Michael Idov and Matt Taibbi on Obama’s Foregone Historic Win, and the Morass It Will Land In’Rolling Stone’ columnist Matt Taibbi and ‘New York’ writer Michael Idov discuss why John McCain is “one of the worst” presidential candidates ever, Russian glee over American’s problems, and what happens after a possible President Obama is hammered for what he doesn’t manage to achieve.
company town
Circulation Report: ‘Vogue’ Down, ‘Ladies’ Home Journal’ UpPlus, Katie Couric takes control of CBS News’ political coverage, hotels keep cropping up in Gowanus, and KKR’s IPO doesn’t go as well as planned, all in our daily industry report.
it happened this week
Hot DogThe week in review, from its terribly hot start to its terribly sad end.
ink-stained wretches
‘Portfolio’ Still Looking Elsewhere for InspirationHave you noticed that all of the news about the Great Condé Nast Reshuffling of 2008 has emerged from Women’s Wear Daily? It’s becoming the mouthpiece of the company’s HR department. (Or maybe the news is all a little too boring for anyone else to care about.) After a week of updates about shifts and firings on the business side at Condé titles Vogue, Golf Digest, Lucky, Teen Vogue, and The New Yorker, WWD today tells us about Portfolio (this month’s cover pictured here). Apparently the business mag’s editor, Joanne Lipman, tapped recently departed Post metro editor, Dan Colarusso, to run its growing Website. Also, to fill new Portfolio publisher William Li’s absence at Men’s Vogue, Condé looked within its walls to Details associate publisher, Marc Berger. We’d walk you through all of the changes that came last week, but the most telling detail is already above: While the rest of Condé Nast continues to recruit talent only from inside the company, Portfolio continues to look outside for fresh ideas!
New Titles All Around [WWD]
company town
Jon Stewart Suddenly Not Looking Like the Nice GuyMEDIA
• Is Jon Stewart really the only late-night host not currently covering the salaries of his laid-off, non-striking employees? [Mixed Media/Portfolio]
• The key lines from the n+1 essay that helped convinced Choire Sicha and Emily Gould to quit: “The purpose of Gawker Media was always to improve on the print publishing business model. It was never, as the content of Gawker sometimes seemed to suggest, to produce critiques of the waste that model created. The content at Gawker, like most Condé Nast titles, is a service to the advertisers. … You could say that as Gawker Media grew, from Gawker’s success, Gawker outlived the conditions for its existence.” Joshua David Stein announced his own departure, due mostly to personal loyalty, on Saturday. [n+1, Media Mob/NYO]
• Meanwhile, Portfolio’s Jeff Bercovici proves that Condé and Gawker really are at the same level: “By the way, those who feel wronged by Gawker over the years can take some satisfaction in the uniquely terrible timing of the walkout for Denton, who is pumped full of painkillers after a recent back injury. Last week, the pain became so intense he needed an ambulance to get to the hospital. As he was being loaded into the ambulance, he says, his greatest fear was that he would be spotted by someone from Gawker, which is headquartered just down the block from his home.” [Mixed Media/Portfolio]
in other news
‘Sex and the City’ Violates Fashion in Its House of WorshipMan, Sarah Jessica Parker gets everything. She and the Sex and the City crew got to run around in the Condé Nast offices and pretend they work at Vogue, reports WWD. Willie Garson (a.k.a. Stanford Blatch) spilled the beans on the exclusive shoot — recall, The Devil Wears Prada was mysteriously barred from filming in the building — and even said that Anna Wintour consulted on the segments involving her magazine. While WWD says it was the actual Vogue offices that were used, we hear shooting took place elsewhere at 4 Times Square. Namely, the Teen Vogue offices. We can’t say we’re surprised. If SJP showed up at the real Vogue in one of her heinous movie outfits, she’d be taken out by interns with blow darts before she left the elevator.
Will There Be Coat Throwing? [WWD]
Earlier: ‘Sex and the City’ Movie Continues Series’ Violence Against Fashion
gossipmonger
Si to Shutter ‘Teen Vogue’?Teen Vogue may be the next Condé Nast magazine to fold. Some 370 girls auditioned to be Rockettes recently; two were hired. Reggie Jackson took issue with the scene in The Bronx Is Burning in which he loses his temper. Usher and Tameka Foster may be married in the Hamptons this week. Kelly Clarkson apologized to Clive Davis after realizing that her album was as bad as he claimed it was. Diddy wrote a song and shot a video about ex-girlfriend Kim Porter. A 9-year-old girl cried after being rebuffed for an autograph by Hilary Duff. Flava Flav got the celebrity-roast treatment. Elle is throwing a party for August cover girl Sarah Jessica Parker in the Hamptons. John Legend shopped for BBQ fixings at the Houston Street Whole Foods.
gossipmonger
Maria Bartiromo Feels Pretty, Oh So PrettyBefore Maria Bartiromo was on MSNBC and flying on private jets, she lived a life out of West Side Story. Speaking of Bartiromo, Citigroup head Charles Prince may have leaked the jet-ride scandal to the media. Former Philippines first lady Imelda Marcos uploaded some unintentionally funny government-propaganda films to YouTube. Financier Henry Kravis complained that he wasn’t invited to Stephen Schwarzman’s blowout birthday party. Brad and Angelina needed beads and masks to escape from a New Orleans restaurant.
cultural capital
Indie Rockers Too Cool for Manhattan, Head to Jersey
In other Stephen Colbert–related news, we’ll mention that the Decemberists — the “hyperliterate prog-rock” band he recently battled for green-screen dominance — yesterday released their U.S. touring schedule for spring. As New York has already deemed the group about as brilliant as possible, we were a bit miffed to discover that no New York City venue made the list. But then we saw where the tour kicks off: Jersey City. Of course it does. —Lori Fradkin
Exclusive: Decemberists Announce Spring U.S. Tour [Pitchfork]
If You Lived Here, You’d Be Cool By Now [NYM]
