A Little of the Old In and Out



(image via mccullagh)

In: Peter Chernin. As the integration of MySpace into Newscorp continues apace (Fox Interactive Media is making this social networking space more friendly to advertisers by cleaning up the site), Peter Chernin is pushing for the entire corporate culture at that media organization to make way for the alternative delivery mechanisms of the Digital Age. According to FT via The Australian:

"AS Rupert Murdoch's right-hand for 10 years, Peter Chernin is one of the most important - and entrenched - figures in global media. Yet his neutrally decorated office at News Corp's mid-Manhattan headquarters, with its half-empty bookshelves, suggests a man so constantly poised for departure that he has seen no need to personalise a blandly corporate space.

"... In the first extensive interview Chernin has given in the 13 months since Murdoch stunned the industry by proclaiming that the internet would provide the future growth of News Corp, Chernin reveals that every outpost of its empire - from Twentieth Century Fox studios and the Fox television business to its British and Australian newspapers - has received the same message: don't get too comfortable.

"Chernin slips again into management-speak to declare: 'They are being asked and forced to rethink how they organise so that they can begin to transition their businesses to new delivery mechanisms - whether that is our newspapers building websites, whether it's our studios selling content on video-on-demand or on mobile devices, or whether it's our networks looking at additional delivery mechanisms.'"

More here.



(image via cellphones)

Out: Richard Branson. Bilionaire's are a notoriously eccentric species. (Exaggerated cough suggesting feigned detachment) They no longer need to comply with societal rules. That sets them apart. Also, they are catered to by servants and relations 24/7, their word is Law (not unlike, incidentally, Tyrants). Ross Perot comes to mind as an acute archetype of the eccentric billionaire. So does the bubbly Richard Branson, galactic adventurer wannabe, who famously stole Campbell Brown's shoe (3rd item), forcing the NBC cutie to walk though a White House Correspondent's dinner with foot unshod. (Averted Gaze)

BTW: What CEO of a major corporation does a viral semi-pornographic video? But wait, there's more. According to Lloyd Grove:

"Just how fascinating is the life of Virgin Atlantic billionaire Richard Branson? Probably a good deal less fascinating than Branson seems to think when he spills to Men's Journal about getting circumcised at age 21: 'I was allergic to my girlfriend. Or maybe she was allergic to me. Anyway, I was told that if I were circumcised it would solve the problem, so off I went. The funny part is that the day after they did the operation, I was watching the film 'Barbarella' and split the stitches.'"



(image via rotten)

In: Karl Rove. Despite the fact that Washington insiders will let drop that POTUS routinely asks Karl Rove to walk his dog during meetings as a way of deflecting questions of his influence over The President, there is no doubting that Rove's power and influence continues to grow. (Cue to: Bach's haunting Toccata & Fugue in D Minor) According to the perfect Dickensian villain, Robert Novak:

"Everybody in Washington's Republican political community was well-aware that any changes George W. Bush made in his White House staff would not constitute a shakeup. What nobody expected was that Josh Bolten, in essence a professional bureaucrat, would be promoted to chief of staff. Yet, this selection becomes understandable as a confirmation of Karl Rove's supremacy in the White House.

"Rove holds the mundane titles of senior adviser to the president and deputy chief of staff, but scarcely anything happens in the Bush administration without his approval. Now he is more influential than ever. Andrew Card, the departing chief of staff, served (as a Cabinet member) under the senior President Bush (as Rove did not). In contrast, Bolten can thank his rise in the second Bush regime to Rove, his nominal subordinate.

"... Bolten replacing Card also advances Rove's project, which was obvious as early as the mid-'90s, of removing the influence of people close to the elder Bush. Rove named Bolten, then working for Goldman Sachs in London, as the Austin-based policy director of the 2000 Bush-Cheney campaign. There is no question that Bolten is a Rove man."

Charmed, I'm sure. (Averted Gaze)



(image via neweb)

Out: David Lee Roth. David Lee Roth was back today (after a suspension), chastened by executives of Infinity Radio. Apparently he was given a 3-page memo on how to conduct his radio show. His entire crowd of motley freaks are now fired. All that's left is some dude with an English accent reading news-clips. It was sad but oddly compelling radio to hear the singer of "Panama," and "Running with the Devil" so ... lost.

Roth sounded like a broken man and we almost felt sorry for him. He is clearly in over his head. Unfortunately, Howard Stern is taking one of his endless 3-day weekends (paying for less content than we'd get on free radio, anyone?), so we don't know his take on this development.

Roth sounds, frankly, like he has just given up. One can almost hear his shoulders dropping into a supine slouch. I can sort of understand why CBS would try to build something out of his show, which, to be frank, was quite unlistenable in its previous incarnation (how many EMT stories can a listener take?). But the way they went about doing it --the breaking of DLR, who is, if not dazzling, a pop-nostalgia figure of some renown -- plays into Howard Stern's argument that they do not treat "Talent" well at Viacom.

And besides, doesn't the CBS crackdown on Roth's method only inspire the former rock star to rebel? Is this Howard Stern's mysterious "Phase 3"?