Poynter]
office-party patrol
No Band, Little Booze, But Good Food (for Munchies?) at Wenner PartyThere was one last big blowout to catch before Holiday Party Season 2006 wound down: The annual Wenner Media extravaganza. With the bank busted on Rolling Stone’s 1,000th-issue celebration in May, this year’s holiday gathering was less glitzy in the past, with no big-name musical act slated to perform. But that didn’t stop indefatigable party reporter Julia Allison. Her wrap-up — her final wrap-up of the season — is after the jump.