Site icon journal-isms.com

Journal-isms 7-22

richard

Caption: 

Star Editor Janice Min Stepping Down from Us Weekly

"Janice Min, the editor who turned Us Weekly into one of magazine publishing’s major success stories, will step down next week after seven years there, in what she and her boss, Jann S. Wenner, described Monday as an amicable parting," Richard Perez-Pena wrote¬†Monday in the New York Times.

"Ms. Min said she did not have her next move planned, though she talked about online ventures and television as fields that would appeal to her. But after publicized contract haggling in 2005 and 2007, with speculation each time that one of the field’s biggest stars might just walk away, Ms. Min said that this time she had decided not to renew her contract, which expires Aug. 1.

”As long as I’m here, I can’t really even begin to think about what I’m going to do next,’ she said. ‘But I’m 39 and I’d like to have another career. I felt like I’d done every possible thing at Us Weekly to make it successful.”

"Ultimately, it was all about the money," Amy Wicks wrote¬†Wednesday for Women’s Wear Daily.

"A few years ago, Us Weekly editor in chief Janice Min signed a contract worth approximately $2 million, but that deal is about to expire, and given the state of the publishing world, that kind of money wasn’t on the table this time around. While Us owner Jann Wenner asked Min to stay, in the end they couldn’t agree on a new salary number."

U.S. Holding Iraqi Journalist 10th Month Without Charge

"American forces arrested Iraqi journalist Ibrahim Jassam last year and continue to hold him without charge in a U.S. military prison camp — even as the United States transfers jurisdiction to Iraqi authorities," Quil Lawrence reported Monday for National Public Radio.

"Jassam, a cameraman, shot footage of Iraq’s violence during times when it was impossible for Western reporters to move safely around Iraq.

"He was 29 years old in 2006 when he began working for Reuters news agency. At the time, the towns southwest of Baghdad had earned the nickname the ‘Triangle of Death’ because of the violence between Shiite militias and Sunni insurgents. His brother, Walid, says Jassam took his work very seriously.

". . . But as with many cases in the past, the U.S. military apparently thought Jassam’s photos looked a little too close to the action, suggesting a connection to insurgents.

". . . Iraqi journalists have been regularly detained by U.S. forces through the course of the American occupation; several have been killed when mistaken for insurgents. According to Mohamed Abdel Dayem, of the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists, Jassam is the only one still in U.S. custody.

"No charges have been brought against any of the journalists … If and when they are detained, [journalists’] cases should be reviewed in a quick and timely way, and they should either be charged with a recognizable crime or they should be released,’ Dayem says.

". . . Jassam’s sister says he isn’t eating enough and looks thin. She says her brother knows that the Iraqi court cleared him in November, and that he can’t understand why the Americans keep holding him, for 10 months now and counting."

Jose Antonio Vargas Jumps to Huffington Post

Jose Antonio Vargas a rising star at the Washington Post, who has covered what he called "the marriage of the Internet and politics," "is moving to a Web site that operates at that intersection: The Huffington Post," Brian Stelter reported Tuesday for the New York Times.

"Mr. Vargas will join the Arianna Huffington outfit next month as the technology and innovations editor. He will oversee a new section about tech (coming this fall) and encourage sitewide innovation.

"The Huffington Post has been on something like a hiring tear in recent months. After Dan Froomkin, the Washington Post columnist, was dismissed last month, Ms. Huffington happily scooped him up."

"Mr. Vargas said he had respect and admiration for The Washington Post, where he has worked since 2004, and that his move to Ms. Huffington’s Post was a personal decision."

Vargas, 28, told Facebook friends he seemed "2 have stunned some peeps with this move: to me, there is no new media v old media. only good journalism."

The hiring of Vargas brings Huffington’s total to seven paid reporters, with Vargas, who is of Filipino background, its first paid reporter of color. Spokesman Mario Ruiz said the operation had 38 editorial staffers.

Short Takes

Exit mobile version