Nate Thayer recently became a hero to an entire generation of underappreciated, underpaid–and more importantly often unpaid–journalists just scraping by when he made public emails from an Atlantic editor asking him to work for free. With even our most highly remunerated writers, including Scott Turow, speaking out about their writing being pilfered, Thayer struck Read More
Last Friday, Deadspin founder and New York magazine sports editor Will Leitch announced on his Tumblr that it was his last day at the magazine as a full-time employee. By the end of the summer, Mr. Leitch will leave New York City as well.
After 13 years of climbing the New York sportswriting ranks, Mr. Leitch is moving to Athens, Ga., where he will work full-time at Sports on Earth, a joint venture between USA Today and Major League Baseball’s media arm. The website launched last summer. Read More
When Roger Ebert died last week at age 70, it seemed that everyone had a story or a fond memory to share about him. It’s rare for a critic to be so beloved, but Mr. Ebert—much like Christopher Hitchens, who died in 2011—had a reputation for kindness, even if his writing could sting.
“It’s a Read More
Earlier this year, Michael’s, the Midtown media power lunch spot, introduced its first new menu since it opened in 1989, now featuring small plates in addition to its full-sized entrees.
The old standbys remain (there is only so much change media people can handle), but among the new items, prices are tilting downward. An expense account remains advisable, however: pizza is $16, salads range from $13 to $27, and small plates like duck confit sliders, Korean steak tacos and crispy oysters with grapefruit and lemon butter range from $9 to $18. Read More
When the Daily News staff returns to the paper’s offices at 4 New York Plaza following a lengthy absence—resulting from extensive Superstorm Sandy-related damage—the staff will look considerably different from the one that left last fall.
Changes are especially prominent on the features desk, editor John Oswald’s departure from which was first reported Read More
Last week, OTR found ourselves at a “salon” hosted by the pioneering webmag, Salon. The conceit of a “salon” harks back either to French wits gathering to amuse nobility (and one another) or to Viennese coffeehouses where intellectuals would debate philosophy and gossip. In modern-day New York, however, a “salon” is more often a euphemism for “panel discussion.” And Salon’s salon was no exception. Read More
When Shane Smith, one of the founders of Vice Media, pitched a television show to MTV in 2010, it seemed unimaginable that the company that came out of Vice magazine could establish itself as a respected informational source about, well, anything (other than how to decorate your heroin stash). And yet the network bit, and The Vice Guide to Everything ran for eight episodes, balancing ridiculous segments against heavier fare.
With its latest television program, VICE, which premieres next Friday, the media company is once again trying its hand at American television. Not just television. HBO. And this time, it’s not trading on its nihilistic reputation. Instead, it’s asking audiences to trust in its international-relations acumen. It wants to be taken seriously. Or at least as seriously as it takes itself. Read More
Covering breaking news from inside one’s own publication is tricky business.
Last week, when Reuters deputy social media editor Matthew Keys was indicted by the Justice Department for “conspiring with members of the hacker group ‘Anonymous’ to hack into and alter a Tribune Company website,” the media company faced the problem head-on. Read More
John Wilson never could have imagined that Pope Benedict XVI would step down, as the spiritual leader did in late February. Nor could he have guessed that he would be living in Rome as a seminarian when it happened. But as a former staff member on the editorial board of The New York Post, Mr. Read More
If you fear that book culture is vanishing, it helps to attend the National Book Critics Circle’s yearly awards ceremony, as OTR did last week at The New School’s Tishman Auditorium.
The NBCC was founded in 1974 to extend the legacy of the Algonquin Round Table, that erstwhile Friar’s Club of the 1920s New York Read More
