Archive for May, 2010
The Problem(s)with Newsweek
May 14, 2010
Newsweek has changed. Mostly, they&;ve given up on covering news, and now just have long, occasionally reported, think and profile pieces.
Now they&;re getting unwanted publicity for being the news, not reporting it. One of their writers says being gay and out is a career killer for actors, as no one will buy a gay or lesbian making out with someone of the opposite sex. Entertainment Weekly (which won&;t admit that it&;s slagging a competitor) describes it as a journey &;back to 1952.&; Indeed, when I was at the Enquirer, we played ball with the likes of Rock Hudson to buttress his straight reputation for our {largely female} readers and his {largely female} fans. But as Lily Tomlin once said, you don&;t have to be straight to play straight.
On the other hand, another Newsweek writer says we should stop talking about Elena Kagan&;s sexuality. Back to the 50&;s, indeed.
And sadly, that&;s their audience. I didn&;t buy my Newsweek, get it from the library or read it at a newsstand (another dying breed.) Instead, my 82-year old mother insisted on giving her subscription copy to me.
Their advertising problems track their demographics.
I counted 12.5 pages of advertising in the comic book-sized (not graphic novel sized) 56 page Newsweek (60 pages if you count the covers) of May 3. Of that, the msnbc.com ad was obviously a house ad, my guess is the ABC Good Morning America ad was a trade-out (perhaps they use Newsweek reporters or give Newsweek a shout-out) and the half-page SPDR/WSJ ad was probably one too. So we&;re left with 10 pages of advertising in a 60 page magazine.
That&;s weak. The type of advertising is even weaker; would anyone under 40 &;brew&; up a cup of Folger&;s instant coffee?
It&;s no wonder that this once multi-million seller is for sale. Each magazine&;s death diminishes me, to paraphrase John Donne, but when it goes, people won&;t miss it very much. The 50&;s are long over, and the people who still remember them are going fast.
Tags:death-of-magazines, Newsweek Posted in death-of-magazines, Newsweek | Leave a Comment &;
Elena Kagan: Lesbian Softballer Accordingto Journal?
May 13, 2010
Why did the Wall Street Journal (subscription required) put a photograph from 1993 of Elena Kagan, President Obama&;s Supreme Court nominee, on its cover on May 11? Was it to show her athletic ability? Her &;aw-shucks&; Americanism?
Or was it a gay-baiting smear to firmly tie her to the &;lesbian softball player&; meme for their readers?
Tags:Elena-Kagan, gay-baiting, Rupert-Murdoch, Wall-Street-Journal Posted in Politics, Rupert-Murdoch, tabloid-journalism | Leave a Comment &;
Reporter Self-Censored TigerWoods Story
May 4, 2010
Reporters these days are often accused of being &;stenographers&;. It&;s a dying art but a good analogy; here it means just taking down verbatim what a source and his handlers have to say.
Actual &;reporting&; (the kind of stuff the Enquirer did with John Edwards) doesn&;t come into the picture. The big fear is loss of access&;getting kicked out of the White House press room, the campaign bus, the locker room, the gravy train.
People Magazine reporter Steve Helling is a case (or coward) in point. As the Daily News quotes him, &;Over the years, I had heard rumors of Tiger&;s partying &; drunken nights at the clubs, dirty dancing with other women, phone numbers slipped to pretty blonds &; but I didn&;t follow up on the tips,&; the, er, reporter admits&;Helling didn&;t want to be cut off from the golden golfer. &;Negative coverage of Tiger &; or even positive coverage that wasn&;t approved and micromanaged &; would often result in swift, permanent excommunication from the Tiger Woods camp,&; he writes. &;It was in everyone&;s best interest to sweep the rumors under the rug.&;
But don&;t feel too bad for Helling&;he got to cash in with a new book on Tiger and his skanks. Just another example of why they call it &;content&; and page view bait now, instead of news.
Tags:death-of-journalism, John-Edwards, National-Enquirer, People-Magazine, Tiger-Woods Posted in death-of-journalism, death-of-magazines, tabloid-journalism, Uncategorized | 1 Comment &;