http://www.wikio.com/search=Jeff Bercovici Wikio - Jeff Bercovici http://www.wikio.com/search/Jeff+Bercovici?rinfoid=69333520 For some reason, the media woke up today and everyone decided to write article about MSNBC. According to a lot of reports (WSJ, Jossip, Politico) mainly citing unnamed sources (probably all the same ones grousing on the same day), all... Thu, 28 Aug 2008 21:12:09 GMT http://www.wikio.com/search/Jeff+Bercovici?rinfoid=69333520 2008-08-28T21:12:09Z http://www.wikio.com/search/Jeff+Bercovici?rinfoid=69328513 > More : Portfolio's Jeff Bercovici has thoughts on " Why MSNBC Won't Be the Liberal Fox News " New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media Thu, 28 Aug 2008 20:32:39 GMT http://www.wikio.com/search/Jeff+Bercovici?rinfoid=69328513 2008-08-28T20:32:39Z http://www.wikio.com/search/Jeff+Bercovici?rinfoid=69156899 Portfolio.com's Jeff Bercovici questions whether or not Nicholas Kristof, New York Times (NYT) op-ed columnist, has crossed an ethical border after he pretended to be a Chinese national in order to test out the boundaries of Internet censorship in China.... Wed, 27 Aug 2008 08:55:25 GMT http://www.wikio.com/search/Jeff+Bercovici?rinfoid=69156899 2008-08-27T08:55:25Z http://www.wikio.com/search/Jeff+Bercovici?rinfoid=69059523 Jeff Bercovici submits: So Rafael Nadal has decided not to adopt a new look at the U.S. Open after all -- and this after Nike went to the trouble of getting a story about the tennis champ's supposed makeover planted in The Wall Street Journal yesterday. I find it mind-boggling that Nike's sponsorship-marketing department, whose entire raison d'être is working with athletes, didn't see this coming. Jocks are notoriously superstitious, and Nadal is about as superstitious as they get. Did the Nike folks never observe his meticulous on-court rituals -- the drinking out of the two carefully-positioned water bottles during each side change, the hopping, the toweling-off, the wedgie-picking -- and think, "Maybe this is not the kind of guy who's going to feel great about introducing a wild-card into his game right before the last major tournament of the year"? I was half-kidding yesterday when I say that a Nadal loss in the Open would be on Nike's head -- but only half. Complete Story » Tue, 26 Aug 2008 19:39:40 GMT http://www.wikio.com/search/Jeff+Bercovici?rinfoid=69059523 2008-08-26T19:39:40Z http://www.wikio.com/search/Jeff+Bercovici?rinfoid=69033946 Yesterday it was a Joe Scarborough - Keith Olbermann open mic moment involving a shovel. Today at the DNC it was a wide-open mic several minutes between Scarborough and David Shuster , with Mika Brzezinkski trying to play referee. In his write-up, Portfolio's Jeff Bercovici asks "Is MSNBC's ever-more-liberal orientation starting to wear on token Republican Joe Scarborough?" Click continued to see the video and decide for yourself. It gets good around 3 minutes in, it gets even better at 4 minutes in and at 5:30 in, it gets personal... continued... New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media Tue, 26 Aug 2008 16:37:09 GMT http://www.wikio.com/search/Jeff+Bercovici?rinfoid=69033946 2008-08-26T16:37:09Z http://www.wikio.com/search/Jeff+Bercovici?rinfoid=68804845 Wouldn’t it be great if Bleecker Bob’s reopened as a clubhouse for Steve Bartkowski’s legion of fans in the Tri-State area? No? Alternatively, on the occasion of Brett Favre’s solid-if-not-spectacular showing against the Giants last night, the New York Times’ Jeff Bercovici reports the former Packers QB’s sizeable NYC cult has a chosen a unique [...] Sun, 24 Aug 2008 16:10:41 GMT http://www.wikio.com/search/Jeff+Bercovici?rinfoid=68804845 2008-08-24T16:10:41Z http://www.wikio.com/search/Jeff+Bercovici?rinfoid=68664629 Right-wing groups like the Catholic League and the American Family Association, which just launched a Hallmark boycott, have been surprisingly quiet about People magazine's Ellen and Portia gay marriage cover. This brings a smile to journo Jeff Bercovici's otherwise stony face. [Mixed Media] Permalink | post a comment | Add to del.icio.us | Digg Post tags: American Family Association, Catholic [...] Fri, 22 Aug 2008 20:59:08 GMT http://www.wikio.com/search/Jeff+Bercovici?rinfoid=68664629 2008-08-22T20:59:08Z http://www.wikio.com/search/Jeff+Bercovici?rinfoid=68598384 Jeff Bercovici submits: Now this is just sad. "Magazine Website Traffic Continues to Surge" brags the industry's main trade association, the Magazine Publishers of America, in a press release. Leaving aside the question of whether something can continue to surge -- that word denoting a degree of suddenness or periodicity -- just what does this "surge" entail? Why, an 8.5 percent year-over-year increase in unique visitors for the second quarter. Gosh, that's "more than double the rate of growth for the overall U.S. Internet audience," don't you know? Complete Story » Fri, 22 Aug 2008 10:19:22 GMT http://www.wikio.com/search/Jeff+Bercovici?rinfoid=68598384 2008-08-22T10:19:22Z http://www.wikio.com/search/Jeff+Bercovici?rinfoid=68179762 Jeff Bercovici submits: You know that newspapers, newsweeklies and network newscasts are losing their audiences at an alarming rate. But did you know fluffy entertainment shows and glossy tabloids are slipping, too? That's one of the surprises contained in the newly-released biennial study on news consumption from the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press. Complete Story » Mon, 18 Aug 2008 23:12:57 GMT http://www.wikio.com/search/Jeff+Bercovici?rinfoid=68179762 2008-08-18T23:12:57Z http://www.wikio.com/search/Jeff+Bercovici?rinfoid=67958562 Interesting initiative profiled by Jeff Bercovici at Portfolio , apparently Time Inc is pushing out a membership service that will allow you to pay a monthly rate for a commutable array of magazines to receive. The service is called Maghound: "Look at TiVo, iTunes, Netflix," Dave Ventresca, president of Maghound Enterprises, says. "They have raised consumer expectations of how much control they should have over their media choices. We haven't seen that kind of innovation in the magazine space. Sending seven or eight renewal notices in the mail and saying 'Time to write a check'—that seems like an antiquated way to do things." From the consumer's perspective, Maghound will work like this: You choose how many magazines you want to receive each month—three for $4.95, five for $7.95, seven for $9.95, and a dollar each above that. All issues published by those magazines will be sent to you that month. It's the sort of idea that makes you light up when you hear it -- I can read any magazine I want! -- but upon marination you wonder if mags translate the same way as movies, television or music on demand. On Jeff's related Mixed Media blog post , a commenter makes the good point that there's an inherent desire for variation in movies, tv etc, but the subscription model has lasted this long because people choose a magazine based on a common topic, sensibility, style etc. That said, plenty of people would subscribe to Judd Apatow movies, or Spike Lee films, or anything with Angelina Jolie in it. But there are other issues: Jeff raises the wrinkle of content previews. And of course there's this whole internet thingamajiggy, i.e. more and more magazine content can be found online. It's a good idea (apparently in the works for years), but I wonder if it has enough upside for a company like Time Inc. I don't think mags on-demand get to the heart of what's going on with the shrinking margins and circulation numbers . I'll be interested to see what happens though, because if it works then mags may have saved themselves, and if not then it might be the official notarized certification that the old model is dead and it's time to move on. Will This Hound Hunt? [Portfolio] Sat, 16 Aug 2008 15:06:00 GMT http://www.wikio.com/search/Jeff+Bercovici?rinfoid=67958562 2008-08-16T15:06:00Z http://www.wikio.com/search/Jeff+Bercovici?rinfoid=67660862 Jeff Bercovici submits: Whatever explanation you favor for the alarming drop in magazine newsstand sales reported earlier this week -- depressed consumer spending, heightened internet usage, wholesaler struggles -- there's probably some validity to it. And here's another factor that's been somewhat overlooked: the absence of any hot new titles to offset the decline. For the past decade, at least, there's always been some crop of fast-growing newcomers whose massive gains helped to spackle over the year-over-year losses posted by fading giants such as TV Guide and Better Homes & Gardens . Most recently, it was the celebrity weeklies; before that, there were the "new sisters," modern women's service titles like O, The Oprah Magazine and Real Simple ; and before that came Maxim and its imitators . Complete Story » Wed, 13 Aug 2008 20:01:09 GMT http://www.wikio.com/search/Jeff+Bercovici?rinfoid=67660862 2008-08-13T20:01:09Z http://www.wikio.com/search/Jeff+Bercovici?rinfoid=67543438 Jeff Bercovici submits: How long can The New York Times Co. (NYT) afford to buy shareholders' goodwill? Bloomberg reports today that the company "faces increased financial pressure to cut its dividend as credit quality deteriorates amid record advertising declines." Moody's is threatening to downgrade the Times to a junk rating unless it does something about its anemic cash flow. The current quarterly payout of 23 cents gobbles up $132 million a year that could otherwise be reinvested or used to pay down debt. The situation reminds me of something former Wall Street Journal managing editor Paul Steiger said when he spoke to the Medill Club a few weeks ago. Noting that the Times Co. had just announced earnings from continuing operations of 15 cents a share, he observed, "When you're borrowing money to pay your dividends, that's my definition of losing sustainability." Complete Story » Tue, 12 Aug 2008 21:23:55 GMT http://www.wikio.com/search/Jeff+Bercovici?rinfoid=67543438 2008-08-12T21:23:55Z http://www.wikio.com/search/Jeff+Bercovici?rinfoid=67516398 I wrote yesterday about leadership and kindness, just as Carol Hymowitz was declaring that Effective Management Remains an Art Steeped in Good Relationships in her "In The Lead" column for the Wall Street Journal: The more executives I interviewed and... Tue, 12 Aug 2008 16:40:28 GMT http://www.wikio.com/search/Jeff+Bercovici?rinfoid=67516398 2008-08-12T16:40:28Z http://www.wikio.com/search/Jeff+Bercovici?rinfoid=67353539 Jeff Bercovici submits: Tim Arango's New York Times overview of the content-first strategy Jeff Bewkes is pursuing at Time Warner (TWX) contains a pair of noteworthy revelations: First, that Time Inc., the world's largest magazine publisher, will probably be reduced to "just a handful of the most profitable titles" before much longer, unless the company sells the unit outright; and second, that Bewkes is seriously considering acquiring NBC Universal should GE (GE) decide to sell it after the Olympics. Neither of these will be taken as a bombshell by anyone who's been following industry headlines; the print business is troubled, and NBC Universal's sale has long been rumored (and denied ). What's curious is how both of these potential developments seem to undercut the article's central point, which is that Time Warner, which once placed nearly equal emphasis on distribution and content, is all but abandoning the former in order to double down on the latter. Complete Story » Mon, 11 Aug 2008 11:20:22 GMT http://www.wikio.com/search/Jeff+Bercovici?rinfoid=67353539 2008-08-11T11:20:22Z http://www.wikio.com/search/Jeff+Bercovici?rinfoid=66977562 Thu, 07 Aug 2008 14:13:01 GMT http://www.wikio.com/search/Jeff+Bercovici?rinfoid=66977562 2008-08-07T14:13:01Z http://www.wikio.com/search/Jeff+Bercovici?rinfoid=66886117 Anonymous sources can usually put some faith in the journalistic principle, that the anonymity of a source is a sacred thing, to be protected even at the risk of jail. But they should have less faith... Wed, 06 Aug 2008 17:04:39 GMT http://www.wikio.com/search/Jeff+Bercovici?rinfoid=66886117 2008-08-06T17:04:39Z http://www.wikio.com/search/Jeff+Bercovici?rinfoid=66765337 Jeff Bercovici submits: Well, newspapers, you had a nice run, but it's over now. In 2008, for "the first time in U.S. history," newspapers won't be the biggest recipient of ad spending. According to a new forecast by the private equity firm Veronis Suhler Stevenson, broadcast TV will attain that distinction this year -- only to lose it to the internet by 2011. At the moment, consumer spending, not advertising and marketing, is propelling growth in the media economy: The former is expected to rise 6.1 percent his year, to $218.37 billion, while the latter will climb only 0.4 percent, to $378.48 billion. Complete Story » Tue, 05 Aug 2008 20:44:42 GMT http://www.wikio.com/search/Jeff+Bercovici?rinfoid=66765337 2008-08-05T20:44:42Z http://www.wikio.com/search/Jeff+Bercovici?rinfoid=66745085 WashingtonPost.com | Portfolio.com Howard Kurtz says in his chat that "I don't think that story will be winning a Pulitzer Prize. Even as a light feature, it seemed pretty silly. I can confirm, from first-hand observation, that Obama is pretty skinny. So what?" Jeff Bercovici writes : "I don't agree in the least with Slate's Timothy Noah , who argues that Amy Chozick should've known that her article 'can't avoid being interpreted as a coded discussion of race.'" Tue, 05 Aug 2008 16:43:37 GMT http://www.wikio.com/search/Jeff+Bercovici?rinfoid=66745085 2008-08-05T16:43:37Z http://www.wikio.com/search/Jeff+Bercovici?rinfoid=66711628 Jeff Bercovici of Conde Nast Portfolio wonders if The Wall Street Journal has become too dominated by men, to the detriment of the females on the staff. Bercovici writes, “Some at the paper have begun to say so, albeit quietly, in the weeks since managing editor Robert Thomson put his leadership team in place. In the [...] Tue, 05 Aug 2008 13:13:14 GMT http://www.wikio.com/search/Jeff+Bercovici?rinfoid=66711628 2008-08-05T13:13:14Z