The Best of NYC MEDIA
BEST EXAMPLE OF PRINT’S IMPENDING DEATH: New York Sun
BEST UNRENEWED CONTRACT, EVER: Bill Kristol’s
BEST LATE BLOGGER: Robert Guskind
BEST HYPERLOCAL REPORTING: Kinetic Carnival
SECOND BEST PRINT SAVIOR: Jared Kushner
BEST PHOTOJOURNALISM: Chris Smith and Nigel Parry, New York Magazine
BEST EGGSHELL-WALK PORTENDING A FUTURE IN WHICH THE GOP IS ACTUALLY ABLE TO APPEAL TO SOCIALLY CONSERVATIVE MINORITIES: The New York Post on Obama
BEST (AND MOST EASILY PRONOUNCED) CONFUSING NEW MEDIA SITE THAT MAKES US FEEL FUNNY: True/Slant
BEST (AND MOST DIFFICULT TO PRONOUNCE) CONFUSING NEW MEDIA SITE THAT MAKES US FEEL FUNNY: Mediaite
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BEST THING YOU CAN SAY ABOUT RUPERT MURDOCH: He likes print
It’s easy to reductively dismiss megamogul Rupert Murdoch, as he owns derided properties like the New York Post and Fox News. But for romantic print-o-philes like us, we can at least admire his devotion to paper media; it’s well-known that he loses millions of dollars every year publishing his tabloid — just because he believes in print (and loves the power, of course) — and his empire’s Local Media division owns, and keeps propped up, dozens of hometown newspapers, including our city’s Brooklyn Paper and the Courier-Life chain. Hegemonic media ownership at a local level isn’t really a good thing, but at a time when newspapers are folding all over the country, especially at local levels, keeping them afloat is admirable.
BEST EXAMPLE OF PRINT’S IMPENDING DEATH:
New York Sun
The conservative answer (sort of) to the New York Times shuttered its offices last September after it couldn’t find investors to cover its losses. Such is the state of print media, especially in the Media Capital. Normally, we wouldn’t mourn the death of a reactionary broadsheet, but (A) we mourn the death of all print publications and (B) The Sun was known for its exceptional arts coverage. You can tell it was superior: several of our film writers wrote for The Sun, too.
BEST UNRENEWED CONTRACT, EVER: Bill Kristol’s
After barely more than a year, the Times ended its relationship with op-ed columnist Bill Kristol this January. Everyone knows the Gray Lady leans to the left, but she likes to include multiple points of view on her editorial pages. But there’s leaning to the right, like David Brooks, and just being a total idiot; Kristol’s column was infuriatingly insipid — he was a Palin apologist, for Pete’s sake! He’s been replaced by a conservative our age, Ross Douthat. How does he measure up? Honestly, we’re too cool for the Times’ op-ed pages these days to find out. (Err, we can’t afford it anymore.)
BEST LATE BLOGGER: Robert Guskind
In March, the local New York corner of the blogosphere lost a major figure: Gowanus Lounge founder Robert Guskind. But don’t call him a blogger —he was an Internet journalist, bringing readers news items from all over Brooklyn; it was blogging at its best, shining a light on the corners of the borough the MSM ignored. Sure, we still have sites like Gothamist, but it’s just not the same.
BEST HYPERLOCAL REPORTING: Kinetic Carnival
A seemingly infinite number of blogs cover the city from all corners, but our favorite is Kinetic Carnival; editor, publisher and head-writer Omar Robau not only keeps readers informed of when and where the next Coney Island party will be, but he meticulously reports on all of the land-grab shenanigans that have been going on out there for years. For all its vicissitudes, it’d be impossible to keep straight the Coney mess — the politics and the real estate — if it weren’t for Robau’s tireless posting.
SECOND BEST PRINT SAVIOR: Jared Kushner
When the New York Observer was up for sale in 2006, it looked like Tribeca bigwigs (including DeNiro) would buy it, prop it up for a few years and let it die like another New York Sun. Lucky for New Yorkers, scion of shady dealers Jared Kushner stepped in and, only a twenty-something, became a newspaper owner — like Charles Foster Kane. Now journalism students have another place to intern while scenesters and New Yorkistas still have a salmon tabloid to keep them up to date on wheelings and dealings.
BEST PHOTOJOURNALISM: Chris Smith and Nigel Parry, New York Magazine
As it turns out, a picture of Pedro Espada surveying the New York Senate chamber from the balcony is worth a 4,000-word cover story about the Bronx’s bantamweight Machiavelli. That Espada agreed to be photographed in such a nakedly megalomaniacal pose speaks to either a frightening excess of ego or a frightening dearth of self-awareness. Or, you know, both.
BEST EGGSHELL-WALK PORTENDING A FUTURE IN WHICH THE GOP IS ACTUALLY ABLE TO APPEAL TO SOCIALLY CONSERVATIVE MINORITIES:
The New York Post on Obama
The front page of Murdoch’s four-bit subway read treats “Bam” as a celebrity, appealing to New Yorkers’ deep feelings about the POTUS; then hammers his policies once the readers are inside. (Especially masterful is how they stroke their conservative white, blue-collar base without offending the rest of their readership: take every opportunity to manufacture a “gaffe,” a la his statement of an actual opinion regarding the Gates-Crowley affair.)
BEST (AND MOST EASILY PRONOUNCED) CONFUSING NEW MEDIA SITE THAT MAKES US FEEL FUNNY:
True/Slant
The mission statement of this “original content news network” has lines in it that make us deeply uncomfortable, like this one: “True/Slant is […] tailored to both the Entrepreneurial Journalist and marketers who want a more effective way to engage with digital audiences. Contributors, consumers and marketers each have a voice on True/Slant.” Now, our old media guts curdle at the lovey lovey shout-out to consumers (rather than readers) and marketers (obvs); but then our new media synapses think “C’mon, old media has been whoring out content for decades, so isn’t it better to just call it what it is and get on with life?” We’re still not sure. Also, the part about “writers building their digital brands”? ENOUGH WITH THE BRANDING ALREADY FUCK OFF AND DIE. (Then again, Taibbi and Pareene are contributors, and we love those guys… Sooo confusing.)
BEST (AND MOST DIFFICULT TO PRONOUNCE) CONFUSING NEW MEDIA SITE THAT MAKES US FEEL FUNNY: Mediaite
On its own, self-proclaimed “media watchdog” site Mediaite (and that last dipthong rhymes with “kite” not “elite,” fyi) isn’t that confusing: it’s a comprehensive mirror-gazer with good writing and a little star power. The confusing part is that we’ve always had a crush on Editor-at-Large Rachel Sklar, and the opposite of a crush on Publisher Dan Abrams… We are finding this hard to reconcile. (Oh yeah, and Dan Abrams also runs Abrams Research, which does media-focused PR, so… What’s that line, “Who will watch the watchers?”)
