The Daily Beast announced today that they were “have parted company” with media critic Howard Kurtz. The announcement came just a day after Mr. Kurtz came under fire for a blog post where he made the false claim that basketball player Jason Collins, who recently came out as gay in a Sports Illustrated cover story, Read More
Andrew Sullivan is bringing in some serious cash so far. It’s been just a day since he announced that he was taking The Dish rogue and leaving The Daily Beast to gamble on a support from a direct subscriber model, and he has already gotten a third of a million dollars and close to 12,000 paid subscribers, he wrote on his blog today.
“Basically, we’ve gotten a third of a million dollars in 24 hours, with close to 12,000 paid subscribers (at last count). On average, readers paid almost $8 more than we asked for,” Mr. Sullivan wrote this afternoon. “To say we’re thrilled would obscure the depth of our gratitude and relief.” Read More
New year, new business model for Andrew Sullivan. Mr. Sullivan is leaving the office he rarely visited and taking his Dish blog rogue. Instead of the blog living on The Daily Beast, Mr. Sullivan and his band of editors will set up an independent company called Dish Publishing LLC and publish without the benefit of a larger publication’s umbrella, he announced in a blog post today.
Mr. Sullivan, one of The Beast’s highest-profile names, is taking the gamble that his brand is strong enough to strike out on its own. Read More
Newsbeast editor in chief Tina Brown seems to have developed a redemptive streak, at least when it comes to the bad boys and girls of the media world. Her website has recently published several pieces by otherwise disgraced journalists. Read More
“God, have you ever walked into a meeting and thought, This is not going to go well?” Code and Theory founder and creative director Brandon Ralph moaned. “That’s what it was like when we went to pitch to The Daily Beast.”
Sitting with him in his 5th floor SoHo offices, it was easy to imagine what the handsome and lanky 33-year-old was talking about. The Observer had come in to meet with the man who had been hand-picked by Tina Brown, Anna Wintour, Peter Brant, and Jason Binn to create their online platforms. With long, dark, wavy hair; leather bracelets; and a penchant for John Varvatos; Mr. Ralph looked more the part of a hip New York restaurateur. Read More
Illusionist David Blaine stopped by Newsweek/The Daily Beast for an appearance on BeastTV today. While in the company’s West Chelsea office, Mr. Blaine couldn’t resist demonstrating his powers to what we assume were wowed staffers.
Excited writers tweeted the events (with pictures). It isn’t every day that magic happens in a newsroom. Read More
A Gawker writer is in. A Times editor is out. A Reuters reporter goes to a trade. A Daily Beast reporter goes toe-to-toe with the best actor from the best film of 1999. All that, and more, in your Thursday Evening Media Briefs: Read More
It’s raining me…dia items. Hallelujah. With so much to get through today, rather than act out the pretense that people are ever going to click on media news roundups from a landing page, we’re just going to skip the obligatory formalities of teasing anything out and just get right into them. Starting now.
As such, here are your Wednesday Evening Media Briefs. Read More
Remember that time Newsweek magazine was put up for sale by The Washington Post and then “saved” by then-91-year-old stereo magnate Sidney Harman (of the wonderful line of audio/visual products Harman + Kardon)? Well, less than two years ago, that actually happened. Now, that era is over, as the Harman family is done investing in Newsweek. As a result, IAC is now a majority owner, with a print publication on its books. How, exactly, did any of this happen in the first place? Read More
In a piece entitled “The 2012 Pulitzer Prize Winners: Who’s Who,” it would seem The Daily Beast—our time’s great chronicler of overwrought ceremonies in which people are celebrated like accomplished swine and/or oversized root vegetables—has inexplicably published the winners of the 2012 Pulitzer Prizes, an entire hour before the rest of the world gets them!
And who, pray tell, pulled the Pulitzers? Read More
