Autumn of the Moguls
Page 33
Murdoch, Elisabeth, 109
Murdoch, James, 109, 169, 363, 365
Murdoch, Lachlan, 109, 166-69, 171-74, 176, 223, 363, 365
Murdoch, Rupert, 18, 26-27, 36, 62, 66, 70, 72, 97, 99, 103, 106-10, 124, 131, 133, 140, 141, 150-51, 153-80, 208, 209, 213, 223, 246, 247, 254, 261, 263, 265-74, 290, 312, 317, 351, 360, 362-65
Murrow, Edward R., 193, 197, 342
Napster, 61, 90, 284-85
National Amusements, 188
NBC, 29, 99, 103, 137, 341-46, 354, 358, 363
Negroponte, Nicholas, 154, 157
Newhouse, Donald, 144
Newhouse, Mitzi, 144
Newhouse, Sam, 144-45
Newhouse, Si, 144, 145, 146-48, 150
News Corp., 26, 92, 106, 108, 155, 156, 159, 165, 174-75, 178, 199, 223, 246, 263, 268, 271, 363-64
Newsweek(magazine), 118, 119-20, 125, 290
New Times(alternative newsmagazine), 46
New York(magazine), 18, 46, 109, 229, 251, 316
New York Daily News(newspaper), 175
New Yorker(magazine), 18, 20, 87, 99, 144, 145, 192, 229, 232, 251, 303, 307, 308
New York Post(newspaper), 4, 108, 109, 165, 173-75, 208, 271, 272
New York Times(newspaper), 35, 41-46, 50-52, 93, 95, 113-14, 117, 138, 191, 192, 202, 270, 273, 315-22, 325, 353, 365-68
New York Times Company, 315, 320
New York Times Magazine,328, 329
New York Yankees, 299
Nicholson, Jack, 242
Nixon, Richard, 36, 168
North Korea, 352
Oates, Joyce Carol, 286
Obst, Lynda, 328
Omnimedia. See Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia
Ovitz, Michael, 237, 238, 242, 245-46
Paley, Grace, 286
Paley, William, 16, 37, 192, 193, 195, 197, 198
Paramount, 97, 98-99, 188, 189, 194, 195, 242, 328, 329, 349
Parenting(magazine), 341
Paretti, Gian Carlo, 67
Parker, Dorothy, 281
Parsons, Richard, 3, 87-88, 95, 96, 221-22
Pathfinder, 121
Patton, Chris, 108
Pearson, Drew, 28
People(magazine), 38, 341
Perle, Richard, 351
Peters, Jon, 214
Peterson, Pete, 54
Pittman, Bob, 3, 74, 82-91, 93, 121-22, 179, 229, 240, 256, 263
Playboy concept, 300
Podhoretz, John, 233
Powell, Colin, 218-19
Powell, Michael, 209, 211, 217-20, 224, 350, 362-63
PowerPoint, 34
Powers That Be, The(Halberstam), 35-38
Private Eye(magazine), 251
Procter & Gamble, 231
Puzo, Mario, 312
Quadrangle Group, 24–25, 39, 54, 56-57, 169, 182-85, 228
Quantum Media, 84
QVC, 97, 99
Raines, Howell, 318, 366, 367
Ramsay, Mike, 293
Random House, 92, 213, 308
Rather, Dan, 197
Rattner, Steve, 42-47, 50-59, 74-75, 96, 113-18, 119, 126, 127, 130, 131-32, 162, 164, 169, 183-84, 198, 228, 253, 269, 293, 315, 321, 324, 346, 347, 367
Reagan, Ronald, 78, 136
Reagan administration, 47, 77
Redstone, Mrs. Sumner (ex-wife), 72
Redstone, Sumner, 25-26, 72, 85, 98-99, 103, 141, 172, 187-90, 193-96, 213, 223, 246, 261, 263, 269, 273, 360-61
Regent Hotel (N.Y.C.), 182
Republican Party, 134-35, 136, 137, 218, 267
Reston, James, 28, 42, 43
Road Runner, 86
Roberts, Brian, 253, 270, 293
Roberts, Ralph, 253, 293
Rockefeller, J.D., 205
Rockefeller family, 15, 37, 205
Rohatyn, Felix, 116
Rolling Stone(magazine), 46
Rose, Charlie, 192-93, 197-99, 200, 209-10, 253, 293, 323-28, 335
Rose, Pete, 298
Roselli, Johnny, 299
Rosenthal, A. M., 42
Ross, Diana, 202
Ross, Steve, 5, 6, 84, 171, 198, 261, 269
Rossetto, Louis, 154
RSCG, 69
Rubin, Bob, 54
Rumsfeld, Donald, 351
Russert, Tim, 197
Ryan, Kevin, 293
Salinger, J. D, 281
San Francisco, Calif, 21
Saturday Review(magazine), 125
Scardino, Marjorie, 213
Schiff, Dorothy, 109
Schwartz, Tony, 241
Seagram’s, 63–64
Seidenberg, Ivan, 294
Semel, Terry, 178, 179-80, 253-61, 264-65, 268
Shamrock Holdings, 248
Shepard, Steve, 83, 125-27, 129-30
Sidey, Hugh, 338
Siegel, Alan, 139
Siegelgale, 139
Silicon Valley, 20-21
Simon, William, 54
Simon & Schuster, 188, 329, 354
Simpsons, The(television program), 154
Sinatra, Frank, 299, 330
SKY Television, 272
Sony, 287
Sony America, 287
Sony Music, 284, 358
Soros, George, 116
Sorrell, Martin, 294
Spielberg, Steven, 244
Spin(magazine), 145-46
Spitzer, Eliot, 120
Spitzer, Mrs. Eliot, 120
Springsteen, Bruce, 281
Spy(magazine), 46, 251
Stanton, Frank, 195
StarTV, 363
Steinbeck, John, 281
Steinbrenner, George, 298-99
Steiner, Josh, 294
Stern, Howard, 189
Stewart, Martha, 74, 80, 93, 210, 294, 295-300, 302, 359
Stork Club (N.Y.C.), 16
Streisand, Barbra, 214
Stringer, Howard, 287, 294
Sulzberger, Arthur, Jr., 44, 45, 269, 270, 294, 315-22, 324, 337, 365, 366-68
Sulzberger, Arthur, Sr., 317, 320, 321
Sulzberger family, 44–45, 273, 316, 317, 318, 365, 368
Sykes, John, 294, 323
Talk(magazine), 29, 301-5, 307, 308-10
Tanner, David, 294
Tatham-Laird, 69
Taylor, Elizabeth, 78
TCI, 104
TED conference (Monterey, Calif.), 24, 151, 153-54, 157
Tellme Networks, 154
Temple, Arthur, 5
Temple family, 5
Temple-Inland, 5
Thielen, Gunter, 95
Thomson, 207–8
Ticketmaster, 100, 334, 359
Time (magazine), 119–20, 121, 252, 315, 338-41, 342
Time Inc., 1, 4-6, 7,8, 30, 84, 87, 98, 121, 122, 179, 296, 297, 315, 319, 321, 344, 349
Time Life Building (N.Y.C.), 6
Time Warner, 1-4, 7-9, 84, 85-89, 121, 122, 178, 180, 191, 230, 232, 234-36, 263, 264, 268, 319, 343.5
See also AOL Time Warner Time Warner Cable, 279, 362
Tina and Harry Come to America(Backrach), 306-7, 308
Tisch, Larry, 197
Tisch family, 195
TiVo, 255-56
Truman, James, 143–50, 154
Trump, Donald, 208
Turner, Ted, 3, 8,110, 213, 342
Twentieth Century Fox, 334
Universal Music, 331
Universal Studios, 64, 65, 70, 101, 330-31, 334, 335-36, 360
USA Interactive, 98, 104
USA Network, 100
USA Networks, 37, 98, 332-33
Valenti, Jack, 294
Vanity Fair(magazine), 36, 46, 65, 71, 144, 145,-246, 251, 303, 307, 308
Variety(trade newspaper), 65, 244
Viacom, 4, 25-26, 34, 92, 106, 187-95, 223, 240, 246, 273, 323, 349, 354, 361
Village Voice(newspaper), 18
VisiCalc, 48
Vivendi, 25, 58, 67, 69-70, 73, 92-96, 101-3, 105, 106, 220, 221, 222-23, 247
Vivendi Universal, 222, 359
Vizzavi, 70
&nb
sp; Vodafone AirTouch, 70
Vogue(magazine), 146
von Furstenberg, Diane, 328
Wachtell, Lipton, 105
Waksal, Sam, 296
Wall Street Journal(newspaper), 76, 77, 80, 279, 337
Wal-Mart, 262
Walt Disney Company. See Disney Company Walters, Barbara, 203
Warner Bros., 98, 178, 254, 261, 268, 357
Warner Communications, 5, 7, 8, 84, 315, 349
Warner Music, 102
Warwick, Dionne, 63
Washington, DC, 338, 339
Washington Post(newspaper), 273, 320, 321, 353
Washington Post Co., 319
Wasserman, Lew, 237
Waugh, Auberon, 306, 312
WCRS, 69
Weakest Link(television program), 343
Weill, Sandy, 116
Weinberger, Caspar, 77
Weinstein, Harvey, 116, 250-51, 252, 294, 304
Weinstein, Robert, 294
Weisman, Steven, 113–14, 115, 117, 120
Weiss, Jon, 294
Welch, Jack, 176, 197, 316, 342
Wells, Frank, 240, 241-42
Wesray, 54
Westin, David, 120
Westinghouse, 29, 195
West Wing, The(television program), 137
White, Maureen, 130
White, Teddy, 340
Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? (television program), 247
Wiatt, Jim, 237-38, 248-49, 294
William Morris, 237
Winchell, Walter, 16
Wintour, Anna, 146
Wired (magazine), 20, 22, 146, 147, 154
Wolf, Michael J., 211-17, 219, 24, 294
Wolff, Steven, 39-41, 72, 113, 169
Wolfowitz, Paul, 351, 352
WorldCom, 74, 75, 93
WPP, 151
Wright, Bob, 354
Wurman, Richard Saul, 24,151, 154
Yahoo, 178, 180, 259
Ziff, Bill, 115-16
Zuckerman, Mort, 46,72, 208
Notes and
Acknowledgments
In the summer of 1998, I began writing a column called “This Media Life” for New York magazine, from which much of this book is derived.
More than any other magazine, New York, through its 35-year history, has made the media business and the people in it a subject of social, political, and gossipy interest. The word mogul itself—applied not just to Hollywood showmen but to a new media business class—was a New York magazine appellation.
It certainly seemed fitting to use the pages of the magazine that had charted and celebrated the rise of the media age to chronicle its decline and fall.
My idea about the way to do this was not as a media critic—that dour schoolmarm figure—but from my view as participant. It was, after all, my business and livelihood and aspirations that were also coming apart. While the great moguls of the age are certainly responsible for the world they have wrought, I too have been along for the ride. What’s more, in part because New York magazine has such proximity to the people I have been writing about, the more I wrote about the business and the people in it (however unflatteringly), the more I got drawn into it. People in the media love nothing so much as the media. Hence, every enemy I made in writing about people in the media produced a hundred friends in the media. Such is the weird condition of being part of the media about the media.
Indeed, I have often found myself in an unexpectedly intimate relationship with my subjects, admiring them for the very faults and personal ridiculousness that have resulted in the mess herein described. In that sense, the column and this book are less a traditional business view than a kind of Nanny Diaries of the media world. I have, I confess, taken advantage of the intimacies that have been extended and have helped myself to the conversation of other people who have had intimate exposure. The media, of course, is not a business you want to be in if you value discretion and loyalty.
So let me dispense from the start with any claim to objectivity. This is a book of fishbowl observation and proximity. I’m one of the fish.
This is the life we lead. Welcome to it. It won’t be around too much longer.
This book would surely not have been possible without the support, counsel, friendship, amazing tolerance, and nearly intravenous flow of ideas that I’ve gotten, more than I would ever have imagined possible, from my colleagues at New York: Caroline Miller (who has defended me against many an irate mogul), John Homans, Sarah Jewler, Joanna Coles, Marion Maneker, most recently Serena Torrey, and, most of all, Simon Dumenco. It was his idea that I write the column, and he has been its faithful steward. Likewise, he tackled this book when it seemed like it would never go down. There is no writer who has ever had a better partner.
HarperCollins has been an encouraging and patient publisher. David Hirshey, Stephen Hanselman, and Nick Trautwein have seen this book through from mud slide to tended garden. Adrian Zackheim, late of HarperCollins, has been a good friend and advisor.
Andrew Wylie, my agent, is, well, Andrew Wylie.
My children, Elizabeth, Susanna, and Steven, have been among my sternest taskmasters (“Are you working on the book, Dad?”).
And my wife, Alison Anthoine, is still my wife, for which I am most deeply grateful.
—Michael Wolff
Manhattan
michael@autumnofthemoguls.com
About the Author
Michael Wolff is a two-time US National Magazine Award winner, the author of the international bestseller Burn Rate and a columnist for Vanity Fair. For some years he wrote a weekly media column in New York magazine and his media journalism appears regularly in the Guardian. He lives in New York City with his wife and three children.
From the reviews of Autumn of the Moguls:
‘Michael Wolff has been throwing custard pies at the rich and powerful since he was appointed New York magazine’s media columnist in 1998. Autumn of the Moguls is his greatest hits collection. Like all the greatest observers of court society, Wolff’s pen seems to have a mind of its own … He’s the Alexander Pope of the mogul set. If you had to have dinner with the most powerful journalists and businessmen in America — and Wolff describes just such a ghastly occasion in chapter 22 — he’s the man you’d want to sit next to’ TOBY YOUNG,Spectator
‘Autumn of the Moguls makes the 1 per cent grade of business literature that transcend the dutifully competent or ambitiously inept. Wolff chooses an epic theme … and is on top of his subject, a stylish writer of enormous wit. In Autumn of the Moguls he has taken his Rolodex and tried to turn it into A Dance to the Music of Time. There’s a dizzying cast, each with a tale attached. Biting observation … writes with an incisiveness which not only makes you laugh but also demonstrates truths about business remarkably well’ EMILY BELL,Observer
‘Wolff’s talent is for taking a big idea and whacking it at you with added spin. Witty as well as rude … A hugely entertaining book: provocative, sharp and spitefully funny. It is, most of all, a snapshot of an extraordinary time in the American media’ Guardian
Visit www.AuthorTracker.com for exclusive information on your favorite HarperCollins author.
By the same author
Burn Rate
Where We Stand(with Peter Rutten and Chip Beyers)
White Kids
Bloodless Lunch in Media-Land
The maitre d’ at Michael’s must have a sense of humor. The other day, he placed USA Interactive chief Barry Diller back-to-back at an adjacent table to New York magazine’s often far-fetched media columnist Michael Wolff. (Among other howlers, Wolff once predicted that the Post was on the brink of closing and that Michael Bloomberg had no chance of becoming mayor.) Diller, a winner throughout his career, recalled earlier this month at the annual meeting of Steve Rattner’s media-investing Quandrangle Group how Wolff had called him a loser in another wrong-headed column. Wolff also whined that Diller had once threatened to kill him. “I should have killed him when I had the chance,” Diller reportedly quipp
ed to the high-powered investors. So all attention was on Diller and Wolff during lunch to see if any words, or thrown drinks, would be exchanged. Sadly, for fight fans at least, the two didn’t seem to make eye contact.
—The New York Post’s “Page Six”
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About the author
Q & A with Michael Wolff
by Rufus Jones
Which papers do you read?
Here’s my list of newspapers. I read the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, the Financial Times, the Washington Post and the New York Post. They all arrive on my doorstep every morning.
What music do you like?
I hate all music.
Do you like cinema?
No. No.
Anything in the arts?
The arts? What did you have in mind?
Fiction?
Yeah, I love fiction, but I don’t see anyone who’s writing any fiction. I mean, this is a dreary time for being a writer of any sort.
Are you writing anything at the moment?
I’m actually writing a screenplay at the moment.
What’s it about?
It’s an Enron-like story.
Do you have a favourite mogul interviewee?
You know, the interesting thing is I find them all stimulating. As much as I have written negatively about these guys, as much as I feel in my heart that they have ruined the media business, I am almost invariably charmed by these guys. And that’s one reason they are in the position they are, because they are charming. They are confident salesmen.
Which journalists inspired you to get into journalism?