By Kara Bloomgarden-Smoke 5/03 4:05pm

THE NEW MEDIA ECONOMY

Allie Compton (Photo via Facebook).

Someone Gainfully Employed in Media Was Denied an Apartment Because Media is ‘Shaky’

Everyone knows that media is not the most stable industry and that it’s hard to find an affordable apartment in New York. But surely somebody who is gainfully employed at a media organization with a recognizable name would not be denied an apartment just because the whole industry is shaky, right?

Wrong.

“Last week, I was denied an apartment because I have a full-time job in the media industry,” AOL.com frontpage editor Allie Compton wrote on HuffPost earlier this week. Read More

By Drew Grant 12/25/12 8:54am

Crass Commercialism

The most popular articles on Huffington Post

HuffPost Figures Out Algorithm for Christmas Traffic Spike: Listing Chain Outlets’ Store Hours

*Slow clap* Congratulations, Arianna. We see that you’ve beat the dreaded “Original Holiday Content” beast that has driven down traffic at so many other Internet hubs. And you were so clever about it, too! Why make one post merely listing Walmart’s schedule today, when you can create a sort of listicle-generator that randomizes and promotes every pairing of store hours possible?

Here’s how the link-bait portal just found a new way to game the system. Read More

By Kara Bloomgarden-Smoke 3:37pm

Backpage

A sampling of print sex ads from the pages of the Village Voice circa 2007.

Print Sex Ads Will Remain at Newly-Formed Voice Media Group

Backpage.com may be gone, but sex ads are here to stay at the alt weeklies formerly owned by Village Voice Media. Over the weekend, Village Voice Media announced it had reshuffled and separated its 13 newspapers from Backpage.com, the classifieds website with the controversial “adult” advertising section. Backpage may not be part of the newly-formed newspaper company, Voice Media Group, but that doesn’t mean its doing away with the highly profitable print sex ads.

“Voice Media Group will continue to support the current adult classifieds in Village Voice,” a spokesperson for Voice Media Group told the Observer this afternoon. Read More

By Kara Bloomgarden-Smoke 9/14/12 6:18pm

Kickin' It

image

Cat Marnell Gives Up Her Vices

In last week’s installment of her Vice column, “Amphetamine Logic,” Wild child blogger Cat Marnell announced that her time at the hipster web mag was coming to an end.

“I’m writing my last columns,” Cat Marnell explained when we reached her late Friday afternoon .“I almost feel addicted to them, like I could go on forever.”

However, Ms. Marnell, who celebrated her 30th birthday earlier this week, is ready for her next venture. She said she has become a perfectionist. “I’ve  just got to do it right. When you are writing weird, it’s make it good or go home, you know?” Ms. Marnell noted she scrapped this week’s column because she wasn’t happy with it and missed her deadline.

“I miss my deadlines all the time, and my editor just has to deal with me like Jane did.” Ms. Marnell was the Beauty Editor at xoJane.com until June. Ms. Marnell said she still talks to Jane Pratt all the time, and they plan to have dinner soon.

“I love her, she’s the great love of my life,” Ms. Marnell said of her erstwhile mentor. Read More

By Foster Kamer 8/29/12 3:30pm

Propaganda

Megan Kelly

‘Women of Fox News’ Chain-Mail Propaganda: What’s Wrong With This Email?

It’s odd to see chain-email forwards in 2012; they seem like a relic of the late ’90s, when email was still the best way to share information with a mass of people one knew (as opposed to, say, Facebook in 2012). More often than not, they seemed intent on propagating something, whether it was a belief, a superstition or an awful joke that parents find funny.

We found ourselves on the receiving end of one today, however, that struck a chord of curiosity from one person who sent it on. Read More

By Foster Kamer 8/15/12 5:15pm

TIMES OF THE TIMES

NYT

New York Times CEO’s Appointment ‘Celebrated’ by Blast of Lightning to Newspaper

Yesterday, The New York Times Co. named the BBC’s outgoing Director General Mark Thompson to the post of CEO. The company had been without a new chief executive since Janet Robinson was tossed from the coop with a golden parachute at her back in December; Times Co. chairman and publisher Arthur ­Sulzberger Jr. served in the position as an interim chief executive up until yesterday, when Thompson was named.

A few minutes ago, the building was struck by lightning… Read More