Morning Media Newsfeed: Howard Kurtz Fired | <i>NY Mag</i> Victorious

[emailonly]{{{ sbox300x250 }}}[/emailonly] Click here to receive Mediabistro's Morning Media Newsfeed via email. Daily Beast Drops Howard Kurtz (Politico / Dylan Byers on Media) The Daily Beast is dropping Howard Kurtz, the veteran media critic who made headlines this week for his erroneous report about NBA star Jason Collins. "The Daily Beast and Howard Kurtz have parted company," Tina Brown, the site's editor-in-chief, said in a statement sent to Politico. The decision comes after Kurtz published a blog post that falsely asserted that Collins, who announced he was gay in an article for Sports Illustrated, had neglected to mention his previous engagement to a woman. In fact, Collins mentioned that engagement in the article and in a subsequent interview with ABC News. The Daily Beast retracted that post on Thursday morning. The Washington Post / Erik Wemple Following Brown's announcement, Kurtz tweeted: "I've enjoyed my time at the Daily Beast but as we began to move in different directions, both sides agreed it was best to part company.” He added: "This was in the works for some time, but want to wish all my colleagues continued success with a terrific website." TVNewser Kurtz joined the Daily Beast in October 2010, after leaving The Washington Post. His tenure at the Daily Beast includes some big interviews with the likes of Roger Ailes and Matt Lauer, but was also filled with controversy. We wrote about a ridiculous item he filed about TV coverage of the primaries, and he emailed a Daily Beast colleague to discourage her from writing about Anderson Cooper's sexuality. He also was reluctant to give credit when others broke stories, and was loathe to correct errors, a number of which were in his big interview with Lauer. The Wrap / WaxWord Howard Kurtz and his weekly Reliable Sources media talk show are under review after his firing from the Daily Beast over erroneous reporting, a CNN spokeswoman told The Wrap on Thursday. "We are reviewing it," the spokeswoman told The Wrap. Jeff Zucker, the new chieftain at CNN is "supportive" of Kurtz’s show, but the network is unhappy with the error and is reviewing it, the spokeswoman said. Another senior executive at Turner said that there was no planned change with the show, but that it would ultimately be Zucker's decision. HuffPost / The Backstory Despite his claim that he is merely a contributor, there are rumors that Kurtz has a larger role in the Daily Download. According to one media executive who spoke to HuffPost on condition of anonymity, Kurtz characterized himself as a partner in the Daily Download during a conversation last year. Separately, a journalist who was approached by Kurtz to work at Daily Download told HuffPost that he presented the site as a start-up he was developing along with editor-in-chief Lauren Ashburn. New York Is Magazine of the Year at National Magazine Awards (Ad Age / Media News) New York magazine was named magazine of the year at the annual National Magazine Awards on Thursday night, taking home a prize only introduced in 2010 to honor brands that excel in both print and digital media. It was one of two awards for New York, a perennial success at the National Magazine Awards. NYT National Geographic received the highest number of awards with four honors, including best multimedia for its “Cheetahs on the Edge” article, which ran with its November iPad edition, and best tablet magazine. New York, The Atlantic and Texas Monthly each won two awards. Critical National Review Rubio Cover Edits Out Grover Norquist (TPM / LiveWire) The National Review unveiled its May cover on Thursday, entitled "Rubio's Folly" and written jointly by Mark Krikorian and the magazine's editors. The photo on the cover appears to be a stripped down version, however, missing some unlikely attendees at the event. It features a smiling Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) flanked by Sens. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and John McCain (R-AZ) from an April 18 event where they officially rolled out the "Gang of Eight" proposal. But look closer over Rubio's shoulder in the original photo and you'll spot anti-tax crusader and right-wing hero Grover Norquist, president of Americans for Tax Reform. BuzzFeed "Sorry, Grover. But our extensive market research shows that partially obscured bearded anti-tax activists do very poorly on our covers," National Review editor Rich Lowry told BuzzFeed. [emailonly]{{{ jodslot01 }}}[/emailonly] NBC Ponders Expanded Tonight Show And Revamped Late Night (TVGuide) Saturday Night Live head writer and "Weekend Update" anchor Seth Meyers remains the front runner to take over the Late Night hosting gig. NBC is expected to name its new Late Night host before mid-May. Meyers could adapt "Weekend Update" into a nightly version for Late Night in the vein of The Daily Show, and perhaps interview more newsmakers, politicians and athletes (some of his biggest interests) and fewer stars. Al Jazeera America to Open Detroit Bureau (Politico / Dylan Byers on Media) Al Jazeera America will open a Detroit bureau ahead of the channel’s launch later this year, the network announced on Thursday. The Detroit bureau for Al Jazeera America, which will replace Current TV, will focus on "telling the stories of the people of Detroit and how news in Detroit affects those across the U.S," according to a press release. TVNewser Al Jazeera America has said that it plans to differentiate itself from the cable news competition by covering stories the others won’t. One way to do that is to have full bureaus in places that the competitors have either a skeleton staff or no one at all. NYT: Publishing Stories in Spanish ‘Not Experimental’ (Poynter / MediaWire) Ginger Thompson's April 29 story about a former a drug war informer includes a button marked "Leer en Español." That’s not new, Times spokesperson Stephanie Yera tells Poynter: "Stories are published in the Spanish language via The New York Times News Service & Syndicate or translated into Spanish, and translators are credited at the end of our articles,” she writes in an email. “This practice is not experimental, and it’s something we’ve also done in Portuguese and Chinese." [emailonly]{{{ sbox01 }}}[/emailonly] Bloomberg Pays Tribute to The Financial Times, Reigniting Speculation on A Bid (NYT) Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg on Wednesday night stoked speculation about his interest in acquiring the Financial Times at a breezy Upper East Side reception celebrating the newspaper's 125th anniversary. Lifestyle TV Network Owners Scripps, Crown Media Post First-Quarter Revenue Growth (THR) The HGTV and Food Network owner said earnings were hit by program investments, but content costs at the Hallmark Channel parent fell after the end of The Martha Stewart Show. How Much Did It Cost The NYT to Make Henry Alford A Hipster? (NY Observer) "It costs a lot of money to look this cheap," Dolly Parton famously said. Well, nowhere is that more true than in Hipster Brooklyn, a magical land that The New York Times seemingly "discovers" once every five weeks. In Thursday's Style section, the Times sent intrepid middle-aged Manhattanite reporter Henry Alford to Williamsburg to live like the locals do. [emailonly]{{{ sbox02 }}}[/emailonly] John Tesh Returning to TV (FishbowlLA) Tesh, who has found great success on radio and the Web with Intelligence for Your Life, is now finally expanding the brand to television this June. His advice on topics such as health, wellness, personal finance and relationships will be available in snippets as part of a half-hour syndicated offering of the same name. What People Are Actually Doing on The Internet in 2013 (BuzzFeed) For all of Instagram's popularity, Snapchat users upload 110 million more photos per day. Yahoo! Mail is more popular than Twitter. And even MySpace is as popular as Spotify. To get sense of what the Internet actually looks like in 2013, we've compiled a list of some of the biggest social media sites and apps. The Week Magically Turns White Bombers Brown For Its Latest Cover (Gawker) Notice anything amiss with the Week's current Tsarnaev brothers issue? I can't put my finger on it; feeling sort of in the dark. If the terrorists won't do us the courtesy of being brown, no matter -- we'll just make them brown, instead. [emailonly]{{{ sbox03 }}}[/emailonly] How Slate Doubled Facebook Referrals in Less Than A Year (Poynter / MediaWire) A case study on Facebook’s new media portal looks at Slate’s rocketing Facebook traffic over the past year. Psychology explains some of the rise: “Slate’s stories frequently have provocative, attention-grabbing headlines,” Facebook notes. But publishers without Slate’s gift for those can benefit from some of the other tips in the study. " Warren Buffett Joins Twitter (WSJ / MoneyBeat) Warren Buffett, the chairman and chief executive of Berkshire Hathaway Inc. who once admitted he didn’t know how to check his voicemail, is being dragged into the social media age by his friends at Fortune. FishbowlNY His first tweet: "Warren is in the house." YouTube Says Battle With TV Is Over (The Associated Press) YouTube vs. TV? YouTube says the battle -- if there ever was one -- is over. In a flashy presentation to advertisers Wednesday night, Google executive chairman Eric Schmidt declined to forecast that Internet video will displace television watching. Instead he declared: "That's already happened."

Fishbowl

Morning Media Newsfeed: Howard Kurtz Fired | NY Mag Victorious | Norquist Edited Out

James Crugnale

About

Subscriptions

Events

Publications

WORK SMARTER - LEARN, GROW AND BE INSPIRED.

Subscribe today!

James Crugnale