Maybe with all the connections in the free world, publishing is a lucrative venture. At least that???s what Jack Ford, Gerald???s son, is hoping.
The former first kid and part of the founding staff of Outside magazine is launching a new media project, Mountain Time Publishing. The company will run a bi-weekly lifestyle magazine insert for 20 small daily newspapers in ski resort towns. The inserts will start before Christmas.
After a childhood of press conferences, apparently publishing is the ultimate follow-up career. Too bad we’ll have to wait at least eight years for Chelsea’s tell-all.
Gerald Ford was many things: first unelected president, Vietman withdrawl OK-er, Nixon pardoner. But public relations disaster? Well, yes; in death, he’s certainly being a pain in the ass.
With the NYSE and Nasdaq both closing their markets to recognize Ford’s burial today – and extending Wall Street analysts’ bonus blowing by one more day – the most likely audience to get a peak at the Wall Street Journal’s new look will be phoning it in.
With a marketing budget larger than the coke budgets of Lindsay Lohan and Pete Doherty combined, the WSJ hoped today would be the grand unveiling for its much touted new look — you know, the one where there’s 10 percent less newspaper, which the Dow Jones rag will expect you to believe is a good thing. But with the i-bankers extending their New Year’s holiday, the very audience that’s supposed to be oohing and aahing will be zzzing.
Not that the WSJ is upset or anything:
A spokesman for The Journal said that the closing of the markets would not have much affect on the paper???s publicity plans, which include giving away half a million copies free at 40,000 newsstands across the country ??? most of them not in Manhattan. And most of those copies that are in Manhattan are to be distributed at transportation hubs outside the financial district, like Grand Central Terminal, Penn Station and the Port Authority, to reach ordinary commuters, not the pinstripes downtown.
Or, as the Journal likes to call them: Not even close to our target audience, but damn do we need better circulation numbers.
Sure, the stock markets may be closing on Tuesday in recognition of President Gerald Ford’s birthday, but how are the TV news outlets going to handle a day we’ve always referred to as The Day After New Year’s? Lucky you, NBC, ABC, and CBS have all announced just what they’re gonna be up to as Ford’s body makes its last travels — and they’re planning for more than Gerald Ford Day on Jan. 2, but a whole long weekend of nostalgia.
Beginning on Friday, December 29th, ABC will broadcast comprehensive live coverage of the former presidents funeral including ceremonies in California, Washington D.C. and Michigan. Charlie Gibson will anchor the coverage during the weekend of the funeral and the following week. He will be aided by other ABC journalists, analysts and consultants including Barbara Walters, John Cochran, George Stephanopoulos, Ford biographer Richard Norton Smith, among others.
In addition, Gibson will anchor World News from Washington D.C. beginning January 2nd, and Diane Sawyer, Robin Roberts and Chris Cuomo will anchor a special edition of Good Morning America.
NBC will begin their coverage of the events on December 30th with Brian Williams anchoring NBC News live from the State Funeral Ceremony at the Capitol Rotunda in D.C. and he will be joined by NBC News Washington Bureau Chief Tim Russert and special correspondent Tom Brokaw. The network will also cover the January 2nd services at the National Cathedral and, on that day, Williams will be joined once again by Russert and Brokaw–and by Campbell Brown who will report live from the Cathedral.
The Tuesday Today show will be a split edition with Matt Lauer live in D.C. and Meredith Vieira in New York, and NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams will also originate from D.C.
And on CBS? Yep, Katie Couric is finally gonna show up for work.
• MTV launching MTV Arabiya after finding twelve square feet of land mass it doesn’t already reach.
• Elliot Spitzer snags one last payola payment before exiting the attorney general’s office.
• The news networks will get all hot and bothered over Gerald Ford’s funeral, but not in the same steamy way they did Ronald Reagan’s.
• Former tabloid staffers joined the Dirt writing pool to add that extra bit of gossip rag pizzaz.
• First magazines, now ad agencies are jerking off to anything green.
While ABC’s Terry Moran, NBC’s Bill Fitzgerald, and CNN’s Anderson Cooper all had the CV-worthy duty of reporting the death of President Gerald Ford, CBS News virtually slept through the breaking news. Rather than have a B-list anchor or correspondent fill in for Katie Couric while she’s on holiday, The Eye left the news to a lower-third crawl, followed by reports on The Early Show. You see, they’re waiting for Katie’s flight to arrive from an international getaway so she can step in front of the camera to report on Ford’s memorial service.
But the real fun begins when Katie’s competition gets in its digs:
“We have contingency plans for these kinds of things and discuss them well in advance,” said Bob Murphy, ABC News senior vice president. “There really was never a question that for a former president you would do a brief interrupt.”
And how.
So just what would CBS have had to cut into to report the passing of America’s only unelected president? A David Letterman repeat on the East Coast and a NCIS repeat on the West Coast. Just be glad Iran didn’t launch a nuclear war during sweeps week while you were watching Survivor, or you would’ve never heard about it.
• Not only did most newspapers have Gerald Ford’s obit ready to go, the NYT had all sorts of fancy Flash animations set to post.
• Newly unemployed Judith Regan announces plans to get drunk, Irish-style.
• Who says math has no practical real world applications?
&bull: Despite masterminding, casting, starring in new Rolling Stone reality show, Jann Wenner is not the purported breakout “star.”
• It’s been less than a week since Alan Hevesi resigned and murders in NYC are already way up. Coincidence? We don’t belive in coincidences.
• GalleyCat demands new sci-fi editor for NYTBR. We hear teetotaling Judith Regan is available.