FOLIO: Personalities -- The Blog People Page

Move over Hard Rock Café. Watch out Planet Hollywood. A music magazine is leaping off the printed page into the frying pan.

Rolling Stone founder/editor/publisher Jann S. Wenner announced late last week a partnership with the principals of real estate developer the Lucky Rug Group to launch a 10,000 square-foot restaurant/bar/lounge/private event space next summer at Los Angeles’ Hollywood and Highland Center—situated along the Hollywood Walk of Fame and home to Grauman's Chinese Theatre and the Kodak Theatre.

Details were sparse concerning the forthcoming mega venue’s food menu and drink list but Wenner, et al., said it would More...

It’s been only a week since BusinessWeek executive editor/BusinessWeek.com editor John Byrne confirmed the rumors and announced his resignation from the magazine, but already has revealed details about his new media venture, called C-Change Media. Byrne [pictured] has launched a Blogspot account about it, for which he conducted an interview with himself in what he said was an effort to explain to his curious friends and colleagues exactly what he’s up to.

The catch is that he doesn’t sa More...

Scrolling through the now seemingly endless collection of sites that cover media and magazines Monday morning, I came across a great post by New York Times media columnist David Carr called “The Fall and Rise of Media.” In it, Carr expounds on media’s fall from the dot-com-era gluttony to the digitally-minded youth who might very well shape the future of the industry—online and in print.

Without citing a source, Carr said traditional media jobs in the U.S. began declining 2.5 percent each year starting in 2001, then began to nosedive in 2008. In New York alone, 60,000 communications jobs have evaporated since 2000 (according to the state’s c More...

After putting Governing magazine on the block this summer, owner Times Publishing Group agreed late last week to sell the magazine to Sacramento, California-based state/local government and education technology publisher e.Republic.

Two days after I filed my report on the agreement, the New York Times published a similar story, although one that focused on e.Republic’s founder and top management—including CEO Dennis McKenna—for their beliefs in controversial religion Scientology. The NYT More...

It’s been more than a year since former Alaska governor and ex-Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin did her first in a series of on-camera interviews with CBS’ Katie Couric. In case you’ve somehow forgotten, it was during that interview in October 2008 that Couric asked Palin what newspapers and magazines she read to inform her worldview. A visibly annoyed Palin said she reads “most of them,” “all of ‘em,” “any of ‘em,” but wouldn’t (or couldn’t) name even one specific news source.

Now, after so ma More...

Wednesday was the deadline for representatives of the Newspaper Guild to notify Time Inc. brass about how many staffers accepted buyout offers as the company looks to eliminate as many as 500 from its overall workforce.

Time Inc. is expected to begin slashing jobs as early as next week. The number of cuts will depend on how many volunteers stepped up for the buyout packages. I was told today by a company spokesperson, not unexpectedly, that Time Inc. won’t be disclosing the number of employees who accepted the buyouts.

The New York Post’s Keith Kelly has a relatively detailed More...

Ever since taking over as Playboy Enterprises CEO in June, Scott Flanders has been adamant that he is not only “absolutely committed” to keeping Playboy in print, but that he’s a big believer in print and that he’s certain “the magazine will come back” to profitability.

More recently, during an earnings call last week, Flanders said that while “bolder steps are required” to get the print edition in the black More...

After a more than hour-long debate, six panelists were split between two candidates they thought should be named Time magazine’s 2009 Person of the Year. Neither, for the record, were actually human beings.

Three panelists voted for Twitter. Three voted for the economy.

“Twitter affects a lot of people, but not as many as the economy,” said former New York City mayor and debate panelist Rudy Giuliani. “From the wealthy to the poor who are out of jobs, the economy affects us all.” Other panelists included Barbara Walters; cardiac surgeon and newly-named television show host Dr. Mehmet Oz; O the Oprah Magazin More...

In terms of innovation in the print medium, Hearst’s Esquire magazine has been a pioneer on a number of fronts in recent months. Last year, it partnered with Cambridge, Massachusetts-based E Ink to produce an electronic “paper” display for the magazine’s 75th anniversary October issue. Then in February, Esquire produced a cover “window” that opened to a mini table of contents and featured an advertisement on the back flap. Its May “How to Be a Man” issue featured More...

It’s been a whirlwind year for high-end Southern lifestyle magazine Garden & Gun. In January, rumors swirled that it was on course to run out of money and go out of business. Less than two months later, the magazine was acquired by Indigo Acquisition LLC, a company co-created by publisher Rebecca Darwin—effectively tossing the title a lifeline saving it from going out of business.

So why haven’t readers received their October/November issue? It was due out in mid-October and—nada. In an e-mail sent to readers Thursday, Darwin explained what happened:

To help shore up our business for 2010 and beyond, More...

On Wednesday, Purpose Driven Connection—the quarterly published in partnership between Saddleback Church pastor Rick Warren and the Reader’s Digest Association—became the latest magazine casualty of 2009 as the groups decided to move the product online-only. Until September, RDA said the title, which launched in January, was still in “development stages.” After four issues it was never green-lighted for a full launch off the newsstand.

What gives? When RDA announced the launch late last year, it billed the agreement with Warren and Saddleback More...

As part of its “Game Changers” package, the editors at the Huffington Post have come up with a list of the 10 biggest innovators in media—people or organizations that are using the Web to change the industry. Some of the more well-known names on the list include CBS Evening News anchor and managing editor Katie Couric for launching Web-based interview program @katiecouric, and Tina Brown for transitioning from print to online for launching The Daily Beast.

Visitors can More...