`Parade''s Cable-TV Connection Historically

(The following article first appeared in the 11/18/92 issue of the now-defunct Lower East Side alternative newspaper Downtown)

Perhaps one reason why many U.S. cable TV shows haven’t, historically, talked too much about either the amount of money and Big Media power that the Newhouse Dynasty possessed in the 1990s or the literary quality of its Parade, Vogue and other Newhouse media conglomerate magazines, was that Newhouse also owned many U.S. cable television systems in the 1980s and 1990s. As the book Newspaperman by Richard Meeker observed:

“By early 1981, the Newhouse family owned and operated dozens of cable systems throughout the Northeast, South and Midwest, with a total of 500,000 subscribers—making theirs the 8th largest cable-TV operation in the United States.”

In the early 1990s, the cable-TV operation of the Newhouse media conglomerate was the 14th-largest one in the USA. Among the cable-TV companies owned by its Newhouse Broadcasting Corporation in the early 1990s were Metrovision Inc., News-Channels Corporation and Vision Cable Communications. Coincidentally, S.I. Newhouse III was the assistant secretary of the Metrovision Inc. subsidiary and Jo Newhouse was the personnel director of the Vision Cable Communications Inc. subsidiary of the Newhouse media conglomerate in the early 1990s.

Newhouse’s Metrovision operated 21 cable systems in states like Illinois, Indiana, Louisiana, Maryland, Michigan, Nebraska, Ohio, Texas, Wisconsin and Wyoming in the early 1990s; and over 450,000 households subscribed to cable-TV systems which it owned in the early 1990s.

Newhouse’s Vision Cable Communications operated 15 cable-TV systems in states like Florida, Louisiana, New Jersey, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and South Carolina in the early 1990s; and over 470,000 households subscribed to cable systems which it owned in the early 1990s.

Newhouse’s NewsChannels Corp. operated 31 cable systems in Alabama, Pennsylvania and upstate New York in the early 1990s; and over 380,000 households subscribed to this subsidiary’s cable systems in the early 1990s. Coincidentally, Newhouse’s NewsChannels Corp. operated a cable-TV system in Syracuse—where Newhouse also markets Syracuse’s daily newspaper—in the early 1990s.

(Downtown 11/18/92)

African-American Male Worker Jobless Rate Under Obama Regime: 17.2 Percent

The official “seasonally adjusted” unemployment rate for African-American male workers over 20 years-of-age in the United States increased from 15.4 percent to 17.2 percent between March 2009 and April 2009 under the Democratic Obama Regime, according to the latest Bureau of Labor Statistics data.

The official “seasonally adjusted” jobless rate for African-American female workers over 20 years-of-age also increased from 9.9 percent to 11.5 percent between March 2009 and April 2009; and the official “seasonally adjusted” jobless rate for all African-American workers under the Democratic Obama Regime increased from 13.3 percent to 15 percent during this same period.

The “seasonally adjusted” unemployment rate for white male workers also increased from 8 percent to 8.5 percent between March 2009 and April 2009.

The “seasonally adjusted” rate for all Hispanic or Latino workers in April 2009 was 11.3 percent.

For all U.S. workers over 20 years-of-age, the “seasonally adjusted” jobless rate increased from 8.5 percent to 8.9 percent between March 2009 and April 2009.

The “seasonally adjusted” jobless rate for African-American youth between 16 and 19 years-of-age increased from 32.5 percent to 34.7 percent between March 2009 and April 2009 under the Democratic Obama Regime, while the unemployment rate for Hispanic or Latino youth increased from 24.9 percent to 26.5 percent during this same period.

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ May 8, 2009 press release:

“…In April, job losses were large and widespread across nearly all major private-sector industries. Overall, private-sector employment fell by 611,000.

“The number of unemployed persons increased by 563,000 to 13.7 million in April…

“Among the unemployed, the number of job losers and persons who completed temporary jobs rose by 571,000 in April to 8.8 million….

“The number of long-term unemployed (those jobless for 27 weeks or more) increased by 498,000 to 3.7 million over the month…

“About 2.1 million persons…were marginally attached to the labor force in April…These individuals wanted and were available for work…They were not counted as unemployed because they had not searched for work in the 4 weeks preceding the survey. Among the marginally attached, there were 740,000 discouraged workers in April…

“Nonfarm payroll employment fell by 539,000 in April to 132.4 million; private-sector employment declined by 611,000…In April, job losses continued in most major private-sector industries…

“Employment in manufacturing fell by 149,000 over the month…

“Construction employment declined by 110,000 in April…

“The professional and business services industry lost 122,000 jobs in April….Half of the April decline occurred in temporary help services.

“Employment in retail trade fell by 47,000 in April…. Wholesale trade employment was down by 41,000 over the month…

“Employment in transportation and warehousing declined by 38,000 in April…Employment in financial activities declined by 40,000 over the month…The leisure and hospitality industry lost 44,000 jobs in April…”

`Parade' Magazine's Newhouse Newspaper/Advance Publications Connection Historically

(The following article first appeared in the 11/18/92 issue of the now-defunct Lower East Side alternative newspaper Downtown)

In 1962, Oregon Senator Wayne Morse argued that “The American people need to be warned before it is too late about the threat which is arising as a result of the monopolistic practices of the Newhouse interests.” But, 30 years later, many U.S. newspapers were still owned by the Newhouse interests in the early 1990s.

One reason why neither Parade nor the Vogue/Conde’ Nast magazines nor the Newhouse Dynasty need to worry about being satirized too much in many U.S. daily newspapers is that many U.S. daily newspapers are owned by the Newhouse Dynasty’s Advance Publications holding company. In the early 1990s, the fourth-largest newspaper chain in the U.S. was owned by Newhouse. Over $1.7 billion per year was taken in by the Newhouse family company from its 26 newspapers during the early 1990s. And the daily circulation of Newhouse’s newspapers exceeded 3 million in the early 1990s. The following U.S. newspapers are still all owned by the same media conglomerate which owns Parade and the Vogue/Conde’ Nast magazines: Newark Star-Ledger; Jersey City Journal; Trenton Times; Staten Island Advance; Syracuse Post-Standard; Portland Oregonian; Harrisburg Patriot/Patriot-News; Cleveland Plain-Dealer; Birmingham News; Huntsville Times/Huntsville News; New Orleans Times-Picayune; Springfield Union News/Republican; Ann Arbor News; Flint Journal; Grand Rapids Press; Kalamazoo Gazette; Bay City Times; Saginaw News; Jackson Citizen-Patriot; Muskegon Chronicle; and the Mississippi Press-Register.

During the 1950s, Newhouse’s Newark Star-Ledger (whose circulation exceeded 400,000 in the early 1990s) apparently agreed “to be used as a conduit for charges [Joe] McCarthy himself didn’t dare make public,” and “when certain of its syndicated columnists, Drew Pearson among them, began to attack McCarthy, the Ledger refused to print the revelations,” according to Newspaperman: S.I. Newhouse And The Business Of News by Richard Meeker.

Coincidentally, when a book critical of the Newhouse media conglomerate’s seemingly monopolistic practices, Newhouse, Newspapers, Nuisances: Highlights In The Growth Of A Communications Empire by John Lent, was published in the early 1960s, none of the newspapers which were part of the Newhouse newspaper chain printed a review of the book.

Newhouse newspapers are not particularly known for being examples of quality journalism. Indeed, in 1964, Newspaper Guild Vice-President William Farson made in reference to Samuel Newhouse I the following comment:

“More people jump on Newhouse than other monopolists because he has a history of putting out poor newspapers. He wants no competition because if he had to compete, he couldn’t afford to put out a poor paper, and in the process he wouldn’t make as much money.”

When More magazine—a magazine not owned by the Newhouse Dynasty—“compiled a list of the 10 worst big-circulation daily newspapers in America” in the 1970s “three of Newhouse’s newspapers were on it,” according to the Newspaperman book.

(Downtown 11/18/92)

`Parade'/`Vogue''s `GQ', `Vanity Fair', `New Yorker Magazine', `Details' Connection Historically

(The following article first appeared in the 11/18/92 issue of the now-defunct Lower East Side alternative newspaper Downtown)

Although Vogue, Glamour, Self and Allure pose as magazines which present editorially a competing “women’s point of view” to the primarily male-oriented GQ/Gentleman’s Quarterly magazine, the same Newhouse Dynasty media conglomerate which owns Vogue, Glamour, Self and Allure has also owned GQ since 1979. And GQ’s editorial director in the early 1990s, Alexander Liberman, was the same man who was the editorial director of Vogue, Glamour, Self and Allure. After the previously competing Gentleman’s Quarterly/GQ was purchased by Newhouse, its circulation increased from 180,000 to around 700,000 each month in the early 1990s.

The Newhouse Dynasty’s media conglomerate also owns and markets Vanity Fair and the New Yorker Magazine. Vanity Fair and the New Yorker Magazine were each read by over 600,000 people in the early 1990s.

Vanity Fair was re-launched in 1983—using the same name of Conde’ Nast’s defunct pre-World War II publication—by Newhouse. The British wife of an editor named Harold Evans—former British magazine Tatler editor Tina Brown—was soon named to be Vanity Fair’s editor by Newhouse. At the time it was started, according to The Last Days Of The New Yorker by Gig Mahon, “Vanity Fair made it blatantly clear that it wanted New Yorker readers and advertisers.”

The New Yorker was among the top U.S. magazines in terms of the number of pages sold to retail advertisers in the early 1980s. With a circulation of around 500,000 in the early 1980s, it was taking in about $70 million from its ad sales, newsstand sales and subscriptions.

Coincidentally, after Newhouse decided that The New Yorker was the magazine that competed with Vanity Fair, Newhouse spent $200 million in 1985 to buy The New Yorker—and thus bring the previously competing New Yorker into the Newhouse stable of magazines. In November 1984, Samuel Newhouse I’s son, S.I. “Si” Newhouse Jr., had first promised “that he would limit his investment in The New Yorker to 25 percent of the stock,” according to The Last Days Of The New Yorker. But by 1985, Newhouse decided it wanted complete control of The New Yorker magazine operation.

After Newhouse fired the editor of The New Yorker in January 1987, the magazine’s staff drafted a letter in which it protested that “a new editor has been imposed on us.” In the early 1990s, ironically, Newhouse’s newest editor at The New Yorker was Tina Brown—the former editor of the previously competing Vanity Fair magazine.

Although Details sometimes liked to pose for its 250,000 readers in the early 1990s as an alternative Downtown magazine, it, too, was owned by Parade magazine’s parent company. Newhouse purchased Details for around $3 million in the late 1980s and, coincidentally, Details wasn’t too quick to print too many details about either Parade magazine or Newhouse in the early 1990s. A young member of the Newhouse Dynasty—Jonathan Newhouse—was, coincidentally, named to be the publisher at Details for awhile in the late 1980s.

Asked by Downtown in a Fall 1992 telephone interview if Details magazine had been affected much by the Newhouse family’s purchase of it, then-Details editor James Truman replied (in a heavy British accent): “It’s a nonsensical question. It’s a completely different magazine. Absolutely different.”

(Downtown 11/18/92)

Corporate Male Supremacy At Newhouse/`Vogue'/Conde' Nast In 1990s

(The following article first appeared in the 11/18/92 issue of the now-defunct Lower East Side alternative newspaper Downtown)

Patterns of Corporate Male Supremacy within the Newhouse/Vogue/Conde’ Nast operation in the early 1990s were manifested in ways other than in the Newhouse media conglomerate’s practice of then allowing just one man to be the editorial director of all of its women-oriented magazines. At Vogue in the early 1990s, its creative director was a corporate man named Andre’ Leon Talley, its art director was a corporate man named Raul Martinez and its feature editor was a corporate man named Michael Boodro. Vogue’s travel editor, its editor-at-large, its associate art director, its editorial/art production manager and its editorial business manager in the early 1990s were also corporate men. At least one senior editor and six contributing editors at Vogue in the early 1990s were also still corporate men. In addition, a corporate man named Norman Waterman was also Vogue’s associate publisher and a corporate man named Edward Meniecheschi was Vogue’s director of merchandising in the early 1990s.

At Glamour in the early 1990s, its senior associate art director was a corporate man named Neil Phiefer, its publisher was a corporate man named Jack Kliger and its advertising director was a corporate man named William Abbott. Self’s articles editor in the early 1990s was also a corporate man named John Stickney and its publisher was a corporate man named Lawrence Burstein. Three of Self’s contributing editors were also corporate men in the early 1990s.

At the higher levels of the Newhouse media conglomerate’s Conde’ Nast Publications subsidiary, the top executive positions at its then-350 Madison Avenue offices in Midtown Manhattan were also monopolized by corporate men in the early 1990s. The chairman, the deputy chairman, the president, three of the four executive vice-presidents, the five vice-presidents and the director of advertising production of the Newhouse subsidiary which markets Vogue, Glamour, Self and Allure to women readers were all still corporate men as late as the early 1990s. And a corporate man named Leo Lerman was an editorial adviser at Vogue, Glamour and Self, simultaneously, in the early 1990s.

(Downtown 11/18/92)

`Parade'/`Vogue''s `Glamour', `Self', and `Allure' Connection Historically

(The following article first appeared in the 11/18/92 issue of the now-defunct Lower East Side alternative newspaper Downtown)

Although Vogue poses on your newsstand as a magazine which competes for women readers with Glamour, Self and Allure, the same Corporate Men who market Vogue to women also profit from their control and marketing of Glamour, Self and Allure to women. And for many years an elderly man named Alexander Liberman was simultaneously Vogue’s editorial director, Glamour’s editorial director and Self’s editorial director.

Nicknamed “The Silver Fox,” Liberman played a role in the Newhouse Dynasty’s “women-oriented” magazine-marketing operation which was described as follows in an April 8, 1991 Newsweek article:

“…Liberman cuts a larger-than-life figure as he designs a story for Self magazine. Assistants are crowding around him…His fame and power comes from the trendy world of women’s fashion magazines. At 78 [in 1991] , the [then-] editorial director of Conde’ Nast is the cultural czar of one of the world’s largest magazine companies…The position makes him one of the most influential figures in magazine publishing…Some former high-level employees say that disagreeing with Liberman can prove fatal…Liberman’s tastes influence every Conde’ Nast magazine…At 9 a.m. he is in his…office—his command center for decisions about covers and layouts…Most important, Liberman has the ear of Conde’ Nast chairman S.I. Newhouse Jr…who consults him on…personnel changes.”

When Glamour magazine was launched by Nast in 1939, its stated purpose was to appeal to young working women readers “by revealing how the movie stars achieved their particular appeal” since Hollywood had become important “as a disseminator of fashion, beauty, and charm,” in the words of Glamour’s initial issue. Within two years 250,000 copies of Glamour were being circulated.

By the time Newhouse purchased the Conde’ Nast magazines, Glamour’s circulation had reached 800,000—almost double what Vogue’s circulation was at that time. The value of Glamour’s ad space sales, however, was about half that of Vogue’s at that time because the cost per ad page in Vogue was greater than the cost per page in Glamour.

By purchasing the Street & Smith Publications’ magazine for $4 million a few months later, Newhouse was able to carry out its lucrative plan of merging the previously competing Charm with Glamour and thus increase Glamour’s profitability, as well as its circulation—which soon exceeded one million copies. By 1981, two million copies of Glamour were being circulated each month and it was earning around $10 million more per year than Vogue, as a result of its larger newsstand sales. Of the $45 million that Glamour earned from its ad space sales in 1981, around 40 percent was for printing ads for cosmetics and toiletries.

Self was launched by Newhouse around the time that Samuel Newhouse I died in 1979. And by the early 1980s, over one million copies of Self were also being circulated. In the 1990s, not satisfied with having control over Vogue, Glamour and Self, the Newhouse Dynasty's media conglomerate started marketing another magazine for women, Allure.

When Downtown telephoned Vogue’s public relations director in the Fall of 1992 to ask if Vogue saw itself as being in competition with other magazines that are also owned by the Newhouse media conglomerate, he replied: “Are you authorized to write an article by the Newhouse company?”

After Downtown told the Vogue public relations director that the article was to be an investigative article, he requested that Downtown telephone him the following day for Vogue’s official comment. But when Downtown telephoned Vogue’s public relations director the following day on three separate occasions in the Fall of 1992, he was unavailable for comment.

(Downtown 11/18/92)

Newhouse Dynasty's `Vogue'/Conde' Nast's Garfinkle Connection Historically

(The following article first appeared in the 11/18/92 issue of the now-defunct Lower East Side alternative newspaper Downtown)

Unlike Mr. Conde’ Nast, Samuel Newhouse I was apparently interested in the Conde’ Nast group of magazines only insofar that women benefited him economically—as employees and consumers of his magazines. As Newspaperman: S.I. Newhouse And The Business Of News by Richard Meeker observed:

“Newhouse had always been impressed by the fact that women’s magazines carried vast amounts of advertising…Their only real problem seemed to be an overabundance of competition, but by the time he bought Conde’ Nast, he already had a solution in mind. Street & Smith, the oldest magazine firm in America, was also up for sale, and it published a group of women’s magazines strikingly similar to Conde’ Nast’s—Charm, Mademoiselle and Living For Young Homemakers. Charm was a direct competitor of Glamour.

“The Street & Smith acquisition went through in August 1959, and Conde’Nast was on its way back to profitability. After all, what advertisers could resist a package that included Mademoiselle…Glamour (incorporating Charm)…and Vogue…”

The year before Newhouse purchased Vogue and the other Conde’ Nast magazines, the publishing operation had lost over $500,000. But after Newhouse reduced its competitive risks by purchasing Street & Smith's Charm and Mademoiselle, the Conde’ Nast operation quickly became a money-making subsidiary, earning a net profit of $1.6 million the year after Newhouse purchased it.

Another reason why Vogue, Glamour and the other magazines began to prosper again under Newhouse’s ownership was because of the favorable business relationship Samuel Newhouse I had with a man in the magazine and newspaper distribution business named Henry Garfinkle. By the time Vogue was purchased by Newhouse, “Garfinkle’s Garfield News Company had become one of several subsidiaries of another company he controlled—American News…” and “through it, he ran the Union News Company, which, with outlets coast to coast, was the largest retailer of newspapers and magazines in the country,” according to the book Newspaperman. The same book also recalled that “Garfinkle, also operated Greater Boston Distributors and Manhattan News, which dominated the wholesaling of magazines in the Northeast Corridor.”

According to Newspaperman, a Wall Street Journal article about Garfinkle “went on to recount Garfinkle’s connection to the Joseph Bonnano organized crime family and to convicted income tax evader, William Molasky.” The same book also described the nature of Garfinkle’s special connection to Samuel Newhouse I:

“As far as Garfinkle was concerned, Newhouse was a special case. The two men’s personal and business ties made them virtually inseparable. After providing Henry [Garfinkle] with the interest-free loans he needed to get started in the newsstand business, S.I. [Newhouse] had signed his surety bonds. He had also arranged for cafeteria concessions at certain of his newspapers to be awarded to a company Garfinkle controlled…

“By the time Newhouse merged Street & Smith into Conde’ Nast, his pal controlled about 50 percent of all newsstand magazine sales in America…Garfinkle’s friendship eliminated any concerns Newhouse might have had about delays affecting his magazines or of the placement they would receive on the country’s newsstands. `Let’s be honest with each other,’ Garfinkle allowed, `If you put one newspaper or magazine at the front of the stand, you know what happens.’”

After its purchase by the Newhouse Dynasty, Vogue continued to bring in profits and its circulation increased. At the time Newhouse purchased it, 450,000 copies of each issue of Vogue were being circulated and it was selling $7.9 million worth of ad space each year. By 1981, Vogue’s circulation exceeded 1.1 million each month and it was earning $68 million per year from its newsstand sales, its subscribers and its advertisers. Of all U.S. magazines in the early 1980s, Vogue printed the third-largest number of ad pages each month—around 225 ad pages in each issue. In addition to marketing its U.S. edition of Vogue, the Newhouse media conglomerate also marketed foreign versions of Vogue in the UK, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Australia, Brazil and Mexico in the 1990s.

(Downtown 11/18/92)