Time Inc. to Launch Frat Boy Humor Site 'Office Pirates'

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The Wall Street Journal reports Time Inc. has plans to launch a Web site called Office Pirates in the next few weeks which will target young male's hoping to make up for poor ad-page performance at the company's men's titles. The idea behind Office Pirates is to rebirth an era "that once allowed Wall Street's bawdy and frat-boy humor to spread quickly among financial institutions."

No one at Time Inc is talking about the site and former Maxim magazine editor Mark Golin who is behind Office Pirates has refused requests for interview hoping, as the Wall Street Journal surmises, the site takes on a non-promotional "fucked company"-like aura and grows organically. The Sports Illustrated sales team is said to handle ad sales for the site which is hoping for sponsorship sales rather than banner sales.

by Steve Hall    Feb-10-06    
Topic: Online, Publishing



Internal Email Gives Details on Time Inc. Layoffs

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Gawker has the full details on who and what will get cut from Time Inc.'s Guild Union. Among the cuts are 13 from Time, nine from Fortune, seven from Sports Illustrated, four from Money, seven from Pictures Collection, one from Fortune Small Business and none from People or Life. The full memo detailing Guild cuts can be read here.

by Steve Hall    Feb- 8-06    
Topic: Magazine, Publishing



James Frey Shakes His Lying Ass

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We didn't join the media circus surrounding the Oprah/James Frey "is it fiction or non-fiction" thing because, well, we really didn't care what yet another author had to say and how Oprah would heap praise until we found this little video poking fun at the whole thing. Watch Frey shake his ass and tell the story of how he liked to all of us in his book.

by Steve Hall    Feb- 3-06    
Topic: Publishing, Television, Viral



Gawker Media Launches Silicon Valley Gossip Blog

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The bow's untied. The password protection has been removed. Today, Gawker media launches another gossip blog, this time, focusing on Silicon Valley. Called Valley Wag and described as a tech gossip rag for Silicon Valley tech types who are too busy changing the world to have time for "sex, greed and Hypocrisy" but who Gawker knows needs, like everyone else, some good dirt. The blog is written by West Coast newcomber Nick Douglas who, because of his newness, won't be burdened with having to be polite to anyone unlucky enough to find themselves maligned on the pages of Valley Wag.

by Steve Hall    Feb- 2-06    
Topic: Publishing, Weblogs



Waterfront Media Aggregates Self-Help Category For Marketers

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As the publisher for the online presence of the South Beach Diet, the Zone Diet and the expectant parent What to Expect among others, Waterfront Media helps self-help experts and their publishers publish their content online and aggregates self-help content for advertisers interested in reaching self-help seekers, a $10 billion market according to Marketdata Enterprises. While some doubt the whole notion of self-help, for marketers and and publishers in this space, Waterfront Media has created a self-help marketplace that appears to make it a whole lot easier for marketer and publisher to connect with the self-help seeker.

Waterfront launched in early 2003 and has 700,000 subscribers to its various sites along with site management/distribution deals with publishers Rodale, Harper Collins, Meredith and Hyperion among others. Waterfront Media's revenue model is shifting from 25/75 ad/paid subscription to 50/50 ad/paid subscription and advertisers from P&G, Kraft, Diet Coke and Equal have jumped on board.

by Steve Hall    Jan-18-06    
Topic: Online, Publishing



JWT Defines China's 'Confusion Consumer,' Definitions Questioned

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Coinciding with the launch of China CEO Tom Doctroff's book, Billions: Selling the the New Chinese Consumer, JWT China issued a press release with the headline, "Understanding and Embracing China's Different Worldview Is Main Theme of Billions: Selling to the New Chinese Consumer, by JWT's Tom Doctoroff," which offers 12 facts about the "Confucian Consumer." While the release may seem like yet another harmless attempt by a marketing entity to neatly lump together the traits of billions of people and slap a cute title on it, some who watch the country's culture closer have taken issue with the oversimplification and incorrectness of the 12 facts.

The main complaint is the trotting out of Confucius to "frame the market for American business people" writes the China Herald weblog that doing so "creates the illusion that there is one driving force in the Chinese market you can use as a beacon in an often chaotic situation." In an article on Danwei written by Jeremy Goldkorn who works in the Chinese ad biz, he offers a a point by point analysis of the release and ends with "bullshitting is part of the game in the advertising industry." While we have no idea who's right and who's wrong on this whole Confucian Consumer thing nor are we equipped to make judgement, we do know Goldkorn's statement is as true as the Earth is round.

by Steve Hall    Jan-13-06    
Topic: Agencies, Publishing, Trends and Culture



Shocker! All Press Release Quotes Are Fake

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Not that we didn't all know this already but here, thanks to Gawker's ever transparent editorial staff, is proof positive, albeit embarrassingly for Hyperion who forgot to turn off "track changes" prior to sending its release, all press release quotes are fabricated and that no human being actually utters the wording we read every day in news articles pulled from releases.

by Steve Hall    Jan- 6-06    
Topic: Publishing, Strange



OMG! Another Advertising Email Newsletter Launches!

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Oh, good God, not another daily email newsletter about marketing and advertising. Yes, BrandWeek has joined the fray of daily ad news pushers, upping its frequency from weekly to daily. We're not sure the industry is ready for yet another Inbox-clogging newsletter. Nothing against BrandWeek but they just might be unlucky recipient of the great "I'm mad as hell and I'm not going to take this anymore" industry-wide email unsubscribe movement of 2006.

There's just way too much duplicate news out there. We know. We subscribe to every advertising-related newsletter there is drinking in each and every publisher's take on the day's news. We don't do it because we like killer frequency in our daily news consumption strategy. We do it for you, loyal readers, so you don't have to suffer the indignity of having to read 13 versions of the same story from 13 different sources 13 different times each day. There's only so much news any given industry can genetrate and there's only so many different twists to the same story that can be applied.

more »

by Steve Hall    Jan- 4-06    
Topic: Publishing



Dad Gets Over Excited About Child's Christmas Gift

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That's just so not the way to thrust readers into a Slate story about what gifts not to give. Or, maybe it is. After all, doing that to a puppy isn't exactly a nice gift to give now is it? Especially when your kid is watching. Courtesy Gawker.

by Steve Hall    Dec-19-05    
Topic: Online, Publishing, Strange



Bernbach's VW Campaign Killed Advertising, Ads A Commodity

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Writing a chapter (pdf) for Nancy Vonk and Janet Kestin's book Pick Me, U.K. creative Brian Millar blames Bill Bernbach's Volkswagen campaign for forty years of advertising sameness. Perhaps that it a bit of a stretch but his piece does contain some good commentary on how insights can lead to great creative. He must have read Phil Dusenberry's Then We Set His Hair on Fire.

by Steve Hall    Dec-13-05    
Topic: Publishing