Why I quit my job as a national newspaper editor to be a bloggerWhy would any self-respecting journo leave their job as an editor at one of the US’s largest national newspapers, the LA Times to work for media gossip site Gawker? To be part of the nation’s “cultural conversation”.
Media / Print
Why Murdoch wants to destroy the NY Times
News Corp’s Wall Street Journal is stepping-up its New York coverage, and it’s all part of Rupert Murdoch’s single-minded plan to strike a massive blow against the liberal world by buying-out or destroying the NYT, says Michael Wolff.
Why newspapers act like political parties
British PM Gordon Brown has hit out at The Sun newspaper for trying to “become a political party”. Where has Gordon Brown been living all his life? asks Roy Greenslade: newspapers have been acting like political parties for more than a century.
Stephen King writes poetry? For Playboy?!
Curiously, sci-fi/horror Author Stephen King has turned his hand to writing poetry. Even more curiously, his literary medium of choice to share his rhyme doggerel with the world? Playboy magazine. Read his effort, The Bone Church, here.
Why Vogue is still in vogue
Despite the global media downturn, glossy fashion mags like Vogue are still doing relatively well. How have they avoided the fate of their less glamorous counterparts? By providing a “cheap treat” in lean economic times, says Roy Greenslade.
News International to drop freebies to airlines, hotels
In a move that strikes fear into the hearts of The Oz execs, News International in the UK, will stop distributing bulk copies of newspapers sold for a nominal amount to hotels and airlines, which give them to clients as complimentary offerings.
iTunes for print? Selling the story instead of the magazine
Online aggregator Maggwire.com is planning “to do for magazines what iTunes did for music”, by selling “premium” magazine articles for a few bucks online. It may save the companies, but could it kill off the printed versions in the process?
media death watch 
The Time Inc. carnage begins
Forced to cut $100m in expenditure, publisher Time has begun trimming the fat, announcing layoffs at Sports Illustrated and the closure of Fortune Small Business. And this is just round one: 280 layoffs are expected in total.
Macquarie Anthology to have a global reach
The Macquarie PEN Anthology will have a considerable effect on the burgeoning study of Australian literature abroad, writes Nicholas Birns. Yes, some bits are very literary, and some authors miss out, but finally Australian literature might get its deserved world recognition.
Why e-Readers are not the future of magazines
The Kindle and its ilk may be taking the newspaper and book worlds by storm, but they’re not going to revolutionise the way we read magazines anytime soon: the screens, formatting and lack of interactivity just aren’t up to the task.
media death watch The last days of Gourmet
The former associate art director of the now-defunct Gourmet magazine has put up this online photo gallery to document the final days in the publication’s now-empty offices. How thoroughly depressing.
When a city loses its newspaper
When a newspaper goes bust — as they’re increasingly want to do these days — it isn’t just the writers and readers who are affected: government becomes less accountable and society becomes stupider.
Better than real news: how The Onion is written
The folks at satirical newspaper and website The Onion have a novel way of creating “stories”: they write the headlines first, then fill out the article (just like many real newspapers, we suspect). The NYT sits in on the surprisingly complex creative process.
Nam Le: Stuff Facebook, read a real book
Nam Le’s The Boat has scooped this years PM Literary Award for best fiction. In his witty acceptance speech, Le says that social media, TV and film can never engage a community like literature can.
More drama over the PEN anthology
After nearly 40 years of public support for our literature, dramatic literature is still the poor relation, writes Katherine Brisbane. Are plays really that difficult to enjoy?
The Christian Science Monitor: now with less Christian Science
News outlet the Christian Science Monitor may be subsidised by the Christian Science church, but only 20% of its subscribers are actually Christian Scientists, according to the editor.
Newsroom fist fight at the Washington Post
Pulitzer prize-winning Washington Post editor Henry Allen recently punched out one of the paper’s feature writers after he was presented with “the second worst story I have seen in Style in 43 years.”
Imagining life behind the pay-wall
The year is 2012 and the news is no longer free: Michael Wolff is in prison, Fox has renamed itself The Glenn Beck Channel, a NYT sub costs $7000-per-year, and a cultural divide has formed between the news-haves and news-have-nots…
Keating on the stairs: beating or beat up?
Insiders say a Sunday Telegraph alleging Paul Keating’s daughter kicked and threatened to kill one of its photographers was at best a beat-up, and at-worst a total fabrication.
Matt Preston to stop writing restaurant reviews
MasterChef’s break-out star, Matt Preston, plans to give up writing time consuming restaurant reviews, in favour of advancing his new-found career as a celebrity foodie, according to today’s Oz Media Diary. Did anyone say “flavour-of-the-month”?
Sad tales from the opening of Melbourne’s new Fairfax building
Margaret Simons was at the “soft opening” of the new Age building in Melbourne. What’s a “soft launch”? It is the launch you have when the Board is dysfunctional and the Chairman doing the honours has been forced out.
50 years of TIME in Australia (and a few less-important islands, too)
TIME magazine is celebrating 50 years of publication in Australia (well, the “South Pacific”, but it pretty much ignores everyone else), including a tribute to its pick of most influential Aussies of the last five decades: Robert Menzies, Germaine Greer, Victor Chang, Eddie Mabo, and Tim Flannery.
leaked 
Politico and Wash Post to engage in DC territorial pissing
Online political news site Politico is going to launch a local Washington DC edition of the site, headed up by the former editor of WashingtonPost.com. It’s a pretty direct attack on The Washington Post’s DC supremacy, and HuffPo has its hands on an internal memo that outlines the plans.
New Matilda / Monday, 2 November 2009
Newspaper editors’ new schtick appears to be giving column inches to commentators whose words are controversial, but intellectually barren, says Jason Wilson. It may pull in more readers, but ultimately, it damages the masthead.