*

Magazines, newspapers, it’s all screwed. Or so we’re told. Titles closing left right and centre, advertisers not interested in advertising, everyone sitting around, shaking their heads, staring into the abyss wondering when they’re going to have to get a proper job. Still, it wasn’t always like that. Once upon a time, advertiser money flowed as free as the Champagne and beautiful people were journalists and journalists were beautiful people who earned a fortune. Now most freelance writers aren’t even sure if they can earn a living anymore. Never mind, remember the beginning of the end of the good old days with the great piece in The New York Times by David Carr on the launch party for Tina Brown’s ill-fated Talk magazine. I remember the excitement, the hype, the couldn’t fail confidence. How times have changed.

*I couldn’t find a suitable picture to illustrate the excesses of magazine launch parties in the late ’90s or the demise of publishing, so I went with a gratuitous picture of Lindsay Lohan because a) she’s on the cover of a magazine, b) she’s not wearing clothes c) because LiLo knows how to party.