Study Hall Digest 10/8/2018

By Study Hall staff writer Allegra Hobbs (@allegraehobbs)

San Francisco Magazine Prepares to be Gutted for Luxury Content

The staff of San Francisco Magazine, a monthly publication known for its deeply-reported pieces on local politics and city life, is going into this week bracing for a bloodbat. Staffers there fear the coming changes will signal the loss of the magazine’s soul. The mag is owned by Modern Luxury, which churns out a host of city-themed publication — Houston, Philadelphia Style, The Atlantan, etc. — focusing on luxury living fluff pieces rather than hard-hitting local news. Many feature celebrities on the cover and recycle content: a glance at the company’s publications page shows cover star Kyle Chandler on eight of the covers. Maybe he lives in eight cities simultaneously???

So when the publisher recently gathered staff of San Francisco Magazine to announce changes in editorial operations, including cutting staff and slashing the freelance budget, the assumption was that San Francisco Magazine will eventually conform to the Modern Luxury model, one editor told Study Hall, noting the former editor in chief had departed in August.

“When [former EIC] Jon Steinberg was the editor, I think he made it very clear to Modern Luxury that they had to leave us alone, and they never even tried to interfere,” the editor told Study Hall. “When he announced that he was leaving, a big concern we had was, does this mean Modern Luxury is going to come in and make us like all their other magazines?”

It certainly seems that way. The incoming EIC, Jason Sheeler, was the style director at Departures, a luxury magazine for American Express Platinum and Centurion cardholders. He starts today.

The publisher was unable to say how many staffers will be cut, but layoffs are expected to take place this week — likely after the November issue goes to print on Wednesday, said the editor. Staffers were also told the magazine’s freelance budget is roughly double that of Modern Luxury’s other publications, and management wants to bring that cost down.

“With that change and other staffing changes, I don’t think it will be possible to continue producing journalism of the same quality that we had,” the editor said.

There have already been signs of things to come, the editor said. Modern Luxury is forcing the magazine to run a two-page travel spread on the Dominican Republic in the upcoming issue, which will also appear in the other publications — in fact, it tried to force it into the last issue at the last minute, literally on the day the magazine went to press. “We just said ‘No, that’s insane,’” the editor recalled.

There have been other layoffs in the recent past — in May 2017, the magazine’s senior editor was laid off, and one of the designers was cut to part-time, which had a huge impact on production. Then, in March of this year, the executive editor was laid off.

But those changes happened suddenly and with little transparency — the fact the staff has been prepared this time is something of a mercy, said the editor who spoke to Study Hall, but also seems to indicate how severe the next round will be.

“Given how little transparency there’s been in the past, how much he has told us despite being vague, makes me think it’s going to be worse than we think it is.”

Very Neutral CNN Reporter Sticks Up for Poor Supreme Court Justice :((

Remember when a man credibly accused of sexual assault became a Supreme Court Justice and his accuser was forced into hiding, moving every few days and suffering constant death threats? Really sad for the now-Supreme Court Justice, right? That’s why very good boy and neutral, unbiased journalist Brian Stelter of CNN stood up for Kavanaugh when Ariel Dumas, a comedy writer at the Colbert Show, joked amidst last week’s horror that “I’m just glad we ruined Brett Kavanaugh’s life.”

That’s obviously a joke, you see, because Kavanaugh has skated through life facing zero consequences for his actions to become one of the most powerful men in the country. But Stelter latched onto bad faith right-wing attacks on Dumas and stoked outrage over the tweet. I can only assume when you’re super-duper unbiased like a good news anchor you lose the ability to comprehend benign jokes and acquire some sort of brain rot that makes you selectively defend powerful people who need no defending — like Senators facing protests from impassioned constituents. Just leave them alone, you guys!! Not cool!

New York Times Reshuffles its Metro Section

New York Times Metro Editor Clifford Levy, who filled the position two months ago after Wendell Jamieson resigned amidst mysterious circumstances, shared a brutal memo on Twitter explaining he feels the section needs an overhaul and will be evaluating staffers’ contributions based on impact and engagement. In ushering in a “new, digital and audience-focused Metro,” Levy will be offering buyouts to staffers who aren’t on board with the revised mission. Levy promises that he’ll still focus on deep-dives and investigative reporting, but that he also expects those things to get viral-level clicks. Good luck with that!

The Stranger Says Abuse and Manipulation = Being a “Bad Boyfriend”

The Stranger’s Katie Herzog penned a truly awful piece reducing Jack Smith IV’s misdeeds to being a “bad boyfriend” and wondering aloud whether #MeToo has veered dangerously off-course. Anyone who read Jezebel’s reporting understands Smith’s actions go well beyond being a “bad date” and into the sociopathic territory of very intentional manipulation, coercion and emotional abuse. Oh, and physical abuse — one accuser says Smith choked her without consent, but Herzog brushes that aside with a denial from Smith before diving into an extensive parenthetical about how some people enjoy being choked. This woman says she was abused — fun unrelated fact about kinks, though!

‘A Star is Born’ Prompts This Writer to Wonder: Am I Dead Inside?

After two weeks of feeling so angry I thought at times I would self-combust and, alternately, so hopeless I could barely move, I went to see ‘A Star is Born’ yesterday in hopes of pumping my exhausted, brittle heart with pure emotion — any emotion but anger! Joy, love, heartbreak — I wanted my face dunked in an ice bucket of intense, all-consuming feeling. Instead I watched Bradley Cooper and Lady Gaga’s doomed romance utterly unmoved, unconvinced by their chemistry, occasionally rolling my eyes at corny exchanges or at the aggrandizement of the self-destructing male artist. But people around me were audibly crying! So what was I missing?

I contemplated this New York Times piece which poses the question: “Is ‘A Star Is Born’ Campy, Or Have We Forgotten How to Feel?” HAVE I forgotten how to feel?? I mean, I don’t think so. Steven Spielberg classic ‘E.T.’ makes me bawl, I noted yesterday while defending my crying bona fides (I then started crying while describing the alien’s soul-bond with the child protagonist — he can feel his pain! Then they had to say goodbye! I’M CRYING NOW). In any case, sitting in that theatre stone-faced, not the tiniest spark of an emotional response to Bradley Cooper’s Merle Haggard impression and Lady Gaga’s Lady Gaga impression, I felt like an asshole. To rephrase the Times’ headline…does the movie suck, or do I suck?

Longread(s) of the Week: Related to the above, here’s a profile of Lady Gaga, who the writer describes as “opaque,” and even though it’s older, a profile of Bradley Cooper from Taffy Brodesser-Akner I can’t stop thinking about because he refuses to answer personal questions and is all “I’m an artist and my art speaks for itself.” You’re sitting for a profile, Bradley! A PROFILE!

SHORT LINKS:

— Jemele Hill is joining the Atlantic as a staff writer covering the intersection of sports, race, politics and gender. Hopefully they let her speak more freely than her former employer, ESPN.

— Study Haller Zachary Siegel was arrested while covering the Jason Van Dyke trial in Chicago for Undark Magazine. The judge apparently held Zach in “direct contempt” after he filmed a witness, though major “pool” media had been allowed to film.

— The LA Times hired more than 30 independent contractors, meaning they now receive the benefits of Guild members. So the Times continues to be a beacon of hope in a dark media landscape.

— “Pickup artist” Roosh V is shutting down his dumb misogynistic site because he lost most of his revenue streams after being banned by Paypal and a bunch of ad partners. Deplatforming works! Maybe Brian Stelter will come to his defense?

— Medium published a great explainer on how they work with writers, including inviting writers to join a Partner Program that lets them get paid based on engagement.

— EgyptAir’s in-flight magazine ran a truly bizarre interview with “Drew Barrymore” — at least, that’s definitely her face next to the words. But Barrymore’s reps insist she didn’t participate in the interview. Though the writer stood by the piece, the Hollywood Foreign Press Association has since admitted parts of the article “came from other sources.”