• AgencySpy: Guys won't buy a strange girl some tampons. To be fair though, I wouldn't buy tampons for strange guys.

• NY Post: A Brooklyn jury decided that former NY1 reporter Adele Sammarco didn't have enough evidence to prove she was fired for complaining about sexual harassment instead of just for being sort of terrible at her job.

• Gawker: Younus Abdullah Mohammed, a member of Revolution Islam, called Gawker (Or maybe media people in general? Or Americans? Muslim extremists in Brooklyn: They're vague!) "Darwinist faggots who are as despicable as the rest, walking around eating your Triscuits." Then he said, "It doesn't matter what your favorite crackers or cookies are. They are not more important than the hegemonic wars the West is fighting against Islam." We used to think R. Kelly was the modern-day Chaucer, but now we're pretty sure that distinction belongs to Younus Abdullah Mohammed.

• FishbowlLA: Hi ladies. You like Conan O'Brien's Tweet? It's much less red that we'd imagined.

Shares in media companies ended the week with wildly different results; some gained tremendously and others plummeted in a solid week for the broader market. The S&P; 500 finished up 2.1% at 1217.28.

Quarterly earnings from several major newspaper publishers played a role in media stocks' moves this week. Declining revenue was a common theme among the companies that reported, but so was cost-cutting, and so several marquee media names managed to eke out profits for the first quarter.

Shares of The New York Times Co. (NYT) fell 6% over the past five days to $11.61, even though the company announced on Thursday that it made a profit of $52.7 million in the first quarter, up from a loss of $61.7 million a year ago. Declining ad revenue, particularly on the print side, continued to hinder the business.

USA Today publisher Gannett (GCI), which reported earnings last week, got a little encouragement when a Zacks Investment Research issued a "strong buy" rating on shares in the company. Shares inched up 1.3% during the week to close Friday at $18.28

Sacramento Bee and Miami Herald publisher McClatchy (MNI), meanwhile, didn't fare quite as well, announcing a first-quarter loss from continuing operations of $2 million. Shares plummeted 15% to $5.52.

On the opposite side of the spectrum, Virginia-based newspaper publisher Media General (MEG) posted a first-quarter loss of $16.7 million that resulted from tax and interest charges. In any case, the loss was narrower than it was in the first quarter of 2009. The stock gained 20% to end at $12.70.

Weekly stock results for Journal Communications (JRN) and , Lee Enterprises (LEE).

continued...

Bill Wise is leaving his post as Yahoo's VP of display ad platforms. Wise was formerly president of Right Media, which was acquired by Yahoo.

His duties will be taken up by Ramsey McGrory, Yahoo VP of North American marketplaces and also a former employee at Right Media.

According to a Yahoo spokesperson, Wise is leaving in order to "pursue the next phase of his career."

As we left the ASME National Magazine Awards last night, full of cheese and Chardonnay and hope for the print industry, we were handed a complimentary copy of the new, revamped Bloomberg Businessweek April 26 - May 2 issue. And, even though the magazine's editor, Josh Tyrangiel, mentions in his editor's letter that no one really asked them to do this, the redesign looks pretty snazzy. Writes Tyrangiel (er, Josh):

In the five months since Bloomberg LP acquired Businessweek and I became the magazine's editor, not one of our 900,000 subscribers and 4.7 million readers has written to demand a thorough redesign. I've seen letters about our coverage of President Obama and Goldman Sachs (not surprisingly, they're split down the middle) and letters about the pronunciation of my last name. (Josh is really fine.) Yet no one felt the need to critique our fonts.

One of the more striking aspects of the magazine's new design is, of course, its logo. "Bloomberg" and "Businessweek" get equal footing, what with Businessweek utilizing Bloomberg's 1,700 journalists around the world. Gone is the red-and-white Businessweek logo of the past. Taking its place, in a move heralded by one of its own articles, is a sleeker, more contemporary-looking logo of black Helvetica against a white background. The look says, "Yeah, so maybe we do wear suits! But they're cut slightly too short and we pair then with ironic frames and skinny ties, suckas." Only in a more subtle, slightly more elegant way.

Other changes at the magazine include an annual output of 50 issues (rather than 47), and slightly heavier (though still on the thinner side) paperstock.

All in all: Very nice. We like the new, more streamlined look and, of course, the smart coverage the magazine has always been known for. Included in this issue are cover stories on Goldman Sachs sucking and the SEC investigation's impact on Wall Street, a look at Meg Whitman's campaign, how Apple is taking over the known universe and "The Best Company Softball Team Money Can Buy." We haven't read the last one yet, but we'll assume they mean the Bluth Company's team.

Remember April 1, when The New York Times Co. sold a small portion of its share in Red Sox Nation? Turns out that the "50 of a total of 750 units" in Red Sox operator New England Sports Ventures was worth $9 million, according to the Times Co.'s first-quarter earnings released yesterday.

According to a report on the matter by The Boston Globe that takes great interest in valuing the Red Sox franchise, each "unit" of New England Sports Ventures appreciated from $100,000 to $280,000 over the period the Times Co. has held its stake. The report also says:

The Times Co. couldn't get top dollar when it tried to unload its entire stake last year, according to people briefed on the matter. But it's still trying to sell its remaining 16.6 percent.

It might not be such a bad idea for the Times Co. to sell of the Red Sox investment piecemeal, if it means getting such a stellar return.

The iPad, the iPod for people with giant hands that will either kill or save or coolly ignore print publishing, accounts for 26 percent of Wired's digital traffic. And it only came out this month, just three short weeks ago! That is an interesting thing to note!

According to Wired, mobile devices make up between 2.3 and 3.5 percent of their total traffic. From April 3 (the day the iPad hit stores) to April 19, iPad users accounted for 0.91 percent of Wired's total site traffic. And it seems like many of these new iPad users were former iPhone owners who remained in the Apple family - the increase in iPad usage corresponded with a decrease in use by iPhone and iPod Touch users.

It remains to be seen, of course, whether those visiting the magazine's website through their iPads will translate into people downloading Wired's forthcoming digital magazine - anticipation for which has either been amplified or marred by Apple's refusal to make its handheld devices Adobe Flash-friendly. Wired even notes the irony that iPad traffic to their site is strong even despite the fact that much of their website's videos use Flash:

And yes, we are aware of the irony that the majority of Wired.com's videos, which use an Adobe Flash-based player, don't play on the iPad. We're working on that, starting with our homepage, which became iPad-compatible starting Wednesday evening, thanks to Wired.com managing editor Pam Statz.

And that, friends, is the attitude that lands you Ellie awards. And money.

Wenner Media has made two personnel moves to accommodate the upcoming departure of Rolling Stone publisher Will Schenk.

minOnline reports that Matt Mastrangelo is moving over from the publisher's office at fellow Wenner title Men's Journal to take over for Schenk. Before Men's Journal, Mastrangelo worked as an ad director at Rolling Stone for four years.

Meanwhile, Men's Journal associate publisher Michael Wolfe, in turn, takes over Mastrangelo's vacated spot at the dude-lifestyle magazine. Wolfe was previously vice president and publisher of Best Life at Rodale. He has also worked for GQ and O, the Oprah Magazine.

Analysts covering both the credit prospects and the stock price of The New York Times Co. have issued favorable forecast's for the newspaper publisher's future, says Editor & Publisher.

Standard & Poor's, which evaluates the likelihood that an entity will pay a lender back, said it is considering upgrading its current junk-level rating on the Times Co., citing a mellowing of revenue declines.

As for the company's share price, research company Morningstar announced it would consider changing its estimate of the stock's value. A new analysts will begin coverage of the Times. Previously, Morningstar had valued the stock at $4. Shares of Times Co. currently trade around the $11 to $12 area.

The Times earlier this week announced solid first-quarter results, swinging to a profit of $52.7 million from a loss of $61.7 million a year ago.

Big Think is on a roll this week. Yesterday, we featured their interview with The New Yorker's David Remnick about the future of print and how blogs are, eh, whatever, not his cup of tea. Today they're featuring an interview with John Buffalo Mailer, who happens to have the distinction of being both Norman Mailer's son (then again, chances are most of you probably are, too) and the former editor of High Times magazine, which was unfortunately overlooked for an ASME nom yet again.

Mailer discusses, among other things, the low times at High Times (sorry), including this heartbreaking anecdote:

And, you know, I'm a nicer guy than I should be in a lot of instances, but I couldn't look at that, you know, 55 year-old advertising director with the long ratty gray hair who would forget his teeth oftentimes coming in and, like, you know, I said, "Who are you?" And he's like, "Oh, I'm your ad man." I thought, "Oh, we're fucked." And I couldn't look at that guy and know that if I fired him he was going to lost custody of his kid and probably wouldn't be able to get another job anywhere else because he had been there for so long. That's not something I wanted on my conscience, not something that I felt like doing and I wasn't willing to sacrifice that for the greater good of the magazine.

Oh John. You're so kind, bud.

Mailer also mentions that Oliver Stone and Anderson Cooper are carrying on his father's legacy, as well as some pointers on writing he picked up from his famous father. For more with John Buffalo Mailer, click here.

Reader's Digest's Weekly Reader, the elementary-school publication featuring cover stories like "We Have Five Senses," "Fantastic Frogs," and "Hello, Baby Panda," is revamping both the digital and print side of the publication, according to a report by minOnline -- and this promotional video.

In time for the new academic year, the print publications will have new layouts. The website is also getting an overhaul to help both teachers and students find age-appropriate reading material.

We're confident that the new layout will do little to alter Weekly Reader's status as a welcome Friday distraction that greatly benefit antsy schoolchildren and hungover teachers alike. According to WR the publication reaches 250,000 teachers and 8 million students PK-12 every year. That's roughtly 8% of all teachers, if Weekly Reader's numbers match up with those of the U.S. Census bureau.

After the jump, some screengrabs of new covers from the promo video.

continued...

Last night's National Magazine Awards were... safe, we guess we'd say. There were no real upsets or surprises, with very to relatively big names taking home the top prizes and somewhat big names acting as co-presenters (Rebecca Mader? Katrina Bowden? Copious side boob?).

One highlight (and subsequent, unexpected lowlight) of the night occurred when former ASME executive director Marlene Kahan (whom FishbowlNY chatted with a couple of years back) was given a special award for her decades' worth of work and commitment to the magazine industry. Just as Kahan wrapped up her speech, in which she expressed her gratitude for the industry for having helped raise funds to find a cure for Parkinson's (a disease which Kahan is currently battling), someone sitting two or three rows from the back let out a forceful and sustained "boo." This was the second time this person had boo'd at Marlene, the first time being at the beginning of the ceremony, when her name was initially announced. (We even mentioned it during our live-Tweet of last night's ceremony.) Was he booing her decision to step down? Was he drunk? Or just being a colossal cocksock? The world may never know!

Vogue editor Anna Wintour also took home a special prize that evening, having been ushered into ASME's Magazine Editor Hall of Fame. The New Yorker editor David Remnick introduced Wintour, as her brother, Patrick Wintour, was trapped in London thanks to the clouds of ash and hellfire emitting from that Icelandic volcano that no one can pronounce. Remnick joked that this showed there was one thing Anna Wintour could not control, and that was God. Everyone laughed nervously, for we knew this was untrue.

In her speech, a shaky-voiced Wintour made sure to issue a special thank you to her longtime cohort, Vogue creative director Grace Coddington, to whom Wintour referred as her "flame-haired and flame-tempered" colleague.

Glamour took home the night's big award for "Best Magazine," a new prize celebrating the magazine that demonstrated the best print and digital efforts throughout the year. Editor in chief Cynthia Leive mentioned how excited she was to see so many women's magazines being represented and recognized that evening.

The most prolific winners of the night were New York, with four awards; National Geographic, which won three awards; The New Yorker, which also won three awards; and Wired, which took home two awards.

View our photo slideshow and a full list of the winners after the jump.

continued...

Chris Ware, the brilliant comic-book artist behind the Acme Novelty Library, designed a May cover for capitalist-cheerleader magazine Fortune, only to see it killed. We can sort of see why. A high-res version of the image reveals tiny figures celebrating with wine and music on top of the golden skyscraper. One helicopter shovels money out of the Treasury building while another dumps bills on the rooftop revelers. Greece's Treasury, meanwhile, is empty; orange-clad prisoners sit in Guantanamo Bay; and in Mexico, workers sit cramped in a "Fabrica de Exploitacion."

It's a hilarious, beautiful, meticulous design. Shame it won't hit newsstands, but we're glad the Internet gives us a chance to look.

(via Newsweek Tumblr, The Stranger, Comicsbeat)