The big news today (and this should give you a hint as to how little media gossip is in circulation) is the exit of Maxim magazine’s editor in chief Ed Needham.
As you all know, Keith Kelly has closely followed the destruction of Dennis publishing and its affiliate magazine since publisher Felix Dennis decided to sell off his lad fantasies to follow another dream: repopulating the forests of England. Whatever, good for him — we’ve heard of publishers doing crazier shit. Kelly, however, finds this so hilarious, he even felt the need to stick with his “dead trees” joke.
Media Ink April 5, 2006:
While his empire has been built in part on products printed on dead trees, he has often waxed philosophical on a desire to become a philanthropist and restore a major forest to his native England.
From Today’s Media Ink:
The eccentric multimillionaire has said he wants to reforest his native England starting with the so-called Forest of Dennis. (Not bad for a mogul who built a good part of his fortune on dead trees.)
So hilarious. Kelly’s job doesn’t depend on dead trees at all, right? We hope you all learned your lessons today: newspapers recycle jokes that aren’t worth the dead tress they’re printed on. Just read everything online.
DON’T NEEDHAM [Keith J. Kelly, New York Post]
We knew Google was taking cash to put ads on its maps when Sopranos-branded locations started popping up in Google Local all around Jersey. But from the sound of Maxim‘s self-congratulatory press release (and aren’t they all?), they did one better: Ed Needham & Co. constructed a copy of its Eva Longoria cover so large, Google’s imaging satellites had no choice but to pick it up. Publicity buzz TK, they thought.
MAXIM Magazine, the #1 best-selling men?????s lifestyle magazine in the country and the world is celebrating their momentous milestone of reaching 100 issues by constructing a colossal special issue cover in the Las Vegas desert. MAXIM has teamed up with the City of Las Vegas so that everyone can see Eva Longoria’s (last year’s MAXIM Hot 100 winner) sexy new special cover in Google Earth by visiting Maximonline.com. The structure stretches 75 x 110 feet and is erected on floor of the Las Vegas desert.
?????Leave it to MAXIM to do something so creative and so wild to celebrate their 100th issue. I guess space is no longer the final frontier! I am flattered, to say the least, to be TV’s Sexiest Earthling,????? Longoria said.
EVA LONGORIA COVER BY THE NUMBERS:
Size: 75????? x 110?????
Material: Vinyl Mesh windscreen
# of stakes in the ground to hold it down: 125
Crew to install: 9
# of hours of printing: 25
# of feet of airline cable to hold in place: 2400?????
# of hours to install: 15 hours
And how. Except when we went to look for the Longoria cover spread out in the Las Vegas desert – at 35 degrees 37′ 12.23″ north and 115 degrees 22′ 58.77″ west – in Google Earth, we didn’t see so much as a Dennis Publishing shrine but undeveloped desert situated next to some sort of complex the president has likely yet to tell Congress about.
(Top to Bottom: Regular Google Image view; Google Image view with Maxim data file loaded. Click each photo for larger version.)
As any novice geek knows, Google Earth isn’t in real time — but Maxim‘s claim that you can spot their supersized cover surely is. So it takes clicking on the Google Earth data file on Maxim‘s site (currently generating “page not found” errors to no end) to actually see the cover — that is, loading the Maxim-brand data file into Google Earth, which is akin to pasting just about any Flickr pic onto a satellite image, then issuing a press release.
Except Maxim actually did construct the jumbo cover and, for their credibility’s sake, there were actual photographers on the scene to document the grandiose attempts at buzz.
The full laddy-laden release, after the jump.
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