Gawker
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feuds
Do We Need a Restraining Order Against Josh Quittner?
We never imagined Josh Quittner would burn a previous Valleywag editor in effigy, but after seeing the video he's posted on Time.com, we wonder if we might need a restraining order. More » -
death of print
Fortune stops covering businesses it used to tout
Just last month, Fortune reported on how investors are still bullish on green technology. And there's plenty in its pages about the bright future of online media. But Fortune's accountants must not read the magazine! Fortune has laid off two reporters on the cleantech beat, and all but one of its New York- and San Francisco-based online reporters, who wrote primarily for the magazine's website.
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By Owen ThomasComment by .: Its gonna get worse before it gets better. I hope some companies (like Gawker) can restructure during this time and... more » | Other threads
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commenter of the day
macbeach
Why is Time Inc., the giant magazine publisher, paying McKinsey millions of dollars in consulting fees, when it could just ask Valleywag's commenters for free advice? Here's how macbeach weighed in: More » -
ned desmond
Reorg costs Time Inc. Web chief his job
Time Inc., my former employer, goes through spasmodic bouts of reorganizations, switching between centralization and decentralization as frequently as its magazines redesign themselves. CEO Ann Moore's latest reshuffle, which is costing 600 jobs, has created three new groups, each with its own head of digital operations. That seems to have put Ned Desmond, the head of Time Inc. Interactive, out of a job. (Desmond is better remembered in the Valley as the former president and editor of Time Inc.'s Business 2.0, where I used to work.) More »
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By Owen ThomasComment by SergeBaba-Booey: Ned was abrasive and difficult to work with. He needed to go. He could have easily been given the job... 1 Responses | Other threads
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josh quittner
Time magazine reporter uncovers identity of "You Suck at Photoshop" spoofs
Former Fortune executive editor Josh Quittner, best known there for covering the Scrabulous beat, has returned to Time.com, where he worked a decade ago, with a much-hyped exposé; Time's publicity department emailed us to make sure we saw it. The revelatory piece shows off the depth of Quittner's Valley rolodex and the extent of his Web-industry connections: the identity of the pair behind "You Suck at Photoshop." The story also reveals the path Troy Hitch and Matt Bledsoe, two advertising-agency refugees, took to greatness: Their website appeared on Digg and Boing Boing. Displaying Quittner's Web skills, the article also contains hyperlinks. (Photo by Matt Gilson/Time)
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By Owen ThomasComment by Carlos: If it weren't so snarky one could question the usefulness of reporting on a report of a nonstory, but F... more » | Other threads
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exits
Ex-Business 2.0 editor leaves Fortune for Time
Josh Quittner, former editor of the defunct Business 2.0, has extricated himself from his unhappy stay at Fortune by returning to Time, where he previously worked. Tellingly, Time editor Rick Stengel refers to him as a "writer" for Fortune, though he had the ostensible title of executive editor. Stengel's memo is included below. Quittner's new gig is his old gig, covering consumer technology, which takes him back roughly 13 years in the progress of his career. Funny, because we'd heard that Quittner had held serious talks with Michael Arrington about joining TechCrunch, around the same time he wrote a laudatory column about the tech blogger. All that puffery, and no job in exchange? A shame. More » -
josh quittner
Ex-Business 2.0 editor dumping Fortune for housing blog?
What is Josh Quittner, the former editor of Business 2.0, doing for his next act? Since September, he's had an unhappy career at Fortune, the Time Inc.-owned corporate sibling which took him and a few other refugees from the magazine in. He's been earning what we hear is a mid-six-figures salary playing Scrabulous, and then writing about it. (Actual quote from a recent column: "Clearly, I had too much time on my hands.") The latest I'd heard on Quittner, my former boss, was that he was leaving Fortune to return to Time, where he worked before joining Business 2.0, as its Marin County-based tech correspondent. But he may have another exit strategy in mind. in 2006, Quittner registered roofmagazine.com. More »
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By Owen ThomasComment by your creepy uncle: It's funny b/c Business 2.0 cheerled the housing boom even well after it had burst. In fact, their final issue... more » | Other threads
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online advertising
Time showcases the future of advertising with animated GIF
Time Inc. has seen the future. And now it will showcase it to you. With an animated GIF, a technology popularized in 1995. It advertises a TimeDigitalShowcase marketing event, to be held this April in New York. Go see it for yourself. Or, simply view our Flash video Version of it — our humble little tribute to modern technology.
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Comment by gorillavsmarykate: 1) You can still see the cursor when the video starts. That's ghetto. 2) LUNCH WILL BE SERVED. more » | Other threads
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media
At airports, Business 2.0 refuses to die
Time Inc. has mostly erased Business 2.0 from its CNNMoney website after shutting the magazine down last year. But newsstands across the country, and readers, have not gotten the memo. More »
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By Owen ThomasComment by fishneversleep: Oh come on. A tech magazine with a real estate cover at a time when tech is booming? That's just... more » | Other threads
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nerdfight
Quittner "silenced," says Fortune colleague
An extraordinary public slap, rarely seen in the genteel world of magazine publisher Time Inc.: Fortune appears to have momentarily taken executive editor Josh Quittner's Techland blog away from him and handed it to rival tech writer David Kirkpatrick. Quittner's recent blog rant about Facebook's Beacon was wrongheaded enough, but entirely undeserving of this humiliation — republishing, duplicatively, a Fortune.com column by Kirkpatrick in Quittner's blog. Kirkpatrick, left, declared that Quittner, right, had been "silenced" on the Facebook issue. He went on to tear apart, at length, Quittner's argument. All the more shaming, because Kirkpatrick is — how to put this gently? — a laughingstock among his colleagues. More » -
media
Fortune.com redesign rips off Portfolio.com
Fortune.com — what magazine publisher is calling Fortune's little corner of CNNMoney.com — relaunched today, and the Observer's Media Mob notes the site is "sleeker, whiter, cleaner" but bears a "strikingly" duh-we're-copycats resemblance to Portfolio.com. Whatever, let us know when Forbes.com relaunches with a design inspired by Fake Steve Jobs's Blogger template. In the meantime, here's a Valleywag poll asking you to pick which Web design best helps you forget that no one reads magazines — if you can even tell them apart. More »
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Comment by Choochoo: Oh NO! You surely screwed the pooch! Portfolio has a patent on all things Black and orange!! Seriously... nothing alike. If... more » | Other threads
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media
Fortune editor in town to boss ex-B2 staff around
Remember former Business 2.0 editor Josh Quittner, whose tech magazine got shut down by parent company Time Inc.? Now an executive editor at Fortune, he outranks, on paper, assistant managing editor Jim Aley — the man he replaced as Business 2.0's editor five years ago. Which makes the following curious: The New York-based Aley, pictured above, is in town this week. Valleywag hears he started off his visit with a breakfast with Quittner. And then Aley met with the remnants of Business 2.0's staff, who now make up Fortune's San Francisco bureau — without Quittner. Remind us again who's in charge here? And if you want your startup written up in Fortune, who's the right guy to schmooze? -
it's it
"Joost's greatest asset right now is not it's peer-to-peer technology. It's the momentum its gained so far by being an early mover." — TechCrunch trophy hire Erick Schonfeld demonstrates the value of the old-media copy editors he left behind at Time Inc. [TechCrunch]
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By Paul BoutinComment by pseudonym: The "it's", "its" reversal shows that the writer may have realized there's a rule, but they just don't know what... more » | Other threads
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josh quittner
Time Inc. insults Business 2.0 editor one last time
Josh Quittner, the former editor of the late, lamented Business 2.0 — where, I'll disclose, I worked for seven years before joining Valleywag — has gotten one more kick in the pants from Time Inc., the tech magazine's publisher. In a cover wrap sent to subscribers with the last issue, he's listed as the magazine's "managing editor," even though he's always gone by the title of "editor" in the masthead. More »
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By Owen ThomasComment by 0x6772: Clearly, Josh simply hasn't yet accepted and owned the first four letters of his surname. more » | Other threads
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crash this bash
Om Malik stays in (and out of) the picture
A double birthday party for GigaOm biz-blogger Om Malik (pictured with operations manager Joey Wan) and Spark PR founder Donna Sokolsky fogged up the glass patio walls at Jack Falstaff on Friday. I happened to be at the bar, hoping to catch dreamy god-mayor Gavin Newsom doing paperwork again. After the jump, the best overheards. More » -
blogging for dollars
TechCrunch and Business 2.0 never managed to merge, but editor Michael Arrington has snapped up former B2 editor-at-large Erick Schonfeld. (This explains why Schonfeld recently revived his dormant blog to cover the TechCrunch40 conference.) Opinionated, arrogant, and whip-smart, Schonfeld is the perfect match for Arrington. We're looking forward to the fireworks at TechCrunch edit meetings — to which Schonfeld will be dialing in remotely from Brooklyn. [Bits]
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By Owen ThomasComment by Blackjack: Just think of the pissing match to come in six months when Erick ditches TC to start his own site,... more » | Other threads
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obituary
The decline and fall of Business 2.0
Did Business 2.0 die a natural death? Or was it murdered? The story told so far about the tech-focused, San Francisco-based magazine's demise was an abrupt drop in advertising. But in his MediaShift column, Mark Glaser suggests that a poorly planned business-side reorganization by its parent company, Time Inc., is more to blame. Combining Business 2.0's salesforce with that of Fortune and Money led not to the expected boost in ads, but a drop that hit all the magazines, with Business 2.0 — where, I should disclose, I worked before joining Valleywag — the most vulnerable. The most intriguing tidbit: Glaser reports that TechCrunch, run by Michael Arrington, explored a merger with Business 2.0. Arrington, in a blog post, confirms the rumor, and, intriguingly, suggests that Time Inc. was "proactive in destroying" the magazine to favor Fortune. More »
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By Owen ThomasComment by sidhudgens: Also, Fortune is a losing bet. It is flabby, self satisfied lapdog publication. The Carol Loomis/Berkshire scandal is the perfect... more » | Other threads
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media
A turnabout for Business 2.0's former boss
Time Inc. has officially announced Business 2.0's closure in an internal memo obtained by Jossip. In it, Time Inc. executive John Squires explains that folding in some of Business 2.0's staff into Fortune will give it "the largest San Francisco bureau of any major business publication." The Wall Street Journal bureau will still be twice its size, but never mind — we assume Squires meant "magazine." No, what's interesting in the memo is what's not said. More »
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By Owen ThomasComment by Owen Thomas: @arepb: You mean, a blog like this one? The one Sloan has had for almost a year now? more » | Other threads
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media
Time Inc. sends secret ninja "kill teams" to shut down Business 2.0
We'd already heard that the October issue of Business 2.0 would be the last one published by Time Inc.; now, the New York Times reports on the Bits blog that it will be the last one, period. Talks with Mansueto Ventures, publisher of Fast Company and Inc., apparently failed; as we predicted, Time Inc. did not want to strengthen a competitor. A few staffers will join Fortune and Fortune Small Business. The rest will fall victim to what Bits colorfully calls "kill teams." This being Time Inc., don't expect black-suited corporate operatives. Or anything the least bit colorful. Instead, the teams will likely kill with kindness — and boredom. Time Inc.'s HR presentations — some of which, I should disclose, I sat through as a Business 2.0 employee — are legendary as cures for insomnia.
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By Owen ThomasComment by ChiefCynic: Wait a minute. How can this be? Don't they know about that Facebook group? If Facebook can't save a magazine,... more » | Other threads
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confirmed
Keith Kelly repeats yesterday's Valleywag report that Mansueto Ventures, publisher of rival tech-business title Fast Company, is negotiating to buy Time Inc.'s Business 2.0, which is in the midst of publishing its last issue under the current staff. CNET, rumored to have also bid, has apparently dropped out of the sale process. [New York Post]
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By Owen ThomasComment by ChiefCynic: And you know who the cheif ed of Mansueto is, right. Yup, Loren Feldman. more » | Other threads
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bruce judson
My reputation is as valuable as this free crap
Bruce Judson has a long-held reputation as a successful Internet marketer and business leader. So why is his new venture, Free for Today, so lousy? Judson cofounded Time Inc.'s storied Pathfinder website back in 1994. At the time, it was a groundbreaking media portal, unlike anything else on the Web. He's written popular business books about the Internet. He's founded several Internet businesses. He's been profiled in the Wall Street Journal and Advertising Age. Judson even holds a senior faculty fellow position at the Yale School of Management. But Free for Today has all the marketing finesse and business savvy of a low-brow, late-night infomercial. More » -
media
Who's bidding on Business 2.0?
The writing is on the whiteboard for Business 2.0, the tech-focused monthly magazine published by Time Inc. (and, I should note, my former employer). The October issue is definitely the last one to be published by the current staff, some of whom have already secured new jobs. But could Business 2.0 live on in some fashion? Time Inc. is ostensibly still entertaining offers to buy the magazine, if only for form's sake. But even if the sale process is a charade, some serious bidders have nevertheless emerged. Who are they? More » -
great moments in pr
Business 2.0 decision coming next week, or not
Folio reports that Time Inc., the parent company of Business 2.0, will be making a decision on the fate of the magazine next week, according to a source. The article, however, then quotes a Time Inc. spokesperson saying that the company "absolutely will not" be making a decision next week. The spokesperson in question is, of course, fibbing flack Danielle Perissi, so take her statement with a very large grain of salt. Heck, store it away in a Morton's warehouse. -
social networks
Time Inc. wants people who love People.com
The world's largest magazine publisher wasn't kidding about pushing its way onto the Web — even if it had to axe nearly 300 jobs to do it. In fact, Time Inc. has gone almost as crazy for social networks as the venture capitalists on Sand Hill Road. Sports Illustrated's social component, FanNation.com, which Time Inc. acquired last February for a reported $20 million, now boasts 4 million users. So Time Inc. executive John Squires has revealed the media conglomerate's plans to launch more social networks, as companions to its magazines, by early next year. More »
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By wagger1Comment by white trash mom: You are forgetting that People magazine is the Bible of the American public. I agree with you that People... more » | Other threads
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great moments in pr
Meet Danielle Perissi, Time Inc.'s fibbingest flack
An aside: While working on this morning's item about the back-from-the-brink reprieve of Business 2.0, I phoned Time Inc. flack Danielle Perissi, whose ostensible job is to represent the publisher's business titles. As usual, she issued a denial that any changes were afoot. Well, no, that's too kind: I should say, rather that she lied baldfacedly and, what's far worse, unconvincingly about the matter. I don't know why I bothered to call her. Or why colleagues at Time Inc., a company full of journalists with no patience for inept flacks, tolerate her. Oh, right — they don't.
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By Owen ThomasComment by strza: Even the lowliest saprophytes have to eat, like the rest of us. more » | Other threads
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rumormonger
Om Malik throws a soiree
On Thursday, Om Malik is going to make a big announcement about GigaOm, his tech blog network. How do we know this? Because he'scancelledstill throwing a swanky party to be held this Wednesday at San Francisco's De Young Museum and briefing journalists afterwards. (Update: Turns out the party's still on. Personal to Om: Dude, my invitation appears to have been lost in the mail. Ahem.) Which partner is Malik announcing a deal with? Not Time Inc., apparently. Malik, a former senior writer at Time Inc.'s Business 2.0 magazine, held acquisition talks with his former employer a few months ago, but they went nowhere. (Vivek Shah, the newly appointed head of Time Inc.'s business publications, even joked about it with Malik when they ran into each other at Fortune's iMeme conference.) I gave Om a buzz, but he couldn't talk when I reached him. I'll update when I know more.
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By Owen ThomasComment by Trackback: What is Om Malik going to announce at his party tomorrow night at the M. H. de Young Museum in... more » | Other threads
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deathwatch
Fortune parties while Business 2.0 burns
Fortune's summer party, scheduled for today, has been postponed, ostensibly for weather reasons, as New York is under siege from a nor'easter. With sister publication Business 2.0 on the rocks, it might have been seemly to cancel it altogether. We've learned, however, that the all-day shindig has been rescheduled for tomorrow. So, as Fortune staffers party, Business 2.0 employees will continue huddling under a storm of their own. Rumors, true and false, are flying. (I should note that I'm covering this as a former Business 2.0 editor who worked at the magazine for seven years — but events are moving so fast that all of this comes from new reporting since I left, not any knowledge I acquired on the job.) Here's what I know, and what I don't know, so far: More »
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