FOLIO: Personalities -- The Blog People Page

If you haven't heard, Britney Spears' 16-year-old sister, Jamie Lynn spears, is pregnant. The story, first reported by OK! magazine, was picked up by, well, every media outlet in the entire world.

Here's the e-mail OK! publisher Tom Morrissy sent to advertisers this afternoon to remind them it was OK! who did the intrepid reporting, and that now is a good time to advertise in the magazine:

From: Tom Morrissy
Sent: Wednesday, December 19, 2007
3:21 PM
To: [REDACTED]
Subject: OK! Breaking News

D More...

"Downfall." "Volatile." "Implosion." It's a story that has, as one industry insider observed, the appeal of "trainwreck." Tony Silber's account of Ascend Media's fall from grace, despite being published last week, is continuing to draw heated comments from a largely anonymous gallery.

Like these:

Submitted by Anonymous:

The founders of Ascend have the worst track record and as we know, history always repeats itself. There was no other possible ending to this story with these guys at the helm.

S More...

With all the talk of social networking in 2007-including the Beacon debacle-I've been following with interest the monthly traffic growth of Facebook and LinkedIn as they continue to chip away at MySpace's lead and market share.

It's a Web 2.0 pennant race!

Alongside the usual suspects, note that Flixster, the site that allows you to share movie ratings with friends, is having an enormous year.

AOL Hometown, down 22 percent versus November 2006, is not.

The latest unique visitors (in thousands), as provided by Nielsen Online.

Nielsen also provides the top 10 blogs in terms of traffic. The top five on this list-like Blogger and Wordpress-are not More...

Inspired by a pair of archive diggers in other industries, I recently took a spin through the New York Times now-free online archive. (NOTE: It's not entirely free; see comments below.)

Armed with search terms like "magazine" (81,099 results since 1981), "Internet" and "Graydon Carter," here are a selection of results—some dated, others oddly prescient:

More...

To most media watchers, when a magazine folds, it's always fun (if evil) to see how the parent company and its executives spin it ("We're shifting focus to the Web, y'all!" a familiar refrain). When a Martha Stewart magazine folds, it's even more fun.

Yesterday, the diva of all media gave her television show's studio audience her pie-baked take on Blueprint two days after its shuttering:

"The world has changed. By blogging, they get information. By texting. By BlackBerrying. By surfing the Internet. Even usi More...

BusinessWeek editor Stephen Adler's memo to staff yesterday regarding an extensive editorial reorganization at the magazine:

Colleagues:

For the past three years, we’ve been moving progressively toward integrating our print and digital operations – by increasing reporters’ contributions to Businessweek.com, combining our overseas bureaus and copy-desk teams, and seating together everyone within a given coverage area. Today we complete this vital transformation by creating a single editorial organization for BusinessWeek. The new structure will e More...

Customers who become conditioned to fast-moving, customizable, immediate digital experiences, eschewing human interaction. Advertisers who want to reach them. Magazines struggling connect both. Sound familiar?

Except it’s a story that, for once, has little to do with the Web. This week, Newport Communications announced that Roadstar, a magazine that serves the trucking industry, is folding. Among the reasons: truckers—like the rest of Hyundai-driving America—are paying at the pump with credit cards, bypassing the truckstop sales clerks and thereby the kiosks where R More...

Whatever your feelings are on Martha Stewart and her brand-happy offerings, it's clear that this morning's shuttering of Blueprint after just eight issues continues the recent trend of publishing companies having a short-leash on launches, and a decidedly low tolerance for failure.

If true, this unattributed quote, as reported by mediabistro.com's FishbowlNY, is also telling:

"The magazine was billed as a 'fresh, fun guide to personal style'... but staffers were told that MSLO had 'misjudged the market.'"

Mo More...

A change has been made at the top of Ascend Media. CEO Cam Bishop is out, Vicki Masseria, former group president of CMP Medica, is in.

The internal memo:

Roger Dusing
Sent: Monday, December 10, 2007 11:06 AM
To: All Ascend Team
Subject: Important Company Announcement
Importance: High

All Ascend Team,

This morning, the company is announcing that effective immediately, Vicki Masseria is assuming the role of CEO of Ascend Media. As has been previously discussed, the company continues to refine its focus in the healthcare sector. This, coupled with the increasing complexity of healthcare markets and government regulation, has defined the need for a seasoned healthcare industry media professiona More...