As Newsweek prepares to shutter its print magazine for good to become a purely digital publication, several staffers won’t make it through the transition. We were surprised to learn that Pulitzer prize-winning fashion journalist Robin Givhan will be among those laid off according to Daily Intel.
Karl Lagerfeld took aim at Newsweek and Tina Brown yesterday, telling reporters at a press conference in Tokyo that “Tina Brown’s magazine is not doing well at all,” and that Brown was “dying.” He went on to say that he felt “sorry” for Tina Brown, “who was such a success at ‘Vanity Fair,’ to go down with a shitty little paper like this. I’m sorry.” All of this in response to a question from a reporter about a (quite thoughtful) article Robin Givhan wrote about Lagerfeld in which she called him “overrated” and “spread too thin.”
So are Newsweek and Tina Brown actually dying? Not so much.
We reached out to Newsweek and they responded with the following statement, packed with stats indicating the magazine’s success:
A day without a krazy kwote from Karl Lagerfeld is like a day without sunshine. Here’s today’s gem:
Remember that article Robin Givhan wrote for Newsweek/The Daily Beast where she called Karl Lagerfeld “overrated” and questions whether he was “spread too thin”? Karl Lagerfeld sure does. And he’s still pissed about it. During a press conference yesterday in Tokyo, he didn’t hold back when asked about Tina Brown and Newsweek.
The controversy over First Lady Michelle Obama’s McQueen dress just won’t die. Now Diane von Furstenberg, one of the original naysayers to have criticized the First Lady for wearing a foreign designer to the China state dinner, seems to be having second thoughts about her original statement.
Von Furstenberg, speaking as the president of the CFDA, issued a statement after Michelle Obama wore that now-infamous red dress (an altered look from Sarah Burton’s resort collection for McQueen), in which she expressed her “disappointment” over the First Lady’s choice: “CFDA believes in promoting American fashion. Our First Lady Michelle Obama has been wonderful at promoting our designers, so we were surprised and a little disappointed not to be represented for this major state dinner,” the statement read. Of course, she was in good company, as Oscar de la Renta had already expressed his outrage over Mrs. O’s dress choice, and WWD followed suit.
But now the designer and CFDA pres seems to be having second thoughts.
Media is evolving at the breakneck speed of Twitter and traditional print outlets and new media ones are constantly reorganizing and reshuffling mastheads to ensure that their publications continue to rake in advertisers and stay alive. The world of fashion media is no exception. This year there was so much playing of editorial musical chairs, we devised little flow charts to try to keep it all straight.
From Carine Roitfeld’s shocking departure from Vogue Paris to the fat-hating Marie Claire blogger who pissed just about everyone off, here are the top ten fashion media stories of the year.
A commenter recently, and accurately, described Tom Ford as “sex-on-a-stick.” That’s only part of the reason we’re enjoying his press tour. Aside from the evil-YSL quotes and looking almost too perfect, his A Single Man promotion includes lots of fashion talk and Andy Warhol stories. He sat down with Tina Brown to talk about his Read more →
