Manhattan's preeminent gossip column, The New York Post's Page Six, edited by "Big Apple" daily war veteran Richard Johnson, occupies a precious if sometimes puzzling place in the hearts of top American publicists and PR execs.
Considered by media planners, talk show bookers, magazine editors and other mdia tastemakers as the vanguard whodunit for predicting tomorrow's hot faces, products, and topics, this hallmark of Rupert Murdoch's Manhattan print media empire sets a singular pace. Few outside Manhattan's media elite understand Johnson's most particular criteria for inclusion, or how the column's well-regarded editor selects the occasional snippets of puffery which festoon the super-popular daily newspaper feature. PR News takes a special look.
"I have a really short attention span, and our readers' is even shorter," said Johnson, 42. "If a publicist calls me with something and it takes more than ten seconds to explain, forget it."
Perfect items, in Johnson's world, can usually be described in three words, such as "Madonna is pregnant," and fleshed out in a neat 50 or 60. The "double," or lead item of the day, will run at about twice that length. A large cartoon, usually political, occupies the center spot, and there are two photo items, usually of beautiful people.
A PR exec who delivers a juicy whopper Johnson prints can expect some future client consideration, in an informal system most describe as "favor banking." But even an innocuous plug must somehow be newsworthy.
"Richard has a steady reputation for taste and editorial judgment," said Douglas Deschert, a journalist, public relations consultant and all-around media operative regularly contributing to Page Six. "It's the only gossip column with an effective imprimatur -merely being mentioned carries a certain status."
For a big client --or a client's enemy -- to warrant coverage on Page Six, the story must have an element of being an insider's take on the personal or professional life of a "mover and shaker," and it must be exclusive.
Forget faxing Johnson or his assistant editors Jeane MacIntosh and Sean Gannon a conventional press release. If you've got something worthy of Page Six, you'd best call it in. But before you do, obtain several past editions, and with an eye toward tomorrow, subject your item to the same stringent litmus test proving yesterday's news. The tidbit should involve a business, political, religious, criminal, or entertainment celebrity, not necessarily resident in New York, and it should either be funny, naughty, odd, a second act, or closely tied to the headline news of the day.
"Page Six is absolutely the first thing I read every day," confided Esquire columnist Jeannette Walls. "Unlike Liz Smith or Cindy Adams, Page Six is more driven by news content than author personality, and I think that's why it's so powerful. Page Six is the puppet masters more than the puppets. [Richard] pulls the curtain back."
The column debuted in 1976, when Murdoch bought the paper and asked founding editor Neil Travis to try his hand at creating a truly New York gossip column. Travis now has his own more conventional gossip column in The New York Post which runs opposite Page Six.
Johnson first became Page Six editor in 1985. He left in 1990 to work for rival New York Daily News, returning to the Post in 1993. Johnson is married to publicist and event planner Nadine Johnson. But even Johnson's detractors grudgingly admit that his wife gets few favors. "I've been known to hang up on her, too," quipped Johnson.
Ironically, Page Six today runs on page eight, because of the way breaking news in the front of the newspaper is now typically packaged, with four or five stories related to the headlines.
Sometime in the 1980s the paper's news editors decided they needed a larger well, and bumped the column back two pages. But by then, the column had become such an institution that the old name was retained.
(Richard Johnson, 212/930-8500; Jeannette Walls, 212/649-4291; Douglas Deschert, 212/861-3412)