March 22, 2009

Chaka khan!

Since Chikkatime's real identity has been revealed, mag-chaka khan nalang tayo!

• LOTSA things are happening over in our favorite media outfit. We hear that the head of the lifestyle channel/publishing group was recently asked to go on a "sabbatical" because he did not meet the group's financial targets. This must really hit Mr. Sabbatical pretty hard. After all, this was the same issue he had raised against his predecessor, who by most accounts, was actually the one responsible for establishing the publishing group and expanding its titles.

After Ms. Predecessor's departure, Mr. Sabbatical implemented a lot of radical changes, among them fusing a cable TV endeavor with the publishing group. He reportedly caused the flight of several top editors from the publishing dept. who could not comprehend the changes in the editorial direction (e.g. advertising dictating editorial content). Also, he canned a few magazines one of which was the "baby" of the son of the media outfit's owner.

We hear Ms. Predecessor is extremely jubilant over the news though we dare not publish her juicy quote that puts Mr. Sabbatical in the same category as the media outfit's ex-PR gal who had unjustly fired two of her staff right before she decided to run for political office. Well, she lost. Long-time observers of the goings on in the media outfit were quick to conclude: "What goes around comes around." Arayko.

• Anent to the above, the one said to be replacing Mr. Sabbatical beginning tom, March 23, is the current marketing head of the media outfit's broadcasting department. The guy is said to be top notch and had been pirated from a very large advertising company which he was connected with for about 20 years before leaving as its managing director. While some publishing guys are wary if he has the smarts to oversee the editorial direction of the magazines, Mr. Replacement's fans say that one thing that he has going for him is that "he listens." We've heard about all the awards Mr. Replacement garnered while he was in the advertising biz, and how he was able to hit the financial targets of the broadcasting department last year. We await with bated breath if Mr. Replacement can weave his magic for the lifestyle channel/publishing group as well.

• But these economic times are just difficult for the publishing business. With too many titles out in the market and declining readership, as well as reductions in advertising budgets by many companies, expect more changes in store for several publishing companies. One of these companies, owned by Filipinos of Chinese descent, is said to be dropping two of their imported titles – one dealing with career women, and another, teen-agers. One editor of another giant publishing company told us that this will probably be the trend for most magazine publishers, i.e. to give up their franchised titles and focus more on the homegrown brands. It actually makes a lot of financial sense.

• Over in the art world, who's this well known Filipino artist reportedly charging over P50,000 just to conduct painting lessons for one day? A friend who attended Mr. Artist's workshop felt shortchanged bec. of the level of artistry of the students. Our friend, who's had advanced lessons in sketching, drawing and painting, was surprised to find himself in the same workshop with an eight-year-old who was just attending his first painting lesson. Perhaps finally realizing his other students were discomfited by the beginners in the group, Mr. Artist approached our friend and taught him a few 'advanced' techniques then hung around for some drinks after to talk about art. Referring to the workshop fee he paid, our friend says, "That was a really an expensive bottle of wine."

• The supposed latest wedding date of this newsgal to her politican beau is August. We don't know what year though. Well she's the one who keeps talking about it!

Yun na!

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

a friend from inside the broadcast company told me today that mr strutting-like-a-peacock (SLAP) resigned after he was told that the departments under him lost P200 M in two years. i remember when i was actively part of the publishing company, the nincompoops that were newly hired to comprise the marketing dept (particularly those guys from MTV - gads, bobos tambien!) had absolutely no idea how to market the magazine titles - meeting after meeting after meeting after meeting - endless meetings - that was all they did - and for what? nada. walang alam talaga. that includes this mr. puti na iniwanan ng asawa for cans of tuna. walang laman, walang abilidad. at least, with regards mr. SLAP, he had the self-respect to bow out of the company after failing to make any money for cable and publishing

Stella Arnaldo said...

The official version is he resigned. Insiders say he was asked to go on a "sabbatical." When he returns to ABS-CBN, he will still have a position but the sources don't know in what department. But at least he was man enough to admit in his email to staff the reason he's going on a sabbatical, i.e. that he had not achieved his dept's financial targets. So props pa rin to him.

Anonymous said...

Ayayay. Paano na yung henchman niya na galing sa software giant? Is his ass billowing in the breeze?
Dami ring inaway noon.