Here is Part II of ETP's "Media Winners of 2006," continued from Part I which can be found here.
Stephen Colbert: Stephen Colbert entered 2006 on a roll on the strength of "Truthiness", but the White House Correspondents dinner clinched it. Then there was "Better Know A District," which got congressmen to say things like "I enjoy cocaine because it's a fun thing to do," and his savvy, charge-leading use of the internet (which we've mentioned before). Plastered across magazines, beloved by internerds, and a deft, prepared interviewer to boot, he's gotten a slew of "Of The Year" awards (and a few online polls think he could even have beaten YOU for the Time cover. Imagine!). He's a total pundit, a total force to be reckoned with, and has an identity totally separate from Jon Stewart (who also had a great year but it was more of the great year he'd had previously). Stephen Colbert was his own man in 2006, and, dare I say, ours. (R.S.)
Radar: Hard to kill, indeed. Having struck out the last two times, it looks like Radar may finally be here to stay. In its third incarnation, Radar made the right decision to launch online before the magazine was even published, rather than have the internet be a mere appendage to the print version, as it has typically been to most magazines; and even though Radar II was aggressive in its internet presence, Radar III has muscled itself into the day's must-read media, literally generating fresh intelligence daily. Of course, it didn't hurt that Editor-In-Chief Maer Roshan stayed out of the picture--or that we were spared the parties, pies and other boosterish antics so desperate to generate heat and fool investors into thinking their money was being put to good use. Smart hires like scoop-seeking media reporter Jeff Bercovici, (who had helped make Memo Pad a minor media institution in that most unlikeliest of places, WWD), Matt Haber (who perfected the art of vandalizing the Internet at lowculture before joining the Media Mob at the New York Observer) and well as shoring up their deb cred with FashionWeekDaily poach Sarah Horne. Radar was also smart to retain talent from the first time around in John Cook, Chris Tennant and Tyler Gray, and the bunch has kept Radar on the map thus far by posting newsy and informative pieces that go beyond the more sophomoric "link plus snark equals post" formula (though you can get your dose of that there, too). Along the way, there have been some missteps (as noted here, here and here), not to mention Radar's oft-spurious claim to exclusivity (as mocked here and here). On the whole, however, they've been laying solid groundwork for the launch of Radar Magazine (which, as of this writing, appears slated for sometime in early 2007). But with things going so well for Radar online, why even bother with the magazine and all of its attendant headaches? 2007 will see if that is Maer Roshan's phoenix rising — or his Achilles heel. (S.H.)
Arianna Huffington: True, she's my boss, but come on: HuffPo has become a major player in 2006, a daily destination and a political staple (don't shoot the messenger, read it here or here or here). She took it across the country this fall with her "On Becoming Fearless" book, cross-pollinating HuffPo from Olbermann to Martha Stewart to Tyra Banks (see the zillions of clips here) and is a pundit on everything from politics to relationships to sex (I can't count the magazines she's been featured in this year - Rolling Stone, New York and Playboy spring to mind, plus being named one of the Time 100). She does everything from House & Garden to student podcasts, bringing the brand all over the place and generating heat and awareness. HuffPo has an amazing staff that works tirelessly to make the site what it is, but she is its face and she is everywhere. I know it seems sort of ridiculous to include her given the fact that HuffPo employs me, but given the above, it's even more ridiculous not to. (R.S.)
Michael Arrington, TechCrunch
Attorney and startup investor Michael Arrington has been unironically named the "king of Web 2.0" because his blog TechCrunch is known in Silicon Valley as the make-or-break news outlet for startups. Arrington is hiring increasingly legit talent, starting new sites, and has enough ambition to keep expanding TechCrunch's audience past the niche audience of 100k daily pageviews.
But Arrington is no savvy media player. He's notoriously baitable (often responding to criticism on his personal blog). He may also be an impossible boss. New writer Natali Del Conte left just three weeks after joining this November, citing frustration with the company's drama, according to Arrington. Meanwhile, Arrington shelved TechCrunch UK after a public battle with its editor. Would this analyst (Arrington shies from the title of journalist) do better off running a show for CNBC? (N.D.)
TMZ: Two words: Mel Gibson. And one more: Firecrotch. You may not know what TMZ stands for ("Thirty Mile Zone," and also, in flagrante scoopitude) but you've definitely heard of it over the course of its barely-a-year-old existence. Blown off initially as a celebustalk site, TMZ got everyone's attention by breaking the news of the internal struggle at ABC News over who would get the anchor chair, Diane Sawyer or Charlie Gibson (Gibson won, which, by the way, TMZ had first), and kept it with scoopy tidbits and videos over the course of the year, reaching the apex in July when it scored the Mel Gibson DUI anti-Semitism rant in Malibu, which he owns. Just another example of how quickly a space can be carved out online, if you know what your audience is looking for (though we highly doubt it's this).
Keith Olbermann: He's surged this year, there can be no doubt, becoming a key cornerstone of MSNBC's ratings climb and its most visible asset. The success of his show has provided great numbers to lead in to Joe Scarborough and has allowed MSNBC General Manager Dan Abrams to experiment with the lineup at MSNBC. His O'Reilly-baiting tactics were celebrated in a New York Times profile, his fight-picking in the Washington Post, and his second-semester success in a recent L.A. Times profile, plus was one of GQ's "Men of the Year" (along with other ETP honorees Al Gore and Stephen Colbert). His "Special Comments" calling out the Bush administration have made him a beacon for fed-up liberals desperate for an aggressive, bullshit-calling press.
It's also made Olbermann confident that he's a money-making machine for the network: "They leave me alone, I leave them alone, and I deliver what they need." Petty infighting and huge ego is his Achille's heel, and he's been a little outspoken about his boss lately, to put it mildly. He'd better watch it come contract time; he's got a good thing going and getting greedy while MSNBC is cutting costs could backfire. (N.D.)
Update: Honorable Mentions here!
EP's year-end review prepared by Rachel Sklar, Nick Douglas, Sven Hodges, Melissa Lafsky and Ankush Khardori.
