Naomi Reiter

Elliott Wilson: "No One is Really Holding Anyone to Task"

Urban Media Maven to Serve as Gatekeeper

After serving as Editor-in-Chief of XXL magazine, founding editor of xxlmag.com, co-authoring two hot books, and producing hit VH-1 shows including ego trip's Miss Rap Supreme, no one would blame Elliott Wilson for resting on his laurels. At the very least, with a resume like that he could pick a project that lets him relax a bit.

A dual passion for hip hop culture and journalistic integrity is compelling Wilson to go in the opposite direction and reinvent himself yet again in one of media's most labour-intensive platforms: blogging. Why? "Celebrity journalism and the quick score are becoming the norm," he said. "No one is really holding anyone to task. I'm going to serve as a sort of gatekeeper."

While Wilson has long embraced new media, he sees a generation of writers who need some direction in terms of maintaining honor in reporting news. He plans to cultivate a new crop of journalists steeped with good research and reporting habits--and he plans to lead by example.

Online Revenue Models Work It at ABM Breakfast

So, digital media isn't popping Xenadrine and swallowing tape worms to succeed, but it has just as much chance of establishing a model career as any clothes horse stomping down Seventh Avenue. More so, in fact, if the smarties who showed up at American Business Media's Online Advertisng Models Breakfast are any indication. Of course, few ate. Not because the offerings weren't yummy, nor that the attendees needed to diet, but because there was simply too much networking and discourse to be done.

Nielsen to Plant 30,000 Trees

Who says B2B media is all business? Nielsen Business Media announced today that it is partnering with American Forests to plant 30,000 trees across this big, blue marble over the next year. Talk about going green. In the magazine biz, trees are often sacrificed on the joint altar of Information and Entertainment (recall Vogue's infamous 2007 “green” issue that ended up weighing roughly the same as a baby elephant seal?).

Nielsen--publisher of Billboard--will plant the trees on behalf of its clients as part of American Forests’ Global ReLeaf Campaign, according to a press release. SVP of Marketing Mark Hosbein said: “We believe that ‘doing well’ in business should not be at the expense of ‘doing good’ in the community.” Amen, brother.

Among other lofty stats, Nielsen and Co. estimate that the planted trees would cover the Dallas Cowboys football stadium six times and will produce enough oxygen to fill the lungs of more than 20,000 people. We can now cope with the state of the world today with deep breathing exercises guilt-free, thanks to our friends at Nielsen!

PR Biz Flourishes Despite Downturn

Some companies are so savvy they don't need to worry about the economy. And some hit the ground running. Channel V Media is just such a company, run by two ladies who navigate the 70-hour work week without even breaking a glisten, much less a sweat. Hooray for your one-year anniversary, Channel V Media! You are fantastic at what you do, and at doing it with aplomb...more

Because I Can

I'm sitting in front of my laptop posting this from my BlackBerry just because I can. I'm in love with technology--especially desktop publishing. But this! Publishing from my BB--this could be called sidewalk publishing. Or having an espresso at a sidewalk cafe in the sunshine publishing! (Ah Spring...)

I knew I was knee deep in the N.Y. publishing biz back in September when I left a min breakfast awards near Grand Central Station--where I learned of a story that would be great for Minonline.com--to race to the OMMA Expo at the N.Y. Mariott Marquis. My cab was stuck in traffic, so I jumped down into the subway only to emerge into the bright light and chaos of Fashion Week in Bryant Park. I held onto a planter as if it were the last buoy in the sea, dodged busy fashion minions and security, frantically typed my story into the trusty BB, and e-mailed it to the online editor before dashing off to the OMMA show.

Today, for me, a whole step in the sidewalk publishing process is eliminated! Sent from my BlackBerry® smartphone with SprintSpeed

What WOULD Google Do?

Jeff Jarvis tells us how a variety of industries should apply the Google model to adapt to the changing economy. His new book, What Would Google Do?, explains it all (and he insists he was done with the copy before he allowed himself to be wooed by the fabled Google cafeteria). I was invited to this business event via Facebook and I realize that FB and I have reached a point of no return.

Photo by Michael Surtees

Women in B2B Support Each Other

At American Business Media's Women in B2B event with min editorial assistant Shaila Mentore (center) and Brianna Bartnick, senior director of business development for Stream57 (a very cool company). The honorees, which included Marion Minor, discussed successful women offering a hand up to up-and-coming ladies in media. Bravo!

Read Kelly's take in Just an Online Minute.

Photo by Kelly Samardak

Foodie Pub's Got Style

Granted, celebrity chefs may have more glamorous lives than shipping dispatchers or engineers, but M. Shanken's Food Arts still leads by example as a business pub that engages its audience with an event. The title recently celebrated its 20th anniversary with a gala at New York's iconic The Plaza Hotel. Founders Michael and Ariane Batterberry hosted the elegant event that was peppered with stars, including Emeril Lagasse and Anthony Bourdain (both Food Arts Silver Spoon Award recipients)...more

It’s Hefner’s Playground

We Just Want To Live Here

Playboy founder and editor-in-chief Hugh Hefner surpasses being a living legend—he, like his bunny logo, is an American icon. He tells me of his black private jet—The Big Bunny—that he bought in the late 60s, which displayed the bunny logo on the tail lit by spotlights affixed to the wings, and that the US Air Force likewise put the bunny logo on the tails of their special experimental fighter jets for morale.

The icon shares that his first big purchases out of college were an even more iconic 1948 Womb chair by Knoll and a set of Encyclopedia Britannica—quintessential in its own right. (“I realized later on that I was investing in truth and beauty.”) But these things aren’t what Hefner brings to the Playground. So what does he bring?

“Probably my all time favorite rotating, vibrating round bed,” he says. The bed was custom made in the early 60s by Playboy’s in-house woodworking craftsman, initially to be featured in the magazine as part of an imagined bachelor pads layout. Hefner decided to keep the bed as the centerpiece of his bedroom, which, he says, is the centerpiece of his home. “I just liked the notion of a bed that would be so functional,” he says.

Funny, Sporting News Doesn't Look 122!

Yes, it's true: Sporting News is 122 years-old! We think they look great, but then again, a little facelift never hurt anything (unless you're Joan Rivers or Cher...). American City Business' oldest publication was in fine form last night at their relaunch/revamp party celebrating September's issue which features Terrell Owens on the cover and a new, biweekly schedule. The Shaws of parent company American City Business Journals—which also owns SportsBusiness Journal and NASCAR Illustrated, among other sports publications—spared no expense for SN’s coming out. The Weather Room at the top of Rockefeller Center provided Manhattan itself as a backdrop for the soiree, which featured NFL player and SuperBowl alum Carl Banks and 2008 Baseball Hall of Fame inductee Rich “Goose” Gossage, who last played for the Seattle Mariners. “If it wasn’t for Sporting News, there wouldn’t be a (baseball) hall of fame,” Gossage said about the venerable sports publication that has been called the Bible of baseball...more