Anil Dash

Condé Nast Brings Gourmet–But Not Its Staff–Back From the Dead

Peter Kafka in Media on June 22, 2010 at 8:19 am PT

Last fall, Condé Nast shuttered Gourmet, its beloved but unprofitable food title. Now the publisher is bringing Gourmet back, with a new plan to turn it into a moneymaker: Keep the brand–via an app-centric magazine–but lose the staff.

Media Consultant Michael Wolf Is a Media Consultant Again

Peter Kafka in Media on February 24, 2010 at 9:01 pm PT

It must be “hang out your shingle week” for big media vets. First, CBS digital dealmaker Quincy Smith and crew formally unveiled his M&A shop after months of planning. And here’s Michael Wolf, the longtime media consultant last seen at Viacom. He’s back to consulting again.

Let the Navel-Gazing (and Grumping) About Vanity URLS Begin–Can Facebook Soothe the Savage Media?

Kara Swisher in News on June 11, 2009 at 2:34 am PT

Exactly how is the introduction of vanity URLs on Facebook going to go? At 9:01 p.m. PDT on Friday, the giant Silicon Valley-based social-networking site will allow its 200 million members to log in and claim a friendlier username for part of their URLs instead of the long string of gibberish that is now there. But, because it is about people’s names and because it is certain to be chaotic in its execution, I think we can pretty much slap the moniker “URLgate” on this one and just call it a night.