Today's Guest: Jonathan Alter, The Promise: President Obama, Year One Here’s the opening of a conversation that would get me divorced: “Honey, I’m going to spend the next 17 months researching and reporting about President Obama’s first year in office. Oh, and I’m going to keep my full-time job at the magazine and keep... Continue Reading →
My favorite writer of the 20th century: Nick Tosches talks shop! INTERVIEW
(AUTHOR'S NOTE 1: I recently found this typewritten story in my files from July 25, 1985. Probably produced on my Apple IIc! I believe it was a freelance piece I wrote for the St. Petersburg Times when I was writing most of the paper's pop music articles and reviews. This version was not edited by... Continue Reading →
Editor Jim Gaines goes all digital upside Mr. Media’s head! PODCAST INTERVIEW
Jim Gaines and I have lots in common. We both have popular blogs on TrueSlant.com about media topics. We both converted from typewriters to computers at one point in our careers. And, of course, we both were once editor of Time, Life and People magazines. JIM GAINES podcast excerpt: "Content is migrating to the... Continue Reading →
Sam Zell biographer on how Money Talks, Bullsh*t Walks! PODCAST INTERVIEW
In retrospect, I can see why real estate billionaire Sam Zell thought buying the Chicago Tribune, Los Angeles Times, Orlando Sentinel and all their related newspapers and media companies—plus the Chicago Cubs baseball team and its home, Wrigley Field—seemed like a classic ploy. Buy a big family-owned business on the skids for a discount, squeeze... Continue Reading →
At Writer’s Digest, Jane Friedman held every comma in place! PODCAST INTERVIEW
I was a little nervous when I received an email from Jane Friedman, the publisher of Writer’s Digest magazine and books. She was responding to my interview with one of her authors, Mike Sacks, the author of And Here’s the Kicker: Conversations with 21 Top Humor Writers on Their Craft. Sacks was unhappy with... Continue Reading →
Peter Carlson wasn’t there but wrote K Blows Top anyway! PODCAST INTERVIEW
Peter Carlson could have taken all the research he did on Soviet Premier Nikita Khruschev’s two-week barnstorming tour of the United States in 1959 and converted it into a Cold War-era fable such as Dr. Strangelove or The Mouse That Roared. He could have done that, but truth is stranger than fiction and the... Continue Reading →
Esquire’s A.J. Jacobs is all over The Guinea Pig Diaries! PODCAST INTERVIEW
Today's Guest: A.J. Jacobs, author, The Guinea Pig Diaries, The Year of Living Biblically I’m a little worried about A.J. Jacobs. His latest book, The Guinea Pig Diaries: My Life as an Experiment, takes the social tests he put himself through in previous books such as The Know-It-All—in which he read the entire encyclopedia—and... Continue Reading →
Neil Budde says DailyMe.com is not all about Me, Me, Me! PODCAST INTERVIEW
I’m not one of those crybabies who thinks newspapers are dying. I do, however, think that the news itself is migrating to new distribution systems and that, in the future, the word “paper” will be less and less connecting with the word “news.”Okay, maybe I do think newspapers are dying. But I believe well-managed,... Continue Reading →
Darren Hardy shares Success in his magazine! PODCAST INTERVIEW
It’s a tough time to be in the business of publishing newspapers and magazines. But there are some subject areas that thrive in hard economic times. Like Success. Because while the sky is falling all around some of us, others see the silver lining in clouds and the word “opportunity” written everywhere they look.... Continue Reading →
Fantagraphics guys defend the art of criticism! PODCAST INTERVIEW
Today's Guests: Gary Groth, Kim Thompson, editors, The Comics Journal, Fantagraphics They are probably the best-known good cop/bad cop team in comics today. “They” are Gary Groth, the founder of The Comics Journal, and his partner in Fantagraphics—and fellow editor—Kim Thompson. Fantagraphics is a preeminent publisher of comics –related books and magazines, including the... Continue Reading →