Oregon Media Insiders

Hi guys, running way way way behind round these parts.* So let's catch up with Portland Monthly, where WWeek says they're on the prowl for a new editor:

After two-plus years at the helm, Ted Katauskas will return to what he says is his “dream job”: writing long-form narrative for PM as its editor-at-large. Katauskas, once WW’ s Outdoors columnist, began working at PM as a writer and “took on more and more management duties over time.”

They're doing a nationwide search, apparently.

*Cablenut starts working from home tomorrow, which will make four of us in the house 24/7. We're adjusting!

WWeek is reporting rumors that Portland Monthly intends to expand its line with a home/garden mag, and put recently-ex-O architecture guy Randy Gragg at the top of the masthead:

Makes sense. His girlfriend, Camela Raymond, is already on the masthead as PM's Arts and Home editor. >> What doesn't make as much sense, but could be a huge PR coup for Vogel and her crew, is that she's this close to hiring the most famous intern of all time, Monica Lewinsky, for a marketing position. More than one source told us Lewinsky and Vogel were spotted having lunch last week (although Scoop could not get ahold of Vogel to confirm by press time).

See, Jack? You can't fully retire just yet.

I hear that Ben Jacklet, late of the Trib, has been trying to get Portland Monthly to run a first-person piece of his about the paper's startup and where it is these days, the theme: "Broken promises." So far the PM editors aren't interested; for some reason, neither Bob Pamplin, Steve Clark nor Dwight Jaynes are talking to Jacklet. More than one printster is interested in reading it, though...

I love Wednesdays. WWeek does so much of my job for me. This time they're tsk-ing at Portland Monthly for what one doctor called a "misleading" advertorial in their current issue:

"I think they're trying to dupe the reading public," says Dr. George Waldman, a family practitioner who was the state medical-association president in 1995-96. ...

But the placement of advertising in and around the list of top doctors did cause Waldman to grind his teeth.

The article begins with profiles of five top practitioners and then on page 57, moves into lists of various specialists. Where page 58 should be, however, is a full page describing the "extraordinary therapy" provided by a doctor named Jennifer Casey.

At the top of Page 58 is a banner that reads "PM Medical Professionals," and in smaller type at the bottom of the page is the word "Advertisement."

Waldman says the average reader thumbing through Portland Monthly could easily get the impression that Casey is one of Portland's top doctors: The type in the ad is similar to the type in the article about the top docs and it is designed similarly with a "pull-quote" embedded in a black box next to the doctor's picture.

Portland Monthly's editor tells WWeek that this is the first complaint he's heard, and that the advertorial design is the same as it's always been.