I've never "jockeyed for credit [with Nick Denton] for pioneering... a willingness to run suspect info". Credit goes entirely to Nick for that. It was more the strenuous avoidance of anything remotely resembling useful service journalism in favor of utterly useless gossip that was my contribution. I wrote a listicle once and it was painful for everyone.
When I went to New York mag Nick swore they were going to force me to write hamburger recommendations, but fortunately for New York and the hamburger-eating residents of the five boroughs, that never happened. I was, however, asked to write a tongue-in-cheek essay explaining the utility of the magazine's service-based "Best of New York" issue and it eventually morphed into second-person fiction that ran (literally and in its entirety) on the cover. That's as close as New York (wisely) let me get to the service part of the mag. I just have no desire to be...what's the word?...useful.
And randomly and unrelatedly: I'm on the old-and-decrepit end of InstitutionalInvestor.com's "30 Under 30." Though as far as I know, Morgan Stanley isn't blocking us.
But Merrill is. Pussies!
Posted by Elizabeth Spiers at May 8, 2006 10:40 AM