Gawker: valleywag, old media

Old media figure Graydon Carter spotted at San Francisco premiere of old media

Jackson West — Thu, 08 May 2008 22:00:00 EDT

Vanity Fair, which is a New York-based operation distributing expert-written content on biodegradable media — a "magazine" — via premium subscriptions and bricks-and-mortar partners known as "newsstands," is sponsoring the West Coast premiere of Gonzo: The Life and Work of Dr. Hunter S. Thompson. Gonzo is being displayed on a screen considerably larger than any made by Samsung or Panasonic — using a technology which does not require any LCDs. Our spies snapped a photo of Vanity Fair's chief content officer, Graydon Carter, entering the specially designed facility. Much like Apple does with iPods and Macs, Vanity Fair is expecting a "halo effect" from its sponsorship of this screening to boost sales of its "magazines." (Photo by jacksonwest)

Markoff kicking your ass on Facebook

Paul Boutin — Sun, 11 Nov 2007 19:03:36 EST

In the fantasy world of the blogosphere, reporters for big national newspapers are slow-thinking, backdated rubes flummoxed by the Net, which they mistakenly call teh Intarwebs. In real life, 58-year-old New York Times reporter John Markoff is spending Sunday afternoon cranking through Facebook, installing apps like a champ and taking friend requests from slacker freelance writers i.e. me. This is the same John Markoff thanked in the credits for the original Mac OS two decades ago. Sure, we mocked his Times piece announcing Web 3.0. But at the rate Scoop-'em Markoff is flooding my news feed, he's going to know more about Facebook than the entire Valleywag staff by Monday morning. Sigh, back to work.

Valley Residents Behaving Badly

confonz — Thu, 03 May 2007 15:55:03 EDT

CONFONZ — Time was, we used-ta-could out homosexuals on the front page of the tabloids. Time was, revealing people's short comings in public was a lucrative business. Time was, fat bastards could be eviscerated in public without care or thought paid to their feelings and constitutions. Times change. Thus, the ConFonz presents his quick bullet points of notable Valley residents and the gossip surrounding them. Ah, bullet points: when you just don't care enough to write up a full entry. After the jump, some silly gossip.

Last weekend's Re-Make event in Berekley was, on the outside, a complete success. But as it turns out, the 24-hour event was evidently vacant when the sun rose on 4-29 (NEVER FORGET!) According to the ConFonz's reliable servants, the bloated fat man in charge of the event threw a temper tantrum around 9 AM and threw everyone out. That means the event was, technically, only 21 hours long.
Blind Item Cafe Press does a great job of filling closets with home-grown T-shirts and tchochkees with pictures of your kids printed on them. But it would seem that one of the company's sales and marketing executives is also in the closet. Sure, outing the gays isn't a lofty journalistic accomplishment, but rumor has it that this female blogger is denying the fact up and down the block, despite her extremely manish exterior. Come on, madam, this is the Bay Area. No one will think less of you for being a lesbian. In fact, most locals will think more of you!
Novell is still doomed.
Make Magazine may be a successful publication, and everyone may still be going to Maker Faire this year, but the O'Reilly's darling child still doesn't have any kind of budget. The magazine, evidently, practices what it preaches, and builds promotional materials out of things salvaged from dumpsters.

UnBoomed: Amanda calls Andrew "old media"

Nick Douglas — Fri, 07 Jul 2006 17:44:02 EDT

The New York Times gets new quotes from Amanda Congdon after the Rocketboom vlog anchor split with founding producer Andrew Baron over escalating arguments about the show's direction. Now that Rocketboom is rich and famous, Andrew wanted his power back and tried to muscle Amanda out of her 49% share of the show — which is, like, so last decade.

"I've been writing, I've been producing, I've been hosting Rocketboom for over a year and half," Ms. Congdon said. "I'm not willing to be moved down to be a face. That's so old media."

Of course, the Times writer cheerily points out that "old media" is what's getting Amanda all this publicity.

Meanwhile, Andrew hasn't volunteered a good excuse for not letting Amanda expand the show to L.A. Nor has he denied that his show is now fucked.

A Rift at the Video Blog Rocketboom Triggers a Cyberspace Soap Opera [NYT]