In a recent interview with John Dicker that appears in the September issue of The Toilet Paper (a monthly "Monster-Truck/Gay-Cowboy tabloid" based in Colorado Springs), Taibbi talks about his new gig with Rolling Stone and his recent departure from the New York Press. Taibbi offers a characteristically heated denunciation of columnist and former New York Press owner Russ Smith; says ex-editors Jeff Koyen and Alexander Zaitchik were scapegoats for the failures of the paper's management; and predicts new editor Harry Siegel ("a Smith protege") will turn the paper "into a dumb neocon rag."
In this week's issue, new editor-in-chief Harry Siegel and senior editor Jonathan Leaf say that the "part of New York that belongs to those who make it their home, rather than those who are passing through, is slowly dying" and call the city "an anachronism" in a time that "technology allows financiers, diplomats and scholars to do their work just as well from Jersey City, Chicago, or Omaha as from Midtown." With those things in mind, they lay out what will be their paper's guiding principles: openness, expansiveness and the idea that "a newspaper must serve an ideal of justice."
That's what new editor Harry Siegel (pictured) tells The New York Sun. Siegel, founder of the cultural and political blog New Partisan, says that under his direction the Press will appeal to readers who "are interested in argument and reason" by giving them "a more credible, serious, and ideologically open alternative to the [Village] Voice." The first issue under his editorship will hit the streets on August 24.
Matt Taibbi plugged his new-ish book, "Spanking the Donkey," and spoke to Jon Stewart about covering the presidential race in a gorilla suit, working for the Bush campaign and the ways in which the press corps is like a bunch of high-school kids. Click here to go to Comedy Central's online video library and scroll down to find Taibbi's interview.
Chris Rohland resigned yesterday as president and publisher of New York Press, effective May 27. Rohland says he's leaving to "concentrate (his) energies to other projects, including the development of a sales training program" for other publications. He also says that Avalon Equity, the owners of the Press, are not presently seeking to replace him, and that "members of the Avalon team will be overseeing operations until a decision on the publisher position has been made."
Rather than accept a two-week suspension without pay, NY Press Editor in Chief Jeff Koyen resigned this morning. His departure comes on the heels of intense public criticism of a feature titled "The 52 Funniest Things About the Upcoming Death of the Pope" that ran in the paper last week. President and Publisher Chris Rohland tells Editor & Publisher that -- contrary to comments Koyen made to the Web site Gawker -- the suspension wasn't due to the Pope article itself but a related instance of insubordination.
Lloyd Grove -- a gossip columnist, and one working at the New York Daily News -- found something in New York Press "shockingly offensive" and "nauseating." The offending article, written by Matt Taibbi, is titled "The 52 Funniest Things About the Upcoming Death of the Pope." Grove quotes some New York politicians who express their displeasure with the article. (Note: Recent estimates peg the percentage of New York's residents who identify themselves as Catholic at 40 percent.)
