By Patrick Clark 1/01 5:19pm

bar to book

375px-McSorley's_Old_Ale_House_001_crop

New Year’s Eve With McSorley’s Bartholomew Boys: They Sling Beer, Books

“Please come, say hello, and get breathed on,” read the email. “New Year’s Eve is typically slower than an average Saturday, for whatever that is worth. Everyone who goes out is spending $150 on an open bar somewhere, and we pick up the scraps.”

The message came from Rafe Bartholomew, an editor at the sports website Grantland who’s writing a book about McSorley’s Old Ale House, to be published by Little, Brown in 2014. Mr. Bartholomew (who is a childhood friend of the Transom’s) didn’t come by the assignment by chance. His father, Geoff Bartholomew, has worked behind the stick at the saloon for the better part of 40 years, and Mr. Bartholomew the younger takes a shift slinging beers from time to time. McSorley’s is a fine bar to have grown up around, of course, if you want to write a book about the experience. Read More

By Foster Kamer 8/29/12 8:22pm

MEDIA BRIEFS

original

Gawker Media’s Attempt to Crowdsource Paycheck Journalism Goes Flaccid

Have we come to the day when Gawker Media’s hard up for pictures of an Olympic swimmer’s pool noodle (a euphemism for “penis”)? Maybe it’s just decided to use that money to hire people (like its competition). And speaking of budgets, do we know what really rocked the relationship between Sally Singer and T to its anticlimactic end yesterday? We don’t, but does someone else? Do you? Did we put “Gawker Media” in the headline instead of “Deadspin” because more media wonks will read it? We have the answer to approximately 3.4 of those five questions, but will only answer two, right here in your Wednesday Evening Press Clips:  Read More

By Foster Kamer 4/24/12 2:02pm

MEDIA BRIEFS

300px-American_progress

Power Lunch: Grantland’s Newest Editor, James Murdoch’s Newest Under-Bus-Tossing

Grantland lands a New Yorker from inside Conde Nast, but not The New Yorker, though I eagerly await Jeffrey Toobin’s oral history of My Cousin Vinny when they do. Elsewhere, James Murdoch is on the stand, CJR is on the move, media “analysts” are on “TV”, and the Wall Street Journal is on the Pulitzer-pipe. Here are your Tuesday afternoon Media Briefs: Read More

By Drew Grant 4/03/12 1:05pm

Hungry hungry media

The snack craze that swept the nation!

Vanity Fair Oddly Obsessed with the Bugles on Mad Men

Sure they are crunchy and delicious, and maybe the appearance of the popular snack on Sunday’s Mad Men was a little disconcerting. (Who knew they had Bugles in the 60s? Or Jewish copywriters?) But Fat Betty Francis’ favorite snack has become something of an obsession to writers over at Vanity Fair, who have taken their hunger pangs to a whole new level. Read More

By Kat Stoeffel 10/03/11 7:19pm

grantland

McSweeney’s Publishes Grantland Quarterly, Blog-to-Print Journal

Today Grantland began selling Grantland Quarterly, a print anthology of the best reads from the sports and culture site so far. It is edited by Bill Simmons and Dan Fierman.

ESPN and Grantland have contracted McSweeney’s to handle the production and distribution (which, in retrospect, explains why Dave Eggers is a Grantland contributing editor). Read More

By Kat Stoeffel 9/12/11 2:27pm

off the record

Globe Columnist Charles Pierce Joins Grantland

In the H.R. equivalent of lining up to high-five a rival team after a foul-filled game, Bill Simmons has hired Charles P. Pierce, most recently of The Boston Globe, to write a column for Grantland, despite the pair’s longstanding feud.

It began in November 2009, when Mr. Pierce reviewed Mr. Simmons’s book, The Book of Basketball, on Deadspin. He took the opportunity to knock the messianic sportswriter down a notch.

“He did not reinvent sportswriting,” Mr. Pierce wrote, while allowing that Mr. Simmons was “an amusing writer who saw the vast potential of the Internet before just about anyone not named Gates or Gore.” Read More

By Kat Stoeffel 8/16/11 2:05pm

off the record

classical

The Classical Will Publish Post-Punk Sports Journalism…If We Kickstart Them

Yesterday a Kickstarter announced the arrival of The Classical, yet another daily web publication dedicated to the burgeoning world of alternative sportswriting. This one is the brainchild of a cerebral fraternity of sports and culture bros, including Bloomsbury editor (and rumored pub-trivia powerhouse) Pete Beatty, Pitchfork and Village Voice vet Tom Breihan, Yahoo! blogger Read More