Former WSJ M.E. Brauchli moves in at WaPo while Quick & Simple and Golf for Women stop their presses.
Revolving Door Newsletter: 07.08.08

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Bringing Brand Emeril Beyond the Food Network (AdAge)
After more than a decade as perhaps the Food Network's most ubiquitous TV chef, Emeril Lagasse is kicking his media empire up a notch. For starters, there's his relationship with Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia, which signed Emeril to a 10-year contract worth $50 million in February. He's also distancing himself from the Food Network with the recent shuttering of his longtime cooking show, Emeril Live.

Is it Time for Time to Scale Back its Frequency? (Folio:)
John Brady: U.S. News & World Report is cutting its schedule to biweekly. And now Time, the greatest newsmagazine ever, is in freefall. Readers are bailing, advertising is down (some 30 percent or more when last checked), and one senses that staff resumes are being updated as this is writ. Clearly, the redesign, relaunch, and restaffing has been a disaster. Maybe it should go quarterly.

Ousted Chicago TV Reporter Sues Station (Chicago Tribune)
It took a year, but Amy Jacobson has gone from swimsuit to lawsuit. The former WMAQ-Ch. 5 reporter is seeking more than $1 million in damages from WBBM-Ch. 2 parent CBS, Channel 2 boss Joe Ahern and others, complaining that a tape it aired of her in bathing attire at the home of a potential news source in July 2007 subjected Jacobson to "enormous public humiliation and disgrace."

NBC Loves Wimbledon Ratings (Hollywood Reporter)
Wimbledon final ratings this year? A smash. Sunday's daylong battle between Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal gave NBC its best overnight ratings for a gentlemen's final in eight years, and the best non-U.S. final ratings since 1991. It was the best overnight rating for a men's final since 2000's Pete Sampras-Patrick Rafter (5.0/14), and up 44 percent compared with last year's Federer-Nadal match (3.2/9) that Federer won.

Osbournes Head to Fox (Variety)
Fox has given a six-episode order to an hourlong variety show hosted by Ozzy Osbourne, Sharon Osbourne and their kids, Jack and Kelly. The untitled show from FremantleMedia North America will be exec produced by James Sunderland, an exec producer on Fremantle's NBC series America's Got Talent, on which Sharon serves as a judge.

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Washington Post Signals Shift With Brauchli as New Editor (NYT)
Signaling a generational change at one of the nation's most influential newspapers, the new publisher of the Washington Post on Monday selected an outsider as the paper's top editor. Marcus W. Brauchli, a former top editor of The Wall Street Journal, will become the executive editor of the Post on Sept. 8. At age 47, he is young enough to remain in place for many years. WaPo: When the handoff occurs Sept. 8, Brauchli will become only the third person in the paper's top job since Ben Bradlee was given the position in 1968.

Editor's Exit Dooms Golf for Women (Portfolio/Mixed Media)
This is everything you need to know about the print publishing environment circa mid-2008: It's easier to shut down a magazine with dozens of employees than to hire one new one. Conde Nast said it's ceasing publication of Golf for Women, following news that the mag's editor-in-chief, Susan Reed, was leaving to become editor-in-chief of O, The Oprah Magazine. NYP: Sources estimate the bimonthly Golf for Women was going to lose about $7 million in 2008 after an internal split of marketing services and other support units from Golf Digest earlier this year. WWD: Conde Nast chief operating officer John Bellando and executive vice president, human resources Jill Bright broke the news to the Golf for Women staff late Monday afternoon. About 30 people will be affected by the closure; those that are not placed within the company will depart by early next week. Mediaweek: The news didn't surprise insiders, who said Golf for Women had struggled to find its footing in the years since Conde Nast bought it from Meredith Corp. in 2001.

Icahn and Ballmer Look to Oust Yahoo Directors (NYP)
Billionaire financier Carl Icahn yesterday finally convinced Microsoft chief Steve Ballmer to publicly support his campaign to oust Yahoo's board. The question now is whether Yahoo's shareholders, who have watched the stock fluctuate wildly during the company's seven-month courtship of Microsoft, are willing to throw their weight behind Icahn in the hope he can sell the company at a premium. FT: Microsoft said that, with another board in place, it would be interested in discussing a deal either to assume Yahoo's search function "with large financial guarantees" for the Internet company, or to buy Yahoo outright.

Felix Dennis in Talks to Buy American Magazine (Folio:)
Felix Dennis -- entrepreneur, founder of Maxim, publisher of the Week, poet, author and, depending on who you believe, would-be murderer -- is in the process of buying the rights to a "well-known" American magazine. Apparently, he's just hammering out the terms of what he calls "schmuck insurance."

Clintonian Howard Wolfson to Fox (NYT/The Caucus)
Howard Wolfson, who was a top strategist for the presidential campaign of Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, is going where some Democrats were unwilling to go during the early days of the election season: the Fox News Channel. The network is expected to announce as early as Tuesday that it has signed Wolfson as a contributor who will appear regularly on its programs.

Lara Logan Back From War, Into Tabloid Territory (WaPo)
After four years of living in Baghdad, war was taking its toll on Lara Logan. As CBS's chief foreign affairs correspondent, she regularly risked her life by accompanying American forces in combat. But there were more personal strains as well. Now, having just moved to Washington with an expanded portfolio for the network, Logan finds her romantic life reduced to tabloid fodder.

Ignoring His Critics, New WSJ Managing Editor Robert Thomson Plots a Global Strategy (BusinessWeek)
Jon Fine: "If longer pieces were to become extinct, they would already be extinct," dismisses Thomson. But he also says "we're not there" in terms of figuring out what should or shouldn't be shortened. He cites Spanish dailies El Pais and El Mundo as favorites for their "hygienic" look -- a description that cracked him up as soon as he voiced it -- saying both "understood the relative weight of word and image."

Laura Bush Explored in New Novel (Radar)
Author Curtis Sittenfeld is about to release a thinly veiled novel based on Laura Bush's life that is sure to send the White House into a fury. Published by Random House next fall, American Wife is, in short, a fictional examination of the life of the First Lady that mingles real facts and incidents with the author's imaginative, fanciful, sometimes sexually charged musings.

Aaron Brown's Summer Job (NYO)
The former CNN anchor is now helming Wide Angle -- a PBS documentary show focusing on international affairs, which essentially fills in for Frontline when that program goes on vacation each summer. All told, Brown will anchor seven episodes, ranging in subject matter from a piece about the atrocities in Darfur to an in-depth look at women's rights in Afghanistan.

The Most Vindictive Flack In The Media World (Gawker)
The one flack who is the face of Fox's feared, vengeful media relations operation is Irena Briganti. She's the female alter ego and mouthpiece of Fox boss Roger Ailes. She's been described as bubbly and charming in person. But she's the one holding the bloody hatchet that Fox regularly brings down right on reporters' heads. Gawker: Erica Keane, VP of media relations for Fox Television Stations, "strongly disagrees" with us about Briganti, as well as the "cowardly anonymous individuals" who were sources for our "hate filled hit-piece."

Moguls Descend on Sun Valley (FishbowlLA)
The media conference should be a non-stop week-long corporate kegger with confabs and informal business discussions on topics as far-ranging as the Middle East war, the dribbling economy, the farewell of President Bush (should he be impeached?), and the status of the Microsoft/Yahoo buyout talks, among others (though Reuters reported last week that Microsoft president Steve Ballmer was a no-go).

TV News Organizations Grapple With Obama's Denver Plans (TVWeek)
Barack Obama's decision to move to a larger venue to deliver his speech accepting his party's nomination on the final night of the Democratic National Convention in Denver, has TV news organizations back at the drawing board to figure out how to deal with the unexpected logistical challenge. Mediaweek: When it comes to the Web, Democratic presidential candidate Senator Barack Obama is drawing a much larger crowd and generating considerably more chatter, says a new report issued by Nielsen Online.

LA Times Loses Two Stars to ProPublica (LA Observed)
Investigative reporters Charles Ornstein and Tracy Weber, who won a Pulitzer Prize in 2005 for reporting on the deaths at King-Drew Medical Center, are leaving the Los Angeles Times for ProPublica, the non-profit investigative startup that is collecting top newspaper diggers.

Former Survivor Partner Conrad Riggs Sues Producer Mark Burnett (LAT)
On Monday, Riggs sued his former partner, claiming that Burnett reneged on his long-standing agreement to pay Riggs and his company, Cloudbreak Entertainment Inc., 10 percent of whatever profit that Burnett earned for the show. According to the suit, Burnett abruptly stopped paying Riggs in February 2007. Riggs' suit contends that Burnett owes him more than $70 million in damages.

Whichever Screen, People Are Watching (NYT)
The first in a series of new "three-screen" reports by the Nielsen Company shows an emerging shift toward a more video-centric use of the Internet, but not at the expense of television viewing. The report, an initial effort by Nielsen to "follow the video" as consumer viewing habits shift, is scheduled to be released today.

FishbowlDC: It's Official: Washington Post Picks Brauchli As Executive Editor
FishbowlNY: Yet Another Way Blogs Are Killing Newspapers
FishbowlLA: Moguls Descend on Sun Valley
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The New York Times confirmed this afternoon that former WSJ managing editor Marcus Brauchli will be named the Washington Post's next executive editor.
NYT Says Brauchli's Got It (FBDC)
UPDATE: Brauchli's appointment is official.

FishbowlLA will be at Herb Allen's Sun Valley Media Conference this week, where top media executives, from Mark Zuckerberg and Bill Gates to Rupert Murdoch and the Google boys, are expected to make a showing.
Moguls Descend on Sun Valley (FBLA)

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