Results tagged “media”

From the ashes of the Washington Blade, DC Agenda has risen. The staff of the suddenly shuttered LGBT publication has managed to put together a new web site and "a modest, early iteration" of a print edition, both out today, less than a week after they all lost their jobs. From their introductory message:

The former staff of the Washington Blade remains united and DC Agenda represents our effort at continuing the important mission and work of the Blade. It will grow and evolve to include a much larger and more diverse group of voices. But the core of the Washington Blade’s work remains unchanged. We will cover Congress, the White House, the LGBT rights movement, the D.C. marriage fight, local hate crimes and other political issues important to the LGBT residents of the city.

Continue reading "Former Blade Staffers Launch 'DC Agenda'"

With the opening of The Bazaar in Los Angeles and his Made in Spain cooking show on PBS, José Andrés has been busy building a name for himself on the national scene. All of this culminated today in him being named GQ's Chef of the Year. This article highlights tapas selections that you can find at his D.C. restaurants, including Jaleo, Zaytinya, and Minibar. With Blue Ridge chef Barton Seaver's Chef of the Year award from Esquire, D.C. is really coming out on top this year. Now about that Chef of the Year cage match...

The folks who were all abruptly laid off from the Washington Blade earlier this week are meeting tonight from 6-8 p.m. at the Hard Rock Cafe (11th and E Streets NW), where they hope to greet loyal readers and/or potential investors & volunteers who want to help them get a brand new newspaper off the ground. Read more about what they're up to at SavetheBlade.com, and stop by to join them for a drink tonight. The former Blade staffers changed the name of their Twitter feed today to @DCAgenda, so it looks like they might already have an official name for the new venture at this point.

Incredibly sad and surprising news for the LBGT media world, not to mention the local media scene: The Washington Blade has been shut down. The LGBT publication's twitter feed first alerted us to what was going on just a little while ago: "Washington Blade, like all Window Media publications, is closing today. Thank you for your support. (Keep following us for developments.)" Sure enough, even the Blade's web site has been taken down.

Martin kinda buried this at the bottom of his Morning Roundup, but do make sure to tune in to WTOP at 10 a.m. to catch him and reporter Mark Segraves battle it out on the issue of Mayor Fenty's police-escorted cycling shenanigans on Mark Plotkin's Politics Program. Considering the epic comment thread Martin's last story on this topic produced, it should make for some excellent radio.

Law-breaking, wasting public funds and an elected official who's increasingly unpopular -- the story had everything you would want in an exposé. So when WTOP's Mark Segraves reported Monday that D.C. Mayor Adrian Fenty used a police escort and clogged up area roads on his daily bike ride, everyone jumped on it. Including us.

Looks like there's been a major change in leadership over the weekend at the Washington Times. This morning, the paper put out a news release announcing that President and publisher Thomas McDevitt, CFO Keith Cooperrider and Chairman Dong Moon Joo have all been fired, while former VP Jonathan Slevin has been named Acting President and Publisher. The news comes less than a month after the Rev. Sun Myung Moon handed over day-to-day control of the Unification Church, which owns the Times, to his three sons.

The idea here is obviously that demonstrating how to do self-breast exams in a clear and precise manner could help save lives. But of course, it's also the start of the fall sweeps period, so the station is catching some heat for the appearance of showing naked boobs just to get ratings.

Slate music writer Jonah Weiner has been getting a tremendous amount of ribbing on the internet for his latest counter-intuitive pop rock piece, "Creed is Good: Scott Stapp's nu-grunge foursome was seriously underrated." Weiner penned a similar defense of Limp Bizkit earlier this year, in fitting with his publication's overall reputation for being contrary just for the sake of it. For us, all of this is really just an excuse to link back to former DCist staffer Jason Linkins' classic Scott Stapp concert review, which if you've never read, you should do so now. Click here.

After just a year on the job, it's hard to say that Washington Post Executive Editor Marcus Brauchli hasn't made his presence known.

Local blogger Ben Somberg writes in to let us know he's had just about enough of front page stories about Facebook from the Washington Post. And he's got the evidence to prove he's not just a big whiner: since September of 2006, the Post has now devoted A1 space to stories about the social networking site a total of 15 times, by Somberg's count. Today's story, penned by youth reporter Ian Shapira, focuses on those rare individuals who aren't too old for Facebook, but still refuse to participate. Says Somberg: "It's alright, though I don't see exactly what it adds -- I don't leave the story having learned much I didn't already know. It belongs inside, not on Page 1."

City Desk recently ran an item about how Street Sense, D.C.'s homeless newspaper, was one of the only local publications thriving during the recession. As a volunteer member of the board of directors of Street Sense, the piece made me cringe just a little bit, even though I get what reporter Chris Lewis was trying to say: more and more people are turning to jobs selling the paper, so circulation is up. But make no mistake, this has been an incredibly shaky year financially for Street Sense, just like every other non-profit in town. Grants and donations are down across the board, and the board has had to make difficult choices to keep the organization, which employs almost 100 area homeless men and women, afloat.

Click on over to www.washingtonpost.com/local to take a look at the new Washingtonpost.com 'Local' homepage, which launched in Beta at 4 p.m. this afternoon. Surprisingly enough, the design actually does look significantly different from the regular home page, a far cry from previous WaPo attempts to differentiate between the local and national editions of the paper by offering minor, barely noticeable differences for online readers with local IP addresses.

New trends and fads follow a predictable path in the Washington area. First there are pioneers, next come early adopters, then the general public and eventually, some time after that, the Washington Post. Once the Post gets around to publishing an article on the new trend or fad, you can bet that it's only a matter of months before it's completely over.

We've highlighted the oddball tendencies of WTOP's weekend web reporting in the past. But if you aren't reading this stuff over the weekend, you're missing out on a veritable goldmine of obscure and odd "news" -- some culled from the AP wire, others reported on in house, most of it good for a laugh. For example: did you know that the Maryland State Fair in Timonium is debuting a free arm wrestling competition this weekend? (Or that arm wrestling competitions have weight classes and that there is actually a national ranking system?) Rather than trudging out another long-winded story about unemployment figures, WTOP's weekend crew proactively gets out the word on opportunities: here's a comprehensive roundup of all the theme parks in the area that are hiring folks to wear costumes scare patrons at Halloween! (Hey, if you're not part of the solution, you're part of the problem.) Lest we forget the McDonald's blood cone story that we mentioned in today's Saturday Morning Post. WTOP: a must-read for the person in your life who feels the need to spout quirky stories throughout the weekend's social gatherings.

Last week, in our end of the day roundup, we linked to an NBCWashington.com story about that guy who had been standing at a busy intersection in Tysons Corner wearing a sign that read, "I CHEATED. THIS IS MY PUNISHMENT." Tailor made for local broadcast news, the story was picked by nearly every outlet in town, and ended up getting some national and international coverage as well. But, it turns out, the whole thing was a practical joke. FOX 5, the first TV station to actually interview the man who identified himself as William Taylor, reports this morning that Taylor was really a plant of Washington's Hot 99.5 Kane In The Morning show, who sent the sign-wearing philanderer out there just to see "how much media coverage it would receive." We can think of a few signs we'd like to see this Kane guy wear along the side of the road.

Another local radio format switch to announce. True Oldies 105.9 FM is no more, having been replaced this morning by 105.9 The Edge, a new classic rock station. The Edge is touting itself as "specifically designed for men who love to rock," because, we can only guess, women don't enjoy rocking quite so hard? Look for the likes of Van Halen, Aerosmith, Black Sabbath, Queen, The Black Crowes, Pink Floyd, Pearl Jam, etc.

New York hedge fund Atalaya Capital Management were the winners in a bankruptcy auction in Tampa today to see who would control the Creative Loafing newspaper chain, owners of the Washington City Paper and other alternative weeklies, reports the St. Petersburg Times. Atalaya was Creative Loafing's largest creditor by far, and they took control of the company by significantly outbidding a partnership made up of now former Loafing CEO Ben Eason and another hedge fund creditor, BIA Digital Partners. Atalaya offered $5 million, while the Eason group opened with $2.32 million.

From WTOP: "We'll go and literally tune into your heart, your brain and your blood vessels and harvest the minute amount of electricity the body produces 24-7". Wait, what? When will this be happening? Who will be responsible for this? The government? Malevolent visitors from another planet in search of resources? Will they be doing this systematically throughout the District? Will District residents need a D.C. One card to gain access the harvest point? What about Virginia and Maryland -- will they be subject to this complete takeover of our bodies for electrical power? All important questions. But good luck finding any of that seemingly vital information in the story -- the only thing that comes close is a quote from Jim Ostroff of the Kiplinger Washington Letter, a business publication, touting the powerful attributes of Body Area Networks. (Isn't this exactly what powered The Matrix?) Better prepare yourself: apparently, these networks are "on their way." Quite the bang-up reporting job, there, WTOP. (Don't fall asleep, trusty readers.)

WAMU's Diane Rehm wasn't behind the microphone for her regular 2-hour Friday slot of The Diane Rehm Show today, because she was reportedly injured in one of those bizarre accidents that seem like only happen on TV sitcoms. Filling in for the host, Susan Page of USA Today reported that Rehm was running across the street on Thursday when her heel got caught in the leg of her pants. As a result, Rehm tripped, and she managed to break her pelvis during the fall. Talk about bad luck. She'll now be out for at least a few weeks while she recuperates. We wish her a speedy recovery.

Awesome story from the AP's Matthew Barakat about how disgraced former New York Times reporter Jayson Blair has set up shop as a Certified Life Coach in Ashburn, Va. You can find Blair's bio on the Ashburn Psychological Services web site here, which makes no mention of his famous fabrications, but does allude to his autobiography on the subject. Blair's famous schmoozing skills apparently translate well to his ability to help people figure out their career and personal problems, according to his boss. The former reporter also has his own web site promoting his life coaching business, which he began sometime after being diagnosed with bipolar disorder.

One of the silliest local internet traditions has come to an end. On Friday, D.C. media watchblog Fishbowl DC announced it was killing its annual "Hottest Media Types" contest. Which is all well and good, considering every version for the last several years was won by whichever nominee benefited from the best automatic voting bot. In its place, however, we're getting the Fishbowl DC Summer Superlatives, which come in the form of these ten categories: Most Likely to Take a Job with the Administration, Biggest Heartthrob (so, the Hottest?), Class Clown, Most Mysterious, Biggest Rebel, Most Ambitious, Cutest Couple, Most Competitive, Hardest Working, and Most Likely to Become a Headline.

We heartily heart Fishbowl DC for digging up these sweet 1970s-era spots for local television news channels. Here's one for WJLA in 1976:

If you're a regular customer of Street Sense, D.C.'s only homeless newspaper, but have been frustrated over the years with its lackluster online offerings, be sure to check out the paper's recently redesigned web site, StreetSense.org. (Full disclosure: I'm a volunteer member of the board of directors of Street Sense, and consulted just a little bit on the design process of this site).

"Nationals' Unexpected Success Sends Washington Post Into A Fugue State"

Hating on Dana Milbank and Chris Cillizza's recent failed attempts at making humorous online videos for washingtonpost.com has been a popular pastime of late, but comedian Andy Cobb has served up the best rebuke to date (via AMERICABlog). Brutal, and unlike the Milbank/Cillizza efforts, actually funny.

Some time ago I asked the DCist writing staff to avoid using the term "hipster" whenever possible. It's a word we all hear and say plenty, but I'm never quite sure what different people really mean by it. Is it just someone who wears skinny jeans and Chuck Taylors? Is it people who compost and keep chickens in their urban gardens? Is any man under 35 who has unusual facial hair a hipster? What's the difference between a scenester and hipster? Are you talking about these people? Or these people? Until I figure out some satisfactory answers, I prefer our writers be more specific about what they really mean. Using "hipster" just seems lazy and vague.

Oh right, we meant to link to The Hill newspaper's 50 Most Beautiful 2009 feature, aka the annual "Hill Hotties" list, which hit the stands earlier this week. As is tradition, we turn to DCist alum Jason Linkins, aka DCeiver and now of the Huffington Post, for the crucial analysis:

What makes The Hill's annual listicle is, frankly, The Hill itself. With their oddball fixations, strange beauty metaphors, and bizarre photography decisions, the keepers of this list have always been one of the main attractions. Sadly, this year's list is not nearly as bizarre as last year's was. I like to think that maybe The Hill is working hard to deprive me of material. Sounds arrogant? Maybe. But the alternative -- that our government is getting less beautiful -- is just too difficult to contemplate.

Folks subscribed to WMATA's emailed press release service were treated to dozens of news alerts today - except they were from 2003, and full of very, very old news. The errant emails were the result of "technical difficulties," according to Metro spokesperson Angela Gates, and the transit agency's IT department was working to discover the source of the problem. We luckily noticed the 30 or so press releases we got from Metro today seemed funny right away, but the Washington Post's Get There blog wasn't so lucky: they quickly posted a story about how SmarTrip cards weren't going to be available for a couple of months, only to have to pull it down and replace it with an explanation about the press release having been from 2003. Chief Metro spokesperson Lisa Farbstein was able to joke about the snafu later in the afternoon, after the bad alerts had finally stopped. "Well, at first we were feeling nostalgic," Farbstein quipped in an email.