By Kara Bloomgarden-Smoke 6/05 6:26pm

Goodbyes

Baba Shetty (Photo via Twitter).

Newsweek CEO Baba Shetty Steps Down

Baba Shetty is stepping down as CEO of Newsweek/The Daily Beast after just nine months in the position, editor in chief Tina Brown wrote in a memo that went out to staff this evening. Mr. Shetty will take the summer off to “spend time with his family.”

Newsweek‘s international publisher Rhona Murphy will return to New York as interim CEO.

Mr. Shetty, who came over from advertising agency Hill Holiday, succeeded Stephen Colvin as CEO back in September. But unlike Mr. Colvin (and in an unusual chain of command), Mr. Shetty reported directly to Ms. Brown.  Read More

By Kara Bloomgarden-Smoke 5:33pm

Magazines

Tina Brown (@TheTinaBeast)

Tina Brown On Tina Brown

In this week’s New York Magazine, Tina Brown looks back on her zeitgeisty career and the impending demise of the print edition of Newsweek. If it isn’t the definitive account (we assume that will come later), it’s the most up-to-date account.

But as we read the seven page Q&A with Slate founding editor Michael Kinsley, we were struck by Ms. Brown’s frequent use of imagery. So very illustrative! So imaginative! We can practically see it all, from Cinderella waking up from the ball that was the Talk launch party to the refrigerators on each foot that was the print edition of Newsweek. 

We have collected some of our favorites below. Read More

By Benjamin-Emile Le Hay 11/14/12 12:51pm

Shindigger

DvF and Mitch: lovers once, buddies forever!

Ali Wentworth Delayed by Post-Election Romp While DvF Gets Hot and Bothered at Phoenix House

As we sloshed, caked with snow flurries, into the Mandarin Oriental for the 2012 Phoenix House Fashion award dinner last Wednesday evening, we couldn’t determine whether it was the way-too-early winter outside, the Sandy-forced relocation or the early start after an endless election season, but at first glance, things looked a bit quiet. (In retrospect, we appreciated the venue upgrade, considering it was originally slated to take place at Pier 60.)

“Well there’s Linda Fargo, at least …” we uttered to a weary-eyed publicist as she sashayed passed us in a crisp black sheath dress, before we sauntered downstairs to cocktail hour.

Below, on the 35th floor, the considerably more lively and notable fashion crowd imbibed, heedless of the blizzard-like winds that howled without mercy on the commoners struggling to get around Columbus Circle.

With the exception of Glenda Bailey, this didn’t feel like a typical fashion event; nay, it was considerably more corporate—a bit cliquey, but not necessarily in a bad way. Dashing executives (well mostly dashing) in flamboyant tailored suits sipped scotch and red wine, while a more demure population of women squawked about recent highs and lows. Read More

By Kara Bloomgarden-Smoke 10/23/12 7:27pm

off the record

Brown.

First They Came for Newsweek: Is a Second Media Winter On the Way?

Is it happening again?

The bad time went by many names: the meltdown … the shakeout … the reckoning … the death of print… or sometimes, simply, “trying to freelance.”

Old-timers can still remember it—how, amid the frozen winter of 2008, the corridors of once unshakable media empires ran red with ink as the insertion orders dried up and crumbled into dust. Aeron chairs grew wet with tears. Editors were cashiered, contract writers flung overboard like chum. Soon you could see them all over Midtown: the sleek black Town Cars sitting idle on cinder blocks, rusting in the bleak unforgiving sun.

It was terrifying. The death knell—a merciless, unrelenting Twitter feed titled “The Media Is Dying”—sounded on a daily basis, sometimes hourly. Staffers watched in fear as the ghouls of HR, fingernails dabbed in scarlet, inched ever closer. Read More

By Kara Bloomgarden-Smoke 10/18/12 7:54am

The Death of Print

The cover of the current issue.

Newsweek to Stop Print Edition

Newsweek will no longer be a print magazine, Tina Brown announced in an early-morning blog post. The last print edition will be December 31, 2012.

“In our judgment, we have reached a tipping point at which we can most efficiently and effectively reach our readers in all-digital format,” Ms. Brown writes. “This was not the case just two years ago. It will increasingly be the case in the years ahead.”

The new all-digital, paid-subscription publication will be called Newsweek Global and be available for tablets and online. Select content will be available on The Daily Beast’s website. The Daily Beast, which launched in 2008, merged with Newsweek two years ago. Read More

By Drew Grant 10/09/12 7:08pm

Digital Designers

The offices of Code and Theory

The Media Whisperer: Code and Theory’s Brandon Ralph is the Digital Designer Du Jour

“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