Tuesday, February 07, 2006
By Roger Friedman
By Roger Friedman
Giulianis Do Gotham Gala
I’m sorry to say that I had to miss Gotham Magazine’s 6th anniversary celebration last night. Rudy (he used to be mayor) and Judy Giuliani were scheduled to be the hosts, and the Sugar Hill Gang was going to perform, all at Seth Greenberg’s cavernous Capitale down on New York’s Bowery.
Gotham is the brainchild of Jason Binn, whose Niche Media started in Miami with Ocean Drive magazine and has since become a force to reckon with thanks to Hamptons, Aspen Peak, L.A. Confidential, Boston Common and Capitol File.
When Jason started Gotham in 2000, there was a lot of snickering. The conventional wisdom was that between New York magazine and the then-upstart Time Out New York, Gotham would be just a vanity project. Oh, right, and it wouldn’t last long.
How wrong the naysayers were. Gotham, which this month sports a beautiful cover portrait of Beyonce, is a hit. All of the Niche magazines are beautiful and full of sumptuous ads, and they all take their cue from Gotham.
Somehow another Jason — Jason Oliver Nixon — edits these massive tomes without having a nervous breakdown. He should be commended.
But the real hero of Niche is Binn. When he was younger he had a distant resemblance to Mad Magazine’s Alfred E. Neuman. He was also ubiquitous. If there was a hot event, Jason was somewhere in the center of it.
Sometimes, this was annoying. But then in 2002 I got to work with him as we put out the first issue of Los Angeles Confidential as an Oscar magazine.
Once you work with Jason, you get to see his other side. He is the hardest-working man in show business. He is a relentless salesman, and a most effective one. Advertisers want to be with him. By putting into the magazines pictures of all the beautiful people in town, Jason also attracts a loyal following. They want to be with him too. And the unique thing is, even with investors, he is entirely self-made.
The entire concept of Niche is quite brilliant, and my hat is off to him. He has to compete with giants like Conde Nast, Hearst and Time Warner. But Jason holds his own spectacularly well, and I think he’s going to keep on doing so for a long time.
I’m sorry to say that I had to miss Gotham Magazine’s 6th anniversary celebration last night. Rudy (he used to be mayor) and Judy Giuliani were scheduled to be the hosts, and the Sugar Hill Gang was going to perform, all at Seth Greenberg’s cavernous Capitale down on New York’s Bowery.
Gotham is the brainchild of Jason Binn, whose Niche Media started in Miami with Ocean Drive magazine and has since become a force to reckon with thanks to Hamptons, Aspen Peak, L.A. Confidential, Boston Common and Capitol File.
When Jason started Gotham in 2000, there was a lot of snickering. The conventional wisdom was that between New York magazine and the then-upstart Time Out New York, Gotham would be just a vanity project. Oh, right, and it wouldn’t last long.
How wrong the naysayers were. Gotham, which this month sports a beautiful cover portrait of Beyonce, is a hit. All of the Niche magazines are beautiful and full of sumptuous ads, and they all take their cue from Gotham.
Somehow another Jason — Jason Oliver Nixon — edits these massive tomes without having a nervous breakdown. He should be commended.
But the real hero of Niche is Binn. When he was younger he had a distant resemblance to Mad Magazine’s Alfred E. Neuman. He was also ubiquitous. If there was a hot event, Jason was somewhere in the center of it.
Sometimes, this was annoying. But then in 2002 I got to work with him as we put out the first issue of Los Angeles Confidential as an Oscar magazine.
Once you work with Jason, you get to see his other side. He is the hardest-working man in show business. He is a relentless salesman, and a most effective one. Advertisers want to be with him. By putting into the magazines pictures of all the beautiful people in town, Jason also attracts a loyal following. They want to be with him too. And the unique thing is, even with investors, he is entirely self-made.
The entire concept of Niche is quite brilliant, and my hat is off to him. He has to compete with giants like Conde Nast, Hearst and Time Warner. But Jason holds his own spectacularly well, and I think he’s going to keep on doing so for a long time.
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