WHEN DID THE NEWS INDUSTRY BECOME SO GLAMOROUS?

By: Ellen Liburt A Look At Inside.com's Glitzy Launch



Aptly enough, it was an Inside.com insider, designer Michael Bierut,
who provided a media-savvy spin on Powerful Media Inc.'s recent opening
party in New York for its highly anticipated entertainment and media
news Web publication.



Referring to the throng of wannabe hipsters pining for entry to the
glitzy gala peopled by young guns, cute girls, and celebs - including
NBC's Tom Brokaw, Time's Walter Isaacson, plus Courtney Love,
Bret Easton Ellis, Joan Didion, and Gregory Dunne - Bierut wondered
aloud, 'When did the news industry become so glamorous?'



As Dionne Warwick crooned, 'I Say a Little Prayer for You,' in the
background at a swanky Chelsea salon, and Kurt Andersen and actor
Oliver Platt chatted while paparazzi snapped away, Bierut revisited his
nerdy high-school days working on the school newspaper and the AV
squad, and mused with some satisfaction, 'Suddenly we throw the cool
parties at our house, and the cheerleaders and football players wait in
line outside.'



The venture was funded in part by TheStreet.com's Jim Cramer, and
founded by Kurt Andersen, former editor of New York magazine;
Deanna Brown, former president of Brill's Content; and Michael
Hirschorn, who formerly edited Spin magazine and is Inside.com's
editor in chief. It aims to provide top-notch journalism, analyses,
vast databases, and a sense of community - all of which Insiders hope
will prove indispensable enough to those working in media and
entertainment that they'll be willing to fork over the monthly
subscription of $19.95.


And what will subscribers get for their money? Insiders point to the
site's focus on how the digital economy is revolutionizing the
industries it covers. There is also the intoxicating allure of fresh
dish, 24/7, on the media's favorite subject (themselves). Then there's
the site itself. With its cascade of color blocks and text denoting
breaking news stories, analytic pieces, a 'Mogul Power Index' that
readers can vote on, gossip, and a whole lot more, the current home
page would give Basquiat a run for his money. It has plans for wireless
platforms as well.


Although nonpaying users will be able to check out many daily and
weekly features, only subscribers will gain access to the 'serious,
deep, inside stuff,' as a press release puts it. All this supplied by a
staff of 30 or so divided between New York and Los Angeles.



Media Editor Lorne Manly, formerly of The New York Observer and
E&P sibling Mediaweek, said that newspapers are a core
component of the site's media section, along with magazines and
digital-content players. 'So far,' he said, 'we've done several
newspaper stories - the digital devotion at The Washington Post
amid carping from major investor Warren Buffet, for example - and we
plan on doing many more. How newspapers maintain brand, relevance, and
audience in a more complicated information marketplace is a major
preoccupation, as is the way in which newspapers are aggregating
audiences, either through alliances, acquisitions, or digital
endeavors.'



Manly also sees potential in this lickety-split medium to close the
traditional gap between the time a story breaks and the time readers
learn why it happened. For instance, he said, 'We had an article about
the JOA in Denver published an hour after it was announced, and even
though it wasn't a long article, we gave our readers a good look at the
competitive pressures that made an agreement inevitable.'



Asked how Inside.com will distinguish itself from competitors such as
Medianews.com, Manly professed his admiration for Jim Romanesko's buzz
hub, but noted that it can only serve as 'a window on events.
[Romanesko] uses a reader's eye to discern the events of the day, and
does a great job of it,' Manly said. 'We use the reporter's tools -
phone calls, sources, analysis, and strong, clear writing to give our
readers a level of understanding about events that you can't get by
just following a link.'