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Kat Stoeffel

By Kat Stoeffel 8/01/12 8:00am

Media

Illustration: Jason Seiler

The Sunset of Si: As the Conde Nast Chairman Fades Away, His Glossy Kingdom is Losing Some Sparkle

About six years ago, Tom Florio, then the publisher of Vogue, had an idea. He wanted to expand the fashion bible’s brand into a new platform: online television. The magazine’s discerning editor-in-chief, Anna Wintour, approved and Mr. Florio found blue-chip financial investors who did too. He’d been working on the proposal for nine months when he presented it to Si Newhouse, Chuck Townsend and other top Condé Nast brass.

“I hate it,” Mr. Newhouse said.

Encountering Mr. Newhouse at a dinner party a few days later, Mr. Florio asked the Condé Nast chairman to elaborate on his abrupt dismissal of the idea.

“All that did was make money,” the boss told him. Read More

By Kat Stoeffel 7/17/12 3:30pm

Welcome

Photo by Derek Gee / Buffalo News, via twitter.com/Sulliview

The New York Times Put Its Bloggy Ombudswoman Through the Wringer

New York Times executive editor Jill Abramson announced Monday that Margaret M. Sullivan, editor and vice president of The Buffalo News, will replace Arthur Brisbane as the paper’s public editor.

Speaking on the phone from Buffalo Monday afternoon, Ms. Sullivan told Off The Record that she had lusted after the gig for years.

“Now that there’s going to be much more of a digital job,” she said, “it’s a very good fit for me.”

She described the Times search as broad and the vetting process as lengthy and thorough.

“It was not a slam dunk,” she admitted. Read More

By Kat Stoeffel 7/17/12 2:45pm

South

Smirnoff and Fitzgerald

Ousted Oxford American Editors Will Fight Their Termination

The two Oxford American editors who were fired after a lock out of the quarterly’s offices and a “personnel investigation” are lawyering up.

Managing editor Carol Ann Fitzgerald wrote on her Facebook page:

“Dear Friends: Marc Smirnoff, founder and editor of The Oxford American, and I, the magazine’s managing editor and art editor, have been fired in the strangest, most secretive manner imaginable. We plan to give the full details and truth of what we know as soon as possible but we must first focus on preparing our legal response. In the meantime, we send out our heartfelt gratitude to those many people who have enriched our lives by their connection and support to the real Oxford American.” Read More

By Kat Stoeffel 7/16/12 3:15pm

Shake Ups

oxfordamerican

Oxford American Editors Under Investigation Regarding ‘Inappropriate Conduct’

Oxford American founding editor Marc Smirnoff and managing/art editor Carol Ann Fitzgerald have reportedly left the “Southern magazine of good writing” amid an internal investigation being conducted by its lawyers.

On Wednesday evening, publisher and interim editor Warwick Sabin locked employees out of the non-profit quarterly’s office on the University of Central Arkansas campus, reports Read More

By Kat Stoeffel 7/12/12 1:30pm

Things Spy Did First

rottenteeth

The New Republic‘s Kate Middleton Cover: SPY Homage?

Our first thought upon glancing at the latest New Republic cover was that new editor-in-chief, Facebook founder and marriage equality activist Chris Hughes was cribbing from Tina Brown‘s playbook. It has all the elements of a latter day Newsweek cover: A royal, buzzy photoshop, canny packaging. (Duchess Kate Middleton is more symbol than subject, as Britain’s royal family is not mentioned in the editorial package.)   Read More

By Kat Stoeffel 7/11/12 1:30pm

Food

critics

New York Times Restaurant Critic Pete Wells Is a Softie, Statistically Speaking

Chefs and restaurateurs, rejoice: a rigorous statistical analysis of the three most recent New York Times restaurant critics suggests that current critic Pete Wells is ever-so-slightly more liberal with the stars than predecessors Sam Sifton and Frank Bruni.

Looking at the three critics’ first six months on the job side-by-side, The Daily Meal’s executive editor Arthur Bovino found that Mssrs. Wells, Sifton, and Bruni all reviewed the same number of restaurants. During those heady and caloric early days, Mr. Wells gave out three more stars than Mr. Bruni and fourteen more than Mr. Sifton. Read More

By Kat Stoeffel 7/11/12 10:00am

off the record

R.I.P. Newscore: News Corp.’s Weird News Wire Goes Dark, Sheds Staff

As News Corp. shores up its print and television properties leading up to the company’s highly publicized split, its scrappy and beloved internal newswire Newscore has quietly gone dark, with at least 20 positions eliminated—and possibly more than twice that if cuts hit bureaus in London and Sydney.

Launched in 2009, Newscore collected and redistributed the news stories from News Corp.’s reporters in the U.S., U.K. and Australia, while racing rivals AP and Reuters on breaking news. Newscore CEO John Moody, a former Fox News executive, was reportedly inspired by a moment of synergy between Fox News and The Australian in covering Heath Ledger’s death. Read More