Tina Brown’s Disney-sponsored magazine has generated yet another flurry of speculation about its debut – and, most recently, its name. Titles already rejected include Bluff (batted around years ago, when writer Lynn Hirschberg worked on a prototype for Harvey Weinstein), as well as Talk and Jam (much too difficult to do one with a mouthful of the other).
Five contenders are now believed to remain: Brown’s, with its classy resonances of personality-driven broadsides like Forbes, Brill’s Content, and Jane, as well as the famous old London hotel; Reporter; Waterfront; Reputations; and Take.
Five candidates, but still not one that manages to capture the enigma that is Tina Brown, with her fragrance-counter-like variety of moods and feelings: champion of journalistic independence, playful, pouty, a scamp! Below, some humble suggestions:
I.V. – For “integrate vertically.” Far more elegant than that neologism of yore, synergy. It’s the Roman numeral four (for Brown’s fourth magazine), and also the abbreviation of “intravenous,” connoting the magazine’s vital-bodily-fluid level of necessity; no one loves a pun more than Tina (cf. T.B. – A Journal of Consumption).
Advance – Makes plain the writers’ fondest dreams, but perhaps a mite Newhousian.
All the Way to the Bank – As Joni Mitchell said, laughing or crying, you sign the same release.
The New Yorken – Most folks won’t notice until they’ve already bought and paid for it.