Fresh Loaf

The Washington Post reports President-elect Barack Obama has asked CNN’s Sanjay Gupta to become the next surgeon general. Gupta, who does a commendable job performing heart surgeries neurosurgery (thanks, mom!) when he’s not practicing journalism, lives in Atlanta with his family.

From the Post:

Gupta has told administration officials that he wants the job, and the final vetting process is under way. He has asked for a few days to figure out the financial and logistical details of moving his family from Atlanta to Washington but is expected to accept the offer.

UPDATE: Rick Sanchez has been asked to accept the role of New Media Czar. Wolf Blitzer to become deputy undersecretary of beards! We just might get some Atlanta folk in this administration!

(Thanks to Andisheh for bringing this to my attention.)

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Rick Sanchez, the CNN anchor who is the living, breathing embodiment of truth and hope, says via Twitter that his account was hacked. Also targeted: President-elect Barack Obama (”What is your opinion on Barack Obama? Take the survey and possibly win $500 in free gas.”), Fox News (”Breaking: Bill O Riley is gay”) and Britney Spears (”HI Yall! Brit Brit here, just wanted to update you all on the size of my vagina. Its about 4 feet wide with razor sharp teeth.”) Valleywag says posters at 4chan are claiming credit for the Spears hack.

Below, the “hacked” Sanchez update. Honestly, I thought this would’ve cleared up some of his earlier tweets. (Kidding! We love ya, Rick! And kind tip of the sombrero to Waxmuseum for the find.)

After the jump, Sanchez’s tweets reacting to what happened. (”Something about crack? great??”)

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If you thought 2008 was a bad year for print media, don’t hold your breath in 2009. The New York Times Bits blog is reporting that 8020 Media, the company behind JPG and Everywhere magazines, is shutting down. No bankruptcy, no making a run at fresh VC, no, they’re shutting down, clamping-the-chain-on-the-front-door shutting down.

The thing about 8020 Media was its strategy; the company was breaking ground by being one of the first to go from web-only to web/print, tap their user base for content (JPG published user-submitted-and-reviewed photographs), and operate with a low editorial budget. Understandingly, it was being lauded as a model for the future of publishing.

Curiously, not long ago, like in 2007, the Times itself was ga-ga over 8020’s business model, launching a profile of the company thusly:

SAN FRANCISCO, Nov. 21 — A funny thing happened while Halsey Minor was trying to kill print journalism. He ended up publishing magazines — big, heavy magazines, with beautiful pictures on quality paper — the kind he and others had declared obsolete.

Now, Minor himself (who founded CNET.com) shut the money pump and the company will cease operations immediately.

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New York Times media columnist David Carr had an eye-opening article yesterday about TriCityNews, an Asbury Park, N.J. altweekly with a circulation of 10,000, a skeleton-crew staff, and an enviable profit margin at a time when newspapers — and magazines, as well — are seeing layoffs, dwindling revenues and bankruptcies. (Carr mentions Creative Loafing Inc. in the article.)

How’d Dan Jacobson, the paper’s publisher and owner, do it? In what would seem a suicidal move, he invested his energy and focus into the print “product” and saw it become an item readers clamored to pick up.  He set advertising rates 10 years ago and maintained them, and in the process, developed a loyal list of clients. Most importantly, he says, he ignored the publishing pack’s rush to gain an online presence and completely ignored the web. (Look at the paper’s website.) It appears — in this case, at least — there’s something to be said about safeguarding your content.

(more…)

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Got plenty of links to go with that freshly roasted Honduran coffee … mine that is…

Nafiza “Soulja Girl” Ziyad is asking a judge to drop her charges related to her now infamous freestyle battle with an elderly, gray-haired lady riding MARTA. The defense motion cited in the AJC says the video, which went viral and has been watched over 600,000 times, “exposed her to extreme distress and embarrassment.”

Wait till she sees the REEEMIX:

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• Jury deliberations begin in the Brian Nichols case.
• Not all are opposed to Gwinnett County’s mandatory recycling program.
• Braves GM Frank Wren busy talking deals on day one of Baseball’s winter meetings.
• More Clayton county students could find themselves in single-sex classrooms next year.
• Illinois Guv arrested on corruption charges.
• Five suspected 9/11 planners recant their offer to confess.
• President-elect Obama’s plan to bring broadband to the masses is hailed all over, and his web 2.0 press machine is all over it (the praise, that is).
• If media were complicit in hyping the housing bubble that drove the economy in the last five years; are they being complicit in making things seem gloomier than they really are now?
• More Media Briefs: Jay Leno to stay at NBC … Arianna Huffington is IWM’s person of the year … Time’s top 10 magazine covers of the year.
• Just because: Remember in Back to the Future when Marty McFly goes into Doc Brown’s house and the automated robotic arm drops another can of dog food onto Einstein’s bowl, which was already overflowing? … Feed your dog with an iPhone.

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On Dec. 18, George Bush’s viceroy at the Federal Communications Commission, Kevin Martin, will try to ram through changes that will allow Big Media to get much, much bigger. In Atlanta, that could lead to Cox — which already owns the AJC and WSB — snapping up more TV stations. It would also maximize the value of the Cox holdings — perhaps convincing the Cox family to grab the money and run by selling to an even larger conglomerate. Who knows? Rupert Murdoch could become the sleazemaster of Atlanta media.

You can do something, not that the Cox media are likely to tell you that. Heck, it’s only been in recent weeks (after CL chided the Coxopoly on the point) that the AJC has begun admitting that it has lobbyists involved in the FCC fracas.

Fight for independent, local media. For a place to start, go to the Stop Big Media website.

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