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| | Issue #21.11 :: 03/12/2008 - 03/18/2008 | Tribune Media Company Head Uses F-Word
N.Y. Gov. Uses Hookers
| BY DAN COOK
| “Wake the f#!k up!” That’s the gist of the message — expletives included — coming from chairman Sam Zell of the Tribune Company in a series of visits to media outlets the company owns. Tribune, which owns the Chicago Tribune and the Los Angeles Times (plus seven more newspapers and 23 TV stations), is on the front lines of the newspaper industry’s woes, with real-estate mogul Zell having made numerous job cuts since taking the chain private in April. In his effort to shake up the company’s culture, Zell has let out a series of zingers, including saying “f#!k you” to a photographer at the Orlando Sentinel and telling Los Angeles Times employees that viewing Internet porn at work is OK if it doesn’t interfere with productivity. “Let me know if you find any good sites,” he said, according to Bloomberg. Many employees have found his approach offensive, but one management expert told Bloomberg that Zell’s freewheeling style “is effective for reaching those people who are willing to embrace new ways of doing their jobs.”
Politicians and prostitutes, oh my! Democratic New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer has made a career out of playing the moralistic zealot, having taken on Wall Street wrongdoing and cigarette companies as the state’s attorney general, as well as having a long history of prosecuting organized crime and political corruption cases and advancing such causes as environmental protection and civil rights. All of Spitzer’s high-profile achievements have just been undermined, however, by the revelation that Spitzer has been identified as “Client 9” in a federal prostitution investigation. Spitzer held a press conference March 10 in which he said, “I have acted in a way that violates my obligation to my family … I apologize first and most importantly to my family. I apologize to the public to whom I promised better.” No word yet on whether Spitzer will resign or face charges.
Magazine-industry site www.minonline.com took a look recently at some of the best- and worst-selling magazine covers of 2007. People magazine struck gold with its Sept. 10 story on Owen Wilson’s suicide attempt and Rolling Stone scored with its commemoration of the 40th anniversary of the Summer of Love. Newsweek, on the hand, had its biggest flop of the year with its own 1968 retrospective and scored best with a feature on “Exercise and the Brain.” For its part, Time moved the most units with a story on “How We Get Addicted” and bombed with a feature on presidential candidates’ spouses. In fact, says minonline.com, “politics was a 2007 turnoff,” in spite of the never-ending media coverage of the presidential race. The point is underlined by U.S. News & World Report, which racked up its best numbers with a feature on billionaire investor Warren Buffet and its worst figures with an article on presidential candidates’ fathers.
Helping out a local blogger is just a few clicks away. Anthony Palmer is a political blogger and doctoral candidate at USC’s School of Journalism and Mass Communications, and he maintains the web site www.theseventen.com. In contrast to the vitriolic rants you’ll find on some political blogging sites, Palmer gives in-depth analysis and commentary. Case in point: His latest post is a 1,200-word analysis of the strengths and weaknesses of Clinton and Obama’s respective claims to the Democratic presidential nomination. Apparently impressed by Palmer’s approach, the web site www.collegescholarships.org has named Palmer one of three finalists in a scholarship contest. The winner receives a $2,000 prize and a featured spot on the College Scholarship web site. To cast your vote, visit www.collegescholarships.org/blog/2008/02/27/vote-for-the-winner-of-the-2008-political-blogging-scholarship. Whew, that’s quite an address … maybe you should just go to the main site and follow the links instead.
Media Madness is a column exploring web sites, media industry news, books, blogs, TV, video games and anything else in the media universe that strikes our fancy. | |
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