Study Hall Digest 10/15/2018

By Study Hall staff writer Allegra Hobbs (@allegraehobbs)

Majority of San Francisco Magazine Staff Quits

Last week, we reported that San Francisco Magazine is getting turned into another soulless lifestyle publication by its parent company Modern Luxury. So far there have been no layoffs, but five editors gave their notices Thursday and Friday, according to an editor at the publication, who was among the resignations and attributed the mass exodus to the unwelcome makeover of their magazine (as a sign of things to come, the company was forcing a travel spread on the Dominican Republic into the most recent issue).

“I think we all had our reasons for [quitting], but those reasons were certainly connected to what you reported last week,” the editor wrote to Study Hall in an email.

Those five departures make up the majority of the editorial staff, the editor noted. Only four employees remain: one senior editor, a photo director, a designer, and the copy chief.

Among the resignations were senior editor Scott Lucas, who announced on Twitter he would be departing after putting out the December issue, style and design editor Erin Feher, photo director Jodi Nakatsuka, associate editor Lindsey Smith, and articles editor Ian Stewart, per the San Francisco Chronicle.

Editor Gary Kamiya penned a farewell letter that appears in the latest issue of the magazine, announcing he is leaving the editing profession for good and returning to writing full-time.

San Francisco Magazine served an important role in the area’s local media scene, publishing deep-dives on politics and city life, so it’s discouraging to see it hollowed out like this. It brings to mind the destruction of the once-great LA Weekly, several former staffers of which are launching a new city publication called The LAnd in an attempt to fill the hole left by the remade alt-weekly.

Shitty Man, Being Shitty, Shittily Sues Creator of Shitty Men List

Stephen Elliott is the founder and former Editor in Chief of The Rumpus (which is now owned by women), but nowadays he’s known mostly as a shitty man whose shitty behavior landed him on the Shitty Media Men spreadsheet, his entry in which includes “rape accusations.” He is now suing spreadsheet creator Moira Donegan to the tune of $1.5 million for libel and emotional distress.

Elliott’s propensity for sexual misconduct is well-known in the industry and has been documented outside the list — his predatory behavior was the subject of a 2015 Tin House essay, and some women came forward to publicly lambast Elliott for his behavior after he penned a bizarre piece in the sketchy website Quillette arguing he’s a sub who isn’t into intercourse and therefore doesn’t rape. Well then, case closed!

But beyond the specific accusations and Elliott’s specific shittiness, the lawsuit is an astoundingly cruel and troubling development for women who acted out of a desire to protect themselves and their colleagues in a more formidable way than word-of-mouth whisper networks. The list was never supposed to be public and it wasn’t widely posted until Buzzfeed reported on it. But Elliott believes the women who used the list privately deserve to be punished — which is exactly what a shitty man would think! He hopes not only to punish Donegan for starting the list, but to subpoena Google for data that would reveal who else contributed to it, tacking them on as defendants (Google has said it will resist Elliott’s efforts, per the Daily Beast).

Elliott is sending a clear message — he wants us to believe that we, women in media, are more defenseless than we previously thought. That if we try to protect ourselves or warn each other, we will be intimidated into silence. But far from being silenced, women speaking out in Donegan’s defense. Plus, a GoFundMe was launched to cover her legal fees, and as of Monday morning had raised nearly $98,000. So in conclusion: Go to hell, Stephen Elliott.

Print is NOT DEAD, it’s BETTER THAN EVER

The Guardian has unveiled a new and improved Guardian Weekly, its newspaper insert that features a weekly round-up of the best stories from all the company’s outlets. Now, it’s more of a glossy magazine that can stand on its own. Guardian Weekly editor Will Dean says they wanted to revamp the mag to compete with other weeklies on the newsstand — take that, internet! Look upon this beauty, “digital” “publications”!

Tick-Tock on the Civil Token Sale (It’s Not Looking Good)

Today is the last day to buy Civil Tokens, the cryptocurrency launched by the blockchain-based news organization. When the clock strikes midnight tonight, either it hits $8 million in sales and the sale goes ahead or all the committed funds get returned and nothing happens. This past week, the company acknowledged the effort isn’t going as planned. Civil initially projected a goal of $32 million, but in August they scaled that back to the “soft” goal of $8 million. That still seemed out of reach just a week ago when the founder noted $2.1 million had been pledged, most of it from a crypto company that invested in Civil itself.

And while a few media companies have partnered with Civil (Forbes has signed on), several major newsrooms, including the Washington Post, have rebuffed the company’s proposals, per the Wall Street Journal. Civil co-founder Daniel Sieberg, who was fired over the summer, is now quoted in the Wall Street Journal saying of his own former venture that it’s “demonstrably never going to work as a business model.” Just like… a lot of media, right? At least they tried?

New York Times Metro Section Kicks Off Quiet Rebellion

Staffers at the New York Times’ Metro section did not take kindly to a brutal memo sent out by the new section editor Clifford Levy last week, in which he announced that writers would be evaluated based on “impact,” which as we all know means “traffic.” Those who feel they don’t fit the new model are free to take voluntary buyouts. Fun!! While staffers took the memo as a slap in the face that “impugned” their reporting, according to the New York Post, publisher A.G. Sulzberger said in a meeting he didn’t think it was all that harsh. Anyway, uprisings are always relative at the Times, where no one ever leaves, but I’d bet Levy is sweating a bit.

Trauma, the Brand!™

The Wing’s new cutesy Instagram-worthy Christine Blasey Ford room feels really grotesque to me. It’s been, what, two weeks since Ford’s private trauma was thrust into the public view against her will? She’s still in hiding due to an avalanche of death threats, no? And so to match the severity of the moment you’ve stenciled her name on your soft pink conference room wall? “A person who endured incredible public and private trauma is not a branding opportunity,” noted Jes Skolnik of Bandcamp. Agreed, but considering The Wing’s entire brand is Feminism®, it’s easy for that seemingly obvious truth to get lost amongst the luxury amenities.

SHORT LINKS:

— Hope Hicks has joined Fox as Communications Chief, where she will help “define and project Fox’s voice,” per the company’s chief legal and policy officer. It’s a predictable hire, in a way, seeing as she IS the Trump whisperer and Fox pretty much exists exclusively to whisper to Trump, or look directly into the camera and shout at Trump, and otherwise whisper/shout to Trump supporters.

— Condé Nast’s chief digital officer has left the company, per the New York Post, the latest in a string of executive departures. More layoffs are anticipated in the coming weeks, but that’s been true for a year now??

— Lindsay Peoples Wagner will leave her post as fashion editor at New York Magazine and The Cut to become the new Editor of Teen Vogue. The mag had garnered a reputation for incisive political commentary under former editor Phillip Picardi, so it’ll be interesting to see what direction she takes.

— The New York Times will eventually be a digital-only publication, according to publisher A.G. Sulzberger. Think of all the trees saved.

— The former parent company of notorious clusterfuck Newsweek has been charged with defrauding lenders out of millions in an effort to keep the company afloat. I mean, A for effort. This is what I’m saying — confusing cryptocurrency ventures are relatively harmless in comparison!

— GQ takes a look at “the great White-House reporter glow-up,” a phenomenon that demonstrates journalists benefit in a variety of ways from covering Trump, including acquiring a significantly more sophisticated personal style?