Tina Brown

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“She Had A Private Chef At Newsweek“

November 20, 2012 in Excerpts, Science/Tech, Urban Studies | Permalink

When the now-defunct print version of Newsweek ran its asinine “Muslim Rage” cover, I kept thinking it was fine as long as the Mideast version of the cover was entitled “American Rage.” Um, didn’t we only recently kill 45,000 people, minimum, in Iraq for no particular reason? I don’t mean our troops–they were just following orders–I mean our government. But it’s hard to fault a magazine that was obviously on it last legs, wobbling about. From Michael Kinsley’s New York interview with Newsweek and Daily Beast EIC Tina Brown, a passage about the magazine-publishing world’s ridiculously grand days of yore:

“Michael Kinsley:

Newsweek, in its heyday, had correspondents all over the world.

Tina Brown:

Thirty bureaus.

Michael Kinsley:

Thirty bureaus.

Tina Brown:

You know, it was very funny—when I looked at the document of sale, it was like the vestiges of the great galleon it had been. It was like that wreck of theTitanic in the James Cameron film—they’re swimming through the rooms, and you see the chandeliers. Every so often, you would swim around a corner and see a chandelier—things like private dining. You suddenly realize, this was an era when there were things like private dining rooms. 

Michael Kinsley:

Yes.

Tina Brown:

When [Washington Post publisher and Newsweek owner] Kay Graham arrived in a foreign city, she was really like the State Department—the Newsweekbureau would be there to greet her. And that Newsweek bureau would immediately get her an interview with, you know, Ferdinand Marcos.

Michael Kinsley:

She had a private chef at Newsweek. And when she wasn’t in town, I remember the editor at the time, Bill Broyles, got to use the chef.

Tina Brown:

I know.

Michael Kinsley:

How much of that is unnecessary?

Tina Brown:

It’s totally unnecessary.

Michael Kinsley:

But it did add to what made up Newsweek.

Tina Brown:

Absolutely. No, it did, listen—it was very grand.

Michael Kinsley:

So what’s going to happen? You’re not going to be able to do that.

Tina Brown:

No, we’re not. But Newsweek still has a great deal of access and power. You go to Brazil, you go to India—we have a hugely global footprint. You can get an interview with anyone overseas on the basis of being part of Newsweek. It still has a great deal of impact.“

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“Sumner Redstone Would Only Be Of Interest To Gawker Readers If He Were To Soil His Adult Diapers—On-Camera”

September 27, 2010 in Excerpts, Misc., Urban Studies | Permalink

"That image of Murdoch dyeing his hair in the sink is indelible—though the coloring may not be."

Michael Idov of New York magazine has a really insightful, colorful profile of acerbic Gawker Media kingpin Nick Denton. The British-born blog titan has been able to predict the next wave in NYC’s tumultuous media landscape as well as anyone over the last few years. An excerpt:

“Eight years into Gawker Media’s existence, the standard line on Denton is still that he’s an outsider of sorts, a rude alien come to torment—and supplant—media civilization as we know it. If you’re Bill Keller, say, or Tina Brown—whose Daily Beast gets one-tenth of Gawker Media’s readership on a good month—it’s much easier to view Denton as an upstart thug from nowhere, as opposed to an equal who’s kicking your ass. That plays directly into Denton’s strategy: Thuggish is the reputation he wants. ‘If I am a cornerstone of the new Establishment, then there is no new Establishment worth talking about,’ he says. ‘The only interesting people are on the West Coast, ‘he adds, then launches into a series of classic shameless Gawker riffs on the old New York media titans. ‘People used to quake when Barry Diller picked up the phone. Now he’s laughable. That image of Murdoch dyeing his hair in the sink is indelible—though the coloring may not be. Sumner Redstone would only be of interest to Gawker readers if he were to soil his adult diapers—on-camera. But the hard truth is that the golden age of New York media is largely over.’”

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