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By | January 01, 0001

Pols and blowhards beware: PolitiFact is coming

As the ProJo turns
The Providence Journal , facing the newspaper industry's twin demons of declining circulation and plummeting advertising revenue, is in an intense period of reinvention.
By DAVID SCHARFENBERG | June 09, 2010

Poor WGME

Press Releases
As the gubernatorial primary date inches closer, we’re starting to see more and more TV ads showing would-be governors touting themselves and their qualifications for the job.
By JEFF INGLIS | May 05, 2010

The World's Worst Web Ads

Big Fat Whale
Unkempt Hairy Dude's De-Lousing Secret
By BRIAN MCFADDEN | March 03, 2010

Through a glass darkly

Forecasting the media year to come
Predicting a Super Bowl winner doesn't make you a genius: after all, given a pool of 32 teams, one of them is bound to capture the trophy. But predicting the future for an industry that's been buffeted by new technologies and economic vicissitudes, and sometimes seems to have all the substance and staying power of sea foam? That's an accomplishment.
By ADAM REILLY | January 08, 2010

Caprio's ad campaign quietly goes dark

Off the Air
A month-and-a-half ago, Treasurer Frank T. Caprio erased any doubt that he was running for governor with a splashy, front-page announcement of his candidacy and the launch of a $100,000-per-month advertising campaign.
By DAVID SCHARFENBERG | December 22, 2009

Will Caprio’s early ad spree work?

Is a $100,000-per-month advertising campaign a wise use of campaign cash at this early stage?
A couple of weeks ago, political insiders were beginning to wonder if Treasurer Frank Caprio would run for governor after all.
By DAVID SCHARFENBERG | November 24, 2009

By | January 01, 0001

Hammer swings through Harvard

Ad lib department
When he was known as MC Hammer, the man born Stanley Burrell famously sold consumers Rick James samples and parachute pants.
By CHRIS FARAONE | September 04, 2009

Brave New Advertorial

When is a news story not a news story? When it becomes a Starbucks ad.
This week's reminder that journalism isn't in Kansas anymore comes via a funky advertising concept showcased at nytimes.com/magazine — where, as you'd expect, the contents of the New York Times Magazine are available for Web readers.
By ADAM REILLY | August 12, 2009

Places that are gone

O. Winston Link and Carmel Vitullo document an era
It wasn't until the 1970s that O. Winston Link got noticed by the art world. The New Yorker had been a professional photographer since the 1930s, shooting publicity shots for an advertising firm before World War II and doing freelance commercial photography afterward. It was a decent living, but it was anonymous work.
By GREG COOK | August 05, 2009

Nice to meet you Rich Connor

A few scenes from Connor's first couple weeks at the Portland Press Herald
Rich Connor, the mercurial new co-owner and editor/publisher of the Portland Press Herald/Maine Sunday Telegram , the Waterville-based Morning Sentinel , and the Augusta-based Kennebec Journal, is a curious figure, who himself seems a good candidate for interesting copy in the coming years.
By JEFF INGLIS | July 01, 2009

By | January 01, 0001

Review: Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian

Dusting off the same old display cases
In the three years since last he was on screen, Ben Stiller's bored night guard, Larry Daley, has become a well-to-do hawker of infomercial crap, but he's still not in the right place.
By TOM MEEK | May 19, 2009

Review: Big Fan

Run-of-the-mill, cheap laughs
"He's another Martin Scorsese!" crows mom when her son screens an awful ad for his ambulance-chasing law firm in this unimpressive debut from Robert Siegel.
By PETER KEOUGH | September 16, 2009

Fold or float

How to save the Portland Press Herald
It doesn't matter who the new owner of the Portland Press Herald is, or whether there even is one. The state's largest-circulation daily newspaper simply cannot survive in its current form.
By JEFF INGLIS | April 02, 2009

19. Judd Apatow and Friends

BROVEREXPOSURE
In their non-probing, unprovocative films, the characters this Hollywood comedic mafia chooses to celebrate are homely, smoke a lot of pot, and watch way too much porn. We get it. Yes, Apatow, Seth Rogen, and Jonah Hill aren’t exactly anyone’s dream dates based on physical attributes alone. But we saved a special unsexy spot for this threesome based on the inescapable fact that we’re completely sick of getting inundated with their repetitive shtick. Apatow gets bonus unsexy points for the right-wing current bubbling beneath his flicks.
By Boston Phoenix Staff | March 25, 2009

Firing back

A girl's best friend is her yogurt
"Yogurt is the official food of women." Or so enthuses TV writer Sarah Haskins in her sarcastic three-minute video "Target Women: Yogurt Edition."
By CAITLIN E. CURRAN | March 26, 2009

In a Dream

Personal collapse in impressive structure
If you find yourself groaning through the first five minutes of Jeremiah Zagar's Academy Award-shortlisted feature documentary about his artist father Isaiah, you might just be its target audience.
By CHRISTOPHER GRAY | July 01, 2009

As the Pro Jo turns

In tough times, newspapers get ad money where they can
A full-page advertisement that ran on page A7 of Monday's ProJo featured an illustration depicting a workshop of flinty Amish craftsmen busily building what the headline called an "Amish mantle and miracle invention" that helps "home heat bills hit rock bottom."
By IAN DONNIS | January 08, 2009

Review: Yes Man

The correct answer is "No"
Once the one-note joke's been established, everything else follows with plodding, mechanical predictability.
By BRETT MICHEL | December 16, 2008

The little station that could . . . and did

WFNX could have been a country station. A message from the kid who voted new wave.
I love WFNX. I suppose I might be expected to say that, but that is really how I feel.
By BRAD MINDICH | December 01, 2008

Radio days

Will C.’s beyond-fresh Down the Dial comp
Will C was born 20 years too late and four skin tones too light.
By CHRIS FARAONE | November 26, 2008

The Big Hurt: Rotten butter

John Lydon spreads it on thick. Plus, intrusive devices and CGI pissoirs
John Lydon spreads it on thick. Plus, intrusive devices and CGI pissoirs
By DAVID THORPE | October 08, 2008

They do like Mondays

ESPN defends its AstroTurf
Monday is a hard sell.
By JASON O'BRYAN | September 03, 2008

Over and out for Opie

Newsman takes a walk rather than embrace tabloid lexicon
Jim "Opie" Hummel has been among the handful of local wild and crazy reporters who consistently come up with solid, aggressively pursued, and flashy stories.
By PHILIPPE + JORGE | August 06, 2008

O's got a TV eye on you

The era of TV advertising in presidential general elections is over
With his decision to forgo public funding, Barack Obama can raise as much as he wants, giving him a huge financial advantage in the fall campaign.
By STEVEN STARK | June 25, 2008

A tale of two TV stories

Hidden influence can be a bigger concern than aggressive reporters
Bill Rappleye, of WJAR-TV, was pursuing the adversarial relationship between reporters and elected officials when he asked Governor Carcieri to explain why he isn’t violating the state’s anti-nepotism law.
By IAN DONNIS | June 18, 2008