How does a media pundit get away with a Christmas column? By tagging a trend piece to an expiring news peg, that’s how. Enter David Carr’s Dec. 25 item about the coming fall of the lad mag. Publisher Emap just closed FHM, so surely Maxim’s kin are doomed, yes?
In part, the lad magazines got lapped by technology. YouTube looks like a lad contents page with full-motion video. TMZ has gone Defcon 4 in real-time over Britney???s pantygate. And, Heavy.com has America???s Suck Countdown, with a joke-a-second cadence that would be difficult for anybody to catch up with, let alone a magazine.
???It is tough to come up with something fresh in the category,??? said Greg Gutfeld, a former editor of Stuff in the United States and Maxim in Britain. ???The only innovation is price and frequency, and the only price that is working is free and the only frequency that is working is daily.???
Thank goodness, then, that shuttered Hachette title Shock will keep kickin’ online at ShockU.com. That’s totally gonna be a success.
What’s a Friday without some mass firings? Today brings rumors of major hackings over at Maxim into our inbox.
This just in — totally unconfirmed, but from a connected source: associate editor John Devore, along with associate editor Steve Mazzucchi, fact checker Bart Morrisroe, and nine year vet and production editor Andrij Witiuk all just got fired from Maxim.
Dude. What’s going on over there? Did they need to cut the dead weight in order to support new staffer Chris Wilson’s salary?
Update: Stuff staffers (”Stuff-ers” har, har) have been pulled to Maxim, joining Wilson at the ass shaking lad mag. [FBNY]
• Book your table at 40/40 now … the BET nominees have been announced. [BET]
• Lindsay Lohan perpetuates her increasingly growing reputation as a fighter. It’s one thing when we make fun of La Lo, but when other celebs do it, it’s just annoying. [Egotastic]
• How cute. Check out these little paparazzi in the making. They’re like 9 and they make more money than you. [LAT]
• Despite uncommon belief and unpopular “rumors” Jennifer Lopez going from J Lo to Grey Lo has nothing to do with her fake pregnancy. [Us Weekly]
• Though they’re enemies, Mariah Carey keeps Christina Aguilara in her prayers. While Xtina’s friends freak on her couch and pee on her rug. [Page Six]
• Google erases the entire Meatpacking District. And just before the Maxim 100 party at Buddah Bar, too. [Gawker]