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Michael Phelps Is Gold for NBC
Plus, lawyers make criminals sing (to 'Don Giovanni'), another spectacular apartment you can't afford hits the market, and more, in our daily industry roundup.
Posted 08/14/08 in Daily Intel : Company Town
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The Upper East Side Completes Renée Zellweger
The actress smoothly buys into a hard-to-crack co-op, while JPMorgan and the New York 'Times' struggle, in our daily digest of real-estate, finance, media and law news.
Posted 08/13/08 in Daily Intel : Company Town
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Jann Wenner Shopping ‘Us Weekly’ to Condé Nast for $750 Million
Plus, the latest with UBS, Bonnie Fuller, and 15 Central Park West, in our daily industry roundup.
Posted 06/30/08 in Daily Intel : Company Town
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The ‘Times’ Touches Upon Checkbook Journalism — With Two Fingers, Of Course
MEDIA • "OK!, the celebrity magazine, could not possibly have purchased all the attention it enjoyed in late December after it got the scoop that Jamie Lynn Spears, the younger and until then less sensational sister of the troubled pop queen Britney Spears, was three months pregnant. Or could it?" [NYT] • Josh Stein isn't actually leaving Gawker; Emily Gould will write for Jezebel; Choire Sicha will continue contributing columns; and recently departed Wonkette editor Ken Layne returned after just a few months off the job. Can anyone escape the tentacles of Nick Denton? [HuffPo] • The Writers Guild plans to picket Jay Leno, Jimmy Kimmel, and Conan O'Brien as the three late-night hosts return to the air. Letterman gets off easy since he struck a deal with the writers and may get a big boost since big stars (like Robin Williams, natch) won't have to cross the pickets to go on his show. [NYO, NYT]
Posted 01/02/08 in Daily Intel : Company Town
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Did ‘The New Yorker’ Rip One of Its Cartoons Off ‘The Far Side’?
MEDIA • OMG, plagiarism in The New Yorker's cartoon issue? [Gelf] • Washington Post chief Don Graham has 300 Facebook friends. Poke away! [Washingtonian] • Fox 9's license is up for renewal, and a bunch of incensed New Jerseyans are fighting the station for failing to live up to its Jersey-side obligations. After all, the channel is based out of Secaucus but bills itself as "My9 New York." [NYT]
Posted 11/29/07 in Daily Intel : Company Town
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Al Gore: Cashing In on His Big Year
FINANCE • Al Gore, venture capitalist? The Nobel laureate and Apple board member is taking a hands-on role at Kleiner Perkins, the leading Silicon Valley venture firm. His goal: Save the world. And annoy GE's Jeff Immelt as much as possible. [Fortune] • Harvard picked Robert S. Kaplan, a former Goldman Sachs vice-chairman, as the new steward for the $35 billion endowment. Something tells us his kids won't have any trouble getting in. [Reuters via NYT] • A few management consultants with nothing better to do gave the Times its newest buzzword: CEO version 3.0. With the departures of Stan O'Neal, Chuck Prince, and Richard Parsons, it's now time for leaders "who can assemble a team that functions as smoothly as a jazz sextet." Because, as James Cayne showed, the old CEOs were way too bebop. [NYT]
Posted 11/12/07 in Daily Intel : Company Town
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The Bancroft Family High Jinks: Ongoing!
MEDIA • The Bancrofts are so dysfunctional that they missed the deadline for choosing their representative to the new Dow Jones board. Murdoch then vetoed two family nominations before agreeing to Natalie Bancroft, a 27-year-old opera singer and journalism neophyte. Family member Crawford Hill concluded: "This entire, sad and pathetic final episode is a fiasco. No wonder we lost Dow Jones!!" [WSJ] • With the Times hiring former sex writer Susan Dominus as the newest "Metro" columnist, will the section be heading toward the look of "Sunday Styles"? [NYO] • Nora Ephron: Blogging makes us better writers. Hey Nora, can you call our boss? [Mixed Media/Portfolio]
Posted 11/07/07 in Daily Intel : Company Town
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Did Aaron Charney Only Get 100K From Sullivan?
LAW • Will Aaron Charney ever have to work again? More than likely — he may not have gotten more than $100,000 in his sexual-harassment settlement with Sullivan & Cromwell. [PrawfsBlawg via Above the Law] • Should law schools be more like business schools? One law prof thinks so, and he looks a little like Justin Timberlake, so he must be right. [Law Blog/WSJ] • Do Cravath's two rounds of bonuses signal Big Law strength and more money for associates, or is the firm just hedging so they aren't locked in to paying the same amount next year? [NYT]
Posted 10/31/07 in Daily Intel : Company Town
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Will Dick Parsons Pull a Bloomberg?
MEDIA • Rumor has it that Richard Parson's will announce his departure at Time Warner as early as this week. Jeff Bewkes, longtime No. 2, is set to take over as CEO. Does this mean a Parsons run for mayor? [Times of London] • Radar cooked up a clever quiz: Fox News anchor or porn star? You decide. Wait, no, Murdoch decides. [Radar] • Jim Cramer matched Rupert Murdoch's legendary subtlety: "We have a competitor now in Fox and it is really important to destroy and mutilate them." [Broadcasting & Cable]
Posted 10/29/07 in Daily Intel : Company Town
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Tony Blair Sells Out Rupert Murdoch
MEDIA • Tony Blair sold his memoir for $9 million to Knopf, something of a surprise since Blair has long been tight with Murdoch, known for offering advances so big they resemble campaign donations through HarperCollins. [Media Mob/NYO] • A democratic member of the FCC requested an investigation of Murdoch's Dow Jones deal, arguing the merger consolidates too many powerful outlets in one less than trustworthy hand. [B&C] • Bloggingheads, everyone's favorite lo-fi insider-y political fight club, reached a content-sharing agreement with the Times. [HuffPo]
Posted 10/26/07 in Daily Intel : Company Town
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Falling Glass a Metaphor for Bank of America's Finances?
FINANCE • The debris falling off the new Bank of America tower at 42nd Street may have been metaphoric. The firm just reported steep losses, and their wannabe investment-banking unit, set to anchor the new tower, performed the worst. [MarketBeat/WSJ, Deal Journal/WSJ] • Congrats, James Cayne — nobody wants anything to do with Bear Stearns. Contrary to reports, both Warren Buffett and China's Citic Bank denied any interest in the bank. [DealBook/NYT] • Today's the real anniversary of the 1987 stock-market crash, but at least one veteran thinks parallels to the present are overblown. "The market is just like generals — everyone prepares for the last war." [MarketBeat/WSJ]
Posted 10/19/07 in Daily Intel : Company Town
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Fox Business Network: Still Painting the Offices
MEDIA • Looks like the Fox Business Network has a shitload of work to do on their studio before launching next Monday. They've got the requisite bright-red circle hung above the anchor desk, but otherwise the floor's not even finished. NBC News, on the other hand, finally cut the ribbon on their new 30 Rock studio, which president Steve Capus compared to "the dance floor of the Stockholm Hilton." Was that supposed to be a compliment? [FishbowlNY/Mediabistro, TVNewser] • Jan Wenner failed to lure Ed Felsenthal away from the Journal (and Portfolio) and had to settle for Brad Wieners as new editor at Men's Journal. Wieners has been acting editor since August, when James Kaminsky decamped for Maxim. [NYP] • Poynter Institute: As a journalist, it's your "duty" to read the print newspaper. Unclear how that affects bloggers. [Poynter]
Posted 10/12/07 in Daily Intel : Company Town
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Topshop Signs a Lease in NYC?
FASHION • Breaking rumor alert: After months of hinting, Topshop has possibly, maybe signed a New York lease. Anglophiles and Kate Moss–ophiles, rejoice! [Fashionista] • First he’s out as the designer of Dior Homme. Now, Hedi Slimane’s been replaced by none other than BFF Karl Lagerfeld as the photographer of the ad campaigns. Oh, cruel fashion world! [WWD] • Giorgio Armani’s raking in the dough. The designer sold back a 5 percent stake in his company to Giorgio Armani SpA for about $110 million. [British Vogue]
Posted 10/02/07 in Daily Intel : Company Town
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All Is Not Well in Redstone Land
MEDIA • Sumner Redstone, the octogenarian CEO of CBS and Viacom, is trying to play all lovey-dovey with his spurned daughter Shari, but the succession to the $50 billion empire is nowhere near resolved. [LAT] • With more than a 1,000 job cuts at Time Inc. behind her, Ann Moore, the CEO who rose from the back room to the boardroom, thinks there's still plenty of fat to cut — she asked some McKinsey consultants to keep sharpening their knives. [NYP] • ABC News has done gangbusters over the last year, leading nightly news and finally catching up in the morning, so why did their Disney overlords decide to shuffle management at the top? [NYP]
Posted 10/01/07 in Daily Intel : Company Town
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Goldman Defies Credit Crunch
FINANCE • Credit crunch, what credit crunch? Goldman's record profits, which involved somehow shorting the mortgage market, have left a bonus pool of $17 billion, even larger than last year's record. [WSJ, DealBreaker] • The surge in the markets aside, the Fed rate-cut had one immediate bad effect: The Canadian dollar, a.k.a. the Loonie, pulled even with U.S. greenbacks for the first time since 1976. The euro also pushed past $1.40, another record. [NYP] • It's tough out there for a billionaire: While sixty-four New Yorkers made Forbes's list of the 400 richest Americans, eighty-two Americans failed to make it with their paltry billion dollars. [AP]
Posted 09/21/07 in Daily Intel : Company Town
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Murdoch Mulls the Liberation of WSJ.com
MEDIA • Murdoch is hinting heavily that he'll take WSJ.com free, but Dow Jones CEO Richard Zannino doesn't think it's such a great idea. [WSJ] • Well, we'll be — Portfolio pulling down pretty good ad pages. [NYP] • Roger Ailes, former CNBC president now with Fox Business Network, making many CNBCers interested in switching teams. It may be many things, but it won't be boring! [NYO]
Posted 09/19/07 in Daily Intel : Company Town
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Greg Larkin Was the Al Gore of the Subprime Mess
FINANCE • Alan Greenspan was giddy when old buds Don Rumsfeld and Dick Cheney took over the White House. But it turned out they were bad boys and not his friends at all. Check out this and more in Greenspan’s new bio. [NYT] • So basically everyone’s sitting around twiddling his thumbs today while waiting to see just how much the Fed cuts rates tomorrow. The market has already priced in a quarter-point cut, and the real speculation is whether they’ll cut a full half-point. [DealBreaker] • Greg Larkin of obscure research firm Innovest was like the Al Gore of the subprime mess. [ NYP]
Posted 09/17/07 in Daily Intel : Company Town
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Scarborough Takes Imus's Slot
MEDIA • Joe Scarborough picks up Don Imus's coveted MSNBC morning slot. [Radar] • The Dow Jones editorial-independence agreement with News Corp. stipulates that disputes will be aired on the Journal's editorial page. [WSJ] • News Corp. bought two Bronx weeklies, expanding its weekly neighborhood newspaper holdings. But how well will Murdoch papers go over in Greenpoint and Williamsburg? [NYT]
Posted 07/03/07 in Daily Intel : Company Town
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Charney’s Lawyers Toss Around Casual Nazi References
LAW • One of Aaron Charney's lawyers accuses Sullivan & Cromwell of having "adopted Dr. Mengele's techniques to torture the facts and law of this case." [Above the Law] • More than twenty lawyers filed an objection against the $125-apiece BAR/BRI settlement. [National Law Journal] • Summer associates at Pillsbury Winthrop practiced researching things in books this week. Next week: writing briefs by hand. [Law Blog/WSJ]
Posted 06/15/07 in Daily Intel : Company Town
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Happy Eccentric Executive Day!
FINANCE • Steve Schwarzman's chef spends $3,000 each weekend on food; Schwarzman makes his employees wear non-squeaky shoes, and at five-foot-six, he attributes his success to "little man" complex. [WSJ] • "Page Six" is on the trail of an investment banker who wears kimonos and eyeliner. [NYP] • If you're a CEO, you may well be a lousy father. [Fortune via CNNMoney]
Posted 06/14/07 in Daily Intel : Company Town
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