Powerful Media
601 West 26th St.
13th Floor
New York, NY 10001
212/937-0100
http://www.inside.com
The much-ballyhooed media and entertainment Web site inside.com opened its digital doors early for a "sneak preview" last week for fear that stampeding Web surfers and industry
pundits might riot. (Rest assured the hype value of that move is not lost on us.) The site promises one-stop shopping for industry professionals, consumer aficionados and
investors who need a daily fix of scuttlebutt and analysis from the world of movies, music, TV, books, magazines and Web publishing.
Content
Founded by Spy co-creator Kurt Andersen, former Spin editor-in-chief Michael Hirschorn, and Deanna Brown (most recently publisher of Brill's Content), the site - part business
and part gossip - has poached top journalists from venerable titles such as The Wall Street Journal, Vanity Fair, Time, Rolling Stone and Variety. The site is structured as a
cluster of b2b information services geared toward providing "authoritative, timely, smart and useful news, analysis and data about the entertainment and media industries."
Contacts
According to Assistant Editor Sarah Fetherston, all contributing editors and reporters can be reached via email by typing firstinitial.lastname@inside.com. When in doubt, simply visit the site and click on a reporter's byline and you'll get a pop-up
email window. The star-studded staff includes:
FILM EDITOR: Chris Petrikin (was news editor at Variety)
TELEVISION EDITOR: Kyle Pope (was TV and advertising editor at the Wall Street
Journal)
MUSIC EDITOR: Craig Marks (was executive editor at Spin)
MEDIA EDITOR: Lorne Manly (was senior editor at Brill's Content)
MANAGING EDITOR: Chris Peacock (was editor of Fortune.com and executive producer
of Time Inc. New Media)
Pitch Tips
The site's channels run deep and wide, and deadlines are rolling. Content is updated hourly as new dish becomes available, Fetherston says. Your best bet is to pitch
"exclusive, behind-the-scenes" scoop on matters such as big movie deals in the works, hot books that are still in galleys and celebrity scoop (gossip not only about Hollywood
darlings, but also members of the media elite).
Comments
As Newsweek's Devin Gordon put it, the site's founders are "betting [they] can make money on the Internet by tapping into the bottomless craving for inside dish on one of the
country's chief exports: the media and entertainment business." Powerful Media's plan is to secure 100,000 paid subscribers in three years. Content won't be free for long, so get
your free 30-day trial sub and do your homework now.
As PR NEWS went to press, the site's inaugural content included news about editor Susan Wyland's ouster from Real Simple, FOX's fall schedule, Britney Spears' sales prowess,
and Barnes & Noble's latest bestsellers (from a retailer's perspective).
More Contacts At Inside.com:
Film: Senior Film Correspondent: Kim Masters; Film Reporter: Christian Moerk; Associate Film Editor: Josh Spector; Contributing Film Editor: Bruce Fierstein.
Television: Senior TV Correspondent: Stephen Battaglio; TV Markets Editor: Tom Bierbaum; TV Reporter: Scott Collins; Associate TV Editor: Beth Pinsker; Contributors: Tom
Fontana, Harry Shearer.
Music: Music Editor-at-Large: Joe Fleischer; Senior Music Correspondent: Bruce Haring; Music Reporter: Warren Cohen, John O'Hara; Associate Editor, Music: Alex Pappademas;
Music Retail Analyst: Rich Yaffa; Contributor: Danny Goldberg.
Media/Book Publishing: Chief Digital Media Reporter: Greg Lindsay; National Media Correspondent: David Carr; Associate Editor, Media: Peter Edmonston; Books Editor: Sara
Nelson; Senior Books Reporter: PJ Mark; Assistant Editor, Book Publishing: Farrin Jacobs; Contributing Editor, Digital Media: Jimmy Guterman; Contributors, Book Publishing:
Constance Sayre, Lorraine Shanley; Contributor, Magazines: Evan Smith.
General: Business Editor: Richard Siklos; Senior Editor: Todd Pruzan; Senior News Editor: Noam Cohen; Senior Writers: Roger Parloff (legal issues); Research Editor: Leslie
Marable; News Editor: Jared Hohlt; Editor-at-Large: Suzanne O'Malley; Editor, Career Center: Gabrielle Dudnyk.