Re: Guy Fieri's American Kitchen & Bar

Last week was so much fun, you guys! We all had a good laugh over Pete Wells' super-harsh all-Qs-no-As review of Guy Fieri's new Times Square restaurant in The New York Times.

But here's the thing: We all know the food sucks. You don't need to go sacrifice your lunch hour in order to give us another review of how terrible the food is! Unless you are coming from an original position (is the food better than expected?), then we don't need another rehashing of the deep fried crap that almost-passes for edible.

For aren't there far worse places to eat, when you think about it? Applebee's? That T.G.I.F. near Madison Square Garden? The Chinese take-out spot that gave you food poisoning? Let us move on to other atrocities instead of kicking a Fieri when its down.

That being said, enjoy this un-aired clip from Saturday Night Live this week, featuring the infamous chef. And then, you know, move out of Flavor Country if you can't stand the chicken fingers.

Little Green Houses.

So The Journal announced its new Friday real estate section today. You can read all about it in the release below. What struck us though, was the name. "Mansion" it will be called.

We couldn't help but think it lacked a certain sophistication (say the people who brought you VelvetRoper.com), so herewith are some suggestions:

• Penthouses
• Oh Castle, My Castle
• Third Homes and Gardens
• Don't Dwell, Buy
• Eight-Figure Estates
• Bubbles Weekly
• Finer Foundations
• You're Still Not Ira Rennert
• Money Boxes
• Jealous?

WALL STREET JOURNAL TO LAUNCH WEEKLY SECTION
FOR RESIDENTIAL REAL ESTATE

Friday Journal Section to be Renamed; Showcase Expanded Arts & Culture, Sports

NEW YORK (Oct. 2, 2012) – The Wall Street Journal will debut a new weekly section covering the global luxury real estate market on Friday, Oct. 5. To serve a global audience, “Mansion” will appear as a stand-alone section in the Journal every Friday in the U.S., with select content appearing each week in the Journal’s Europe and Asia editions. Relevant content will also be presented across WSJ.com’s Chinese, Japanese and German-language editions.

Along with additional features and coverage on WSJ.com, all Mansion content will be available via the Journal’s universal app for iPhone and iPad.

“The mantra for real estate has always been location, location, location – the location for the most intelligent, original, trustworthy and insightful journalism on prestige property is now The Wall Street Journal,” said Robert Thomson, editor-in-chief of Dow Jones & Company and managing editor of The Wall Street Journal. “We all like to think of our home as a mansion, even if it is a humble abode, and we all have the license to aspire, so we have created Mansion to be the home of both aspiration and real estate realization.”

GLOBAL COVERAGE FOR A GLOBAL MARKET
Mansion will offer in-depth stories from a global team of journalists, including property-focused coverage with industry statistics and a focus on high-end financing; luxuryreal estate topics from iconic buildings and renovations to investments associated with those projects; distinctive neighborhoods and properties around the world; unique views from select residences and more.

Buoyed by the Journal’s existing staff of real estate reporters as well as a newly formed dedicated team for Mansion, led by editor Emily Gitter, recurring features include:

§  The Market: A data-driven look at a sector of the luxury market;

§  House Call: A notable person recounts a real estate adventure;

§  Private Properties: High-profile transactions and property news;

§  The Balance Sheet: A profile of a renovation project;

§  Who Lives Here: An in-depth profile of a building or iconic block, the notable people who live there, the history and recent noteworthy sales;

§  Inside Story: A profile of a prominent individual home;

§  Portfolio: A look inside the real estate portfolio of a well-known person;

§  Jumbo Jungle: How to finance a luxury home now;

§  The Trade: The business of buying and selling; real estate brokers on the rise; trends in marketing homes andmore;

§  Foreign Correspondent: A guide to buying homes overseas, with a look at the quirks of the particular localreal estate market.

WSJ.com will also unveil an enhanced experience on Friday at WSJ.com/RealEstate, the Journal’s portal for property coverage. A dedicated page for Mansion will have all slideshows, including House of the Day, as well as videos and articles exploring the world of high-end homes. WSJ Live will also offer a daily segment focused on realestate as part of its Lunch Break show. In conjunction with launch, Wall Street Journal real estate reporter Lauren Schuker Blum will host a chat Friday at1:30 p.m. EST on WSJ.com to discuss how the luxury-home market is being redefined.

Complementing Mansion, The Journal will continue to cover real estate news and features in its national news pages, the Greater New York section as well as Personal Journal and WSJ. Magazine.

In addition to the launch of Mansion, the current Friday Journal section in the Journal’s U.S. edition, which previously featured real estate coverage in addition to arts, will now focus on arts, culture and entertainment, showcasing the Journal’s expanded coverage of these areas. Renamed “Arena,” it will feature Pulitzer Prize-winning movie critic Joe Morgenstern, a leading team of television and theater critics, and the Journal’s growing arts staff’s reporting on movies, music, television, books, art, and new media. The Journal’s sports coverage, currently part of Friday Journal, will also appear as part of Arena.

Mansion will be included with Arena as a single section in some U.S. markets.

ADVERTISERS TO REACH AFFLUENT, INFLUENTIAL AUDIENCE
A number of advertisers across multiple categories have recognized the opportunity Mansion presents to target the Journal’s affluent and influential audience. Launch advertisers include Coldwell Banker; Extell Development Company; LandVest; Luxury Portfolio International; NetJets; New York Design Center; Prudential Douglas Elliman Real Estate; Related Companies; Sheldon Good & Company; Sotheby's International Realty Affiliates, LLC; Stribling Marketing Associates; and Sub-Zero and Wolf.

“We know our audience is already well-versed and interested in the high-end real estate market, and Mansion provides advertisers the opportunity to speak directly to that audience with a proven affinity for real estate and the subjects and trends surrounding it – from investment to renovation to design,” said Michael Rooney, chief revenue officer, The Wall Street Journal.

"Today's consumers are demanding a single source for all the latest intelligence on the world's luxury real estate markets. The new section delivers this in a timely, consistent and trusted way, providing critical insights into the globe's most far-reaching markets," said Wendy Purvey, chief marketing officer, Sotheby's International Realty Affiliates LLC. "With the Sotheby's International Realty® network's expertise and global presence, The Wall Street Journal is an ideal outlet for educating buyers and sellers on the latest industry trends and showcasing the most extraordinary property available today."

"We arethrilled to support The Wall Street Journal's newest section and see it as an exciting way to share our brands' stories about food preservation and greatcooking results with new readers," said Michele Bedard, vice president of marketing for Sub-Zero and Wolf. "Our work with The Wall Street Journal has been integral to the engagement of readers and consumers that are as passionate about design and cooking as we are at Sub-Zero and Wolf and lookforward to the same with the addition of Mansion."

NYU Young Media War Rages On: The young folk of NYU Local—the pirate NYU news publication/blog, as opposed to the officially-mandated NYU publication, Washington Square News—is going to wage further war on its rival by putting out its own print publication. It's going to be called NYU Local Magazine. The scrappy youths at NYU Local have sold us on it as follows:

It's going to be a mix of guides to life at NYU (A guide to smoking pot in your dorm room written by a former R.A.), some long profiles of NYU students and New Yorkers (Rapper Cakes Da Killa), and there's some servicey content of stuff that we think NYU students need to know (Where you can drink with and without a fake id). Essentially, now we're the most exciting print publication at NYU too.

 
Cakes Da Killa? I feel older than Fran Lebowitz in full-on nuclear NYU-hating mode. Advice to these young media entrepreneurs: Get a lawyer. Or rather, just: Don't write about Nikki Finke without a lawyer.

Jay Penske Has Falling Down Moment After Too Many Years of Employing Nikki Finke: Have you read this whole thing about Mail.com owner (and Nikki Finke's boss) Jay Penske? It is beyond. Penske and his brother were arrested in Nantucket for breaking into the Nantucket Yacht Club. And this is after two women claimed to have been assaulted by the Penske Bros. Apparently, Jay Penske pissed on some woman's boots after she confronted him for pissing in the parking lot. Obviously Penske has spent too much time around Nikki "Devil May Care" Finke. Anyway, the women declined to press assault charges but the Penskes were still locked up. Also, this:

Wow. Nothing more. [Nantucket Inquirer and Mirror]

Music Editor Real Talk: Your favorite new "Real Talk by an Editor In GIF Form" Tumblr (not an obscure form at all, by any measure) is Music Editor Real Talk. It is not Village Voice music editor Maura Johnston. Editor Real Talk "editor" and erstwhile GOOD Magazine editor Ann Friedman says it isn't her either. Do you know who it is? Tell me.

New York Times Trolls Lolo Jones, Pt. 9: Arthur Brisbane, who is still the Times' public editor, has finally had enough hate mail about Lolo Jones. "I think the writer was particularly harsh, even unnecessarily so." [NYT Public Editor]

The Audacity of Hope: Communications grads saw an uptick in job numbers. They should have majored in economics, regardless. [Journalism.org]

Robert Thomson Can't Lose: The Wall Street Journal is covering the Olympics with puppets. Couldn't make it up if I tried. [Beet.tv]

Tips? Scriptures? Adam Davidson fan mail? Cowboy Barn discount codes? Please, by all means, send them here.

fkamer@observer.com | @weareyourfek

James Taranto on Fox Business (screengrab)

Wall Street Journal columnist James Taranto's bad Tuesday night on Twitter is a tale of two tweets. First,  Mr. Taranto's offending post, which started a firestorm. Referring to the three women whose boyfriends saved them from the bullets of a mass murderer in an Aurora, Colorado movie theater on July 20, Mr. Taranto wrote:

I hope the girls whose boyfriends died to save them were worthy of the sacrifice.

— James Taranto (@jamestaranto) July 25, 2012

Yes, the columnist who helms WSJ's "Best of the Web Today" waded right in to the fray. The question many responding to his "challenging" tweet asked was why? Why even say such a thing?

Hours earlier, Mr. Taranto had issued this complaint:

Twitter now taunts me with the "Verified" check sign in my timeline, reminding me I don't merit one.

— James Taranto (@jamestaranto) July 24, 2012

Could it be Mr. Taranto, feeling the sting of Twitter's withheld merit badge, decided the best way to assert his "merit" was to aim his "challenging" statement at three women--"girls" to Mr. Taranto--who survived what were surely the worst moments of their lives? Three women who lost loved ones in the process?

We don't know the mind of James Taranto. We don't know if he thinks it is truly his place to question the value of the lives of victims of a terrifying mass murder; if he believes he merits that sort of power.

Maybe he was simply trying to be provocative, for his readers' sakes.

To be fair, Mr. Taranto did retweet many who who took him to task for his musing. This angry, outraged response from a tweeter named Matthew Almont is an excellent example of the sort of bile Mr. Taranto was comfortable with relaying to his followers:

@jamestaranto To their boyfriends, they were. I guess that's what really matters.

— Matthew Almont (@matthewalmont) July 25, 2012

A blistering reply.

A wider variety of opinion, most of it likely not as easy on Mr. Taranto's ego, can be found here.

In an interview with the Journal—the crown jewel of his quarantined newspaper business— Mr. Murdoch denied that his decision was influenced by the so-called "Murdoch Discount." The Murdoch Discount is the theory that News Corp. shares trade at less than what they're worth because the company is run at Mr. Murdoch's whim and he's liable to do things like, say, grossly overpay for The Wall Street Journal.

"I don't give a ---- about that," he told the Journal.

Judging from Journal precedent, the four letter word at play was not "damn."

The collaboration, which serves to lend the Times’ growing video department a jolt of buzzy, young talent while cementing BuzzFeed’s nascent journalistic credentials, was born from the Twitter-based mutual admiration of New York Times assistant managing editor Jim Roberts and BuzzFeed editor-in-chief, Ben Smith. The two met IRL when they sat on a panel together during Social Media Week in February. 

The TimesCast team was then gearing up to go all-out on its live broadcast of Super Tuesday, which incorporated dispatches from almost twenty reporters and columnists.

“Once we got that done we started immediately thinking about what we’d do for the convention,” Mr. Roberts told Off the Record. “I put the convention and Ben together and reached out to him.”

Mr. Smith visited Times headquarters, met with executive editor Jill Abramson and some video editors, and media old and new formed a partnership.

Scratch that. Times legal would prefer we don’t call it a “partnership.”

“We’re teaming up,” Mr. Roberts clarified. “We’re collaborating. It’s nothing that formal. It’s an alliance. It’s a chance to take advantage of some of the signature strengths of two interesting news organizations.”

Mr. Smith and his crew of social media-savvy journalists (which just poached Roll Call’s John Stanton as their D.C. bureau chief and Metro Weekly’s Chris Geidner as a reporter) will contribute to TimesCast segments in the months leading up to the convention, but the Times has not yet decided whether it will syndicate the videos back to BuzzFeed, Jonah Peretti’s hub of LOLs and WTFs.

Asked what he thought l’esprit de BuzzFeed would bring to the paper of record, Mr. Roberts said he was looking for some creative input.

“There are a lot of things to conquer, the technical aspects, the distribution aspects,” he said, “but the actual creation aspect is something we need to master. And I would love for a little of their social media mojo to rub off on us.”

But according to Mr. Smith, a Politico alum hired to oversee the social aggregator’s move into original reporting, BuzzFeed’s “mojo” is rooted in Times news values.

“My broader view is that great journalism is what will wind up winning the social space,” Mr. Smith wrote Off The Record in an e-mail message, “there’s no trick.”

The upstart also brings an awareness of a political dialogue occurring on social networks.

“Twitter is going to contain a kind of giant parallel conversation to the conventions,” Mr. Smith wrote, “one that will weave nicely around the livestream.”

(Speaking with Talking Points Memo last week, New Yorker White House correspondent Ryan Lizza said the Twitter club’s eagerness to meme-ify every gaffe had created a “crisis” for political journalism, but that’s yet another conversation.)

Mr. Roberts stressed that the Times was still in an exploratory mode when it came to video content.

“I’ll be the first to admit the process of creating video is sobering to me,” he said. “It’s expensive. It’s hard. I have the utmost respect for the people to do it.”

Which, he pointed out, is just about everyone these days. “We’ve got competitors big and small in the space.”

Over the past year, previously text-based news operations have rapidly turned to video content—where embedded commercials are more valuable than banner ads—to help stanch the loss of print advertising revenue. Spending on video advertising is expected to increase 43 percent in 2012 and will be a $7 B. industry by 2015, according to the most recent Pew study of digital advertising. As a result, most robust print and digital news organizations are racing to stretch their journalistic DNA to a new medium.

The Wall Street Journal launched “DC Bureau,” a weekly politics show hosted by DC bureau chief Jerry Seib, on Friday.  The latest addition to the now nearly five hours of daily WSJ Live programming, its debut featured interviews with David Axelrod and Kevin Madden.

The Huffington Post is staffing up for the July launch of Huffington Post Live, a "nonstop" news talk show streaming twelve hours a day, five days a week. And after CSPAN broadcast Politico’s live streaming coverage of Super Tuesday in March, editor-in-chief Jim Vandehei promised more Politico TV was on the way.

Off the Record wondered how print journalists—historically afforded a margin of schlubbiness—were adjusting to their imminent close-ups. According to Mr. Roberts, Times reporters needn’t rush off to get their teeth bleached a blinding Fox News white.

“We don’t want to mimic broadcast or cable television,” he said. “We’re looking for our a voice, a style that comports with us as journalists and as a newsgathering organizations. While I don’t think anyone wants to do video of people slouching at their desks and eating potato chips, I don’t think that we want to be glossy either. There’s a middle ground for us.”

A prototype of the 10,000 year clock. (Image via The New Long Foundation/Science Museum of London)

Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos is famous for changing the way we shop for books (and a lot of other stuff), shaking up entire industries in the process. He's less well known for "The 10,000 Year Clock," the 200-foot-tall clock designed to outlast human civilization, into which he's sunk $42 M., according to the Wall Street Journal

"When it's finished, it will play an elaborate cuckoo-like sequence for the anniversary of every year, decade, century, millennium and 10 millennia," the Journal's Stu Woo wrote. "People who visit the clock when it is finished years from now will also be treated to a daily chime sequence that has been choreographed by musician Brian Eno, who serves on the project's board."

The clock is being built deep inside a mountain on Mr. Bezo's West Texas property. You know, near where he launches the rockets for his space travel start-up, Blue Origin. Mr. Bezos also patented an airbag for the insides of cell phones, invested in a local glass blowing company and hired deep sea experts to recover pieces of Apollo 11 from bottom of the ocean.

Who knew the reclusive bane of the publishing industry was having more fun than James Cameron and Richard Branson?

Next do Kindle we can take in the shower, Mr. Bezos!

Imagine having it all?

The late Howard Ronson and his family had a dream—a dream of making the mansion at 828 Fifth Avenue whole again, as it was in the glorious days when coal magnates commissioned Fifth Avenue manses and robber barons ruled the land. But sometimes dreams die.

After a buying spree that netted four of the nine luxurious co-op units in the building, the family is giving up, The Wall Street Journal reports.

The family has decided to give one lucky buyer—a "person with vision"—the chance to purchase their failed dream for $72 million.

So what does $72 million get this very lucky buyer? A handful of renovated apartments that Ronson, a developer of modern office buildings, and his estate purchased for $33.95 million between 2005 and 2008 (one must pay a premium, of course, in the off chance that he or she may be able to bribe the other tenants into budging from their apartments, thus reclaiming the entire house—though for god knows how much more money).

Built by coal baron Edward J. Berwind in the 1800s, the house on the corner of East 64th Street, has been called "nothing less than a palace," but it remains, as it has for many years, a vexingly multi-family dwelling.

Apparently, 72 is the lucky (or unlucky) number for this listing, as brokers say that the clan, which is based in Monaco, now owns 72 percent of the building.

The listing was placed with Corcoran brokers Sharon Baum, Leighton Candler and Deborah Grubman, as well as Stribling broker Alexa Lambert, according to The Journal.

It's unclear why exactly Ronson, a Brit living in Monaco who was seeking a pied-a-terre when he bought into the building, found himself so compelled to reassemble the original mansion. Was it simply the instinct to build and rebuild that made him so successful in business? Did he want more space to spend his limited hours in the city? Or was he simply unsatisfied by existing townhouses like the Stanford White mansion a few blocks down Fifth?

In any event, we know that Ronson first bought an apartment spanning two floors, followed almost immediately by two other purchases: a maisonette duplex and a full-floor apartment. Inspired by the beauty of Ronson's vision, his family refused to let death come between them and full mansion ownership, scooping up the penthouse (with terrace and rooftop garden) after he died.

Altogether, the Ronsons own 15,000 square-feet of space, plus some terraces and a wine cellar. (This puts the price into some perspective, which, while outrageous, is about $4,800 a foot, half what record-setting penthouses at 15 Central Park West and One57 are currently going for). Two co-ops were combined to form a triplex, which, with a 34-foot-long ballroom and wedding-cake ceilings, which would almost certainly be a hot commodity in today's market.

But unless one has an entourage (nudge nudge Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim bin Jaber Al Thani—we also hear the building is very friendly to internationals), we're not sure what one would do, exactly, with a disconnected penthouse apartment and a maisonette. Of course, you could just persuade the other residents of the other two apartments to move out. Might we suggest all-night parties upstairs, all-day construction downstairs.

Because, you know, this isn't just any Fifth Avenue mansion, this is a mansion on a corner that gets really good light and it's directly across "from one of the better parts of Central Park," Corcoran Group president Pam Liebman told The Journal.

You know, as opposed to all those townhouses abutting mediocre parts of Central Park.

Right now is a very popular time to buy high-end real estate, but we can't help but wonder if anyone will drop a record-setting $72 million on 828 Fifth Avenue. After all, with buyers lusting after condos and all the full-service amenities that come with them, rebuilding a Fifth Avenue mansion seems like, well, something out of the coal age.

And if you really want an opulent single-family mansion, you could just purchase the Woolworth Mansion.

kvelsey@observer.com

She will lead a growing a team and report to Mr. Narisetti, a former Journal deputy managing editor who returned to the Wall Street Journal last month after a three-year stint at The Washington Post immediately following the Murdoch takeover. When he stepped down as managing editor of the Post, editor Marcus Baruchli credited him with increasing the paper's web traffic.

In the memo, reproduced below, managing editor Robert Thomson praised Ms. Heron's "e-empathy and e-expertise."

-----Original Message-----
From: Narisetti, Raju
Sent: Thursday, March 15, 2012 3:58 PM
To: WSJ All News Staff
Subject: Our New Social Media editor

Colleagues
I am delighted to announce that Liz Heron is joining the newsroom as Director, Social Media and Engagement for The Wall Street Journal Digital Network. In this pivotal role, Liz will lead a growing team that will be ever more focused on deepening the engagement we have with existing readers globally, as well as expanding our audiences, both on our own platforms as well as in social media.

"Liz is a renowned digital alchemist," notes Robert. "Her e-empathy and e-expertise will be crucial in building engagement with our vast and growing audience, in the US and globally. A contemporary media organization can never have too much innovation."

In her current job as a Social Media editor at The New York Times, Liz defined its overall social media sensibility, and established new ways of storytelling, gathering news and distributing journalism using social tools. She worked to put social media front and center during live coverage at a time when events such as the Arab Spring, the death of Steve Jobs, the Occupy Wall Street movement and other news events were changing the way journalists and readers approach major news. As the lead social editor on the U.S. elections, she has developed projects that emphasize reader participation in newsgathering, and experimented with social video. Liz also developed strategies for innovating on new platforms such as Google+, and set standards for individuals and desks when it came to using Twitter and Facebook for journalism.

Previously, Liz was the digital innovations editor on the Foreign desk of The Washington Post, where she first began experimenting with social media to cover stories such as the Iranian revolution and the 2010 earthquake that devastated Haiti. In her 10-year career as a journalist, she has also worked at ABC News and the Associated Press as a producer and reporter. Liz is also a sought-after public speaker when it comes to social media innovation and best practices.

Liz will be based in New York and report to me. Please join me in congratulating and welcoming Liz (@LHeron), whose official start date will be April 9.

Raju

Greg Smith, via nytimes.com

Bloomberg View's take on Goldman Sachs vice president Greg Smith's New York Times editorial-as-resignation reads like catty note written in Calc class and passed to all the Goldman Sachs employees reading the morning news on, well, their Bloomberg Terminals.

Just about every newspaper has treated yesterday's editorial as a news story in itself, including other departments of The New York Times. Rival Wall Street Journal covered it from every angle, publishing both the internal memo in which Goldman ceo Lloyd Blankfein responded to its allegations and a parody in the voice of Knicks coach Mike D'Antoni, who also resigned yesterday.

But today's un-bylined Bloomberg View editorial shows up even the parodies with its derision, synthesizing all the nasty things that cooler banker types said on Twitter yesterday.

Starting with the suggestion that Mr. Smith is naive:

"Apparently, when Greg Smith arrived at Goldman Sachs almost 12 years ago, the legendary investment firm was something like the Make-A-Wish Foundation -- existing only to bring light and peace and happiness to the world," it begins.

"One imagines Goldman bankers spending their days delivering fresh flowers to elderly shut-ins and providing shelters for abandoned cats."

Mr. Smith's main argument--that Goldman rips off, disrespects and misleads clients so "the firm" can make more money off them--is treated with the same sarcasm.

"It’s tragic that Goldman is losing an employee who realizes that you need customers to stay in business," the View writes.

And, naturally, it snickers at his ping pong accolades.

"And what an employee! He worked at Goldman as an intern in college and worked there continuously until today. “I was selected as one of 10 people (out of a firm of more than 30,000) to appear on our recruiting video, which is played on every college campus we visit around the world.” Then there was being “a Rhodes Scholar national finalist” and “winning a bronze medal for table tennis at the Maccabiah Games in Israel, known as the Jewish Olympics.”

Check out the tour-de-snark's surprisingly reasonable conclusion, as well as over 500 heated comments, at Bloomberg.