(l to r ) Greg Braxton, Rachel Abramowitz,
Geoff Boucher, Sallie Hofmeister, Lisa Fung,
Elena Howe, Patrick K. Day
By George McQuade
West Coast
Correspondent
Several
hundred mostly Los Angeles Times writers, editors and staffers from LAT packed
into a launched party on the top floor of a swank West Hollywood Hotel to
launched theenvelope.com and awards season coverage.
“When we
launched the Envelope a couple of years ago, we didn’t have as much video, we
didn’t have as much breaking news and mainly covered Hollywood events and film
festivals with all the guilds,” said Associate Editor Patrick Kevin Day. “We now
have a lot more voices and videos.”
The new
editor is Sally Hofmeister, who introduced additional writers and staffers at this
week’s (10-05-09 ) launch party.
The
Envelope's purpose, according to promotional materials, is to raise awareness
of award contenders, drive box office numbers, boost DVD sales, influence voting
considerations of Academy and guild members and target consumers.
The
Envelope receives five million visitors during the off season and much higher
numbers during the high season – between November and February. It features
interactive photo galleries, video clips of red carpet coverage, celebrity
podcasts, blogs and a "Buzzmeter."
This
writer asked Day how new media has impacted coverage in the weekly printed
version of Envelope and the Online version.
“I think
speed is the biggest thing,” said Day. “We have a host of competition from
various websites trying into the entertainment awards area, so we have to keep
an eye on them constantly and we can’t fall down at any point and be at the top
of our game.”
"Don't
call me, email works best, because I work out of my home literally blogging all
day," said Elizabeth Snead, contributing editor of The Envelope. “I don’t
go to as many mixers and late night parties as before, because now I have
people I can send to them, so just being here is a rare thing for me.
Elizabeth
Snead is the former fashion editor and entertainment writer for USA Today
prefers "10 days advance notice of story pitches," since she covers
three events a night. "I might not get back to you right away, but I do
read my emails," she said.
For
almost two years now, Snead has been writing for the http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/thedishrag
blog. She focuses on news, celebs,
awards, politics and pop culture.
A tip:
don't pitch a hodge-podge of clients to The Envelope. "We're looking for a
window into the lifestyle of a person so exclusives are given much more
consideration," said Snead.
The LAT
re-launched The Envelope to make it "more accessible to our users and the
industry," said its former senior producer Joseph Kapsch. He is now a producer of the Zap2it.com site
of entertainment videos.
The site
is broken down into sections on awards and includes photos, features and
anything to do with the awards show in the subsections.
For
example there are sections with videos and celebrity images on VH1's Hip Hop
Honors, 2009 'VH1 Divas' Arrivals, 2009 Latin Grammy Awards Nominees, 2009 ALMA
Awards Arrivals and Red Carpet Rewind: 2009 Primetime Emmy Awards.
"There
is Academy news and breaking news on the site. We've created these multimedia
models on each page for photos. We also host podcasts of nominees or anyone
associated with the awards show," said Kapsch, who is now working for
Zap2.it.com, as editorial director.
Kapsch
was the former managing editor of AccessHollywood.com, as well as a producer of
TV sites at ABC, NBC, Sony Pictures Digital Entertainment and Viacom.
Lisa Fung has been named Online arts
& entertainment editor for the Los Angeles Times.
An L.A.
Times veteran, Fung has been with the paper for more than 20 years and has
overseen its arts and culture coverage for the past nine, including classical
music, dance, opera, theater and architecture. In her time at the newspaper she
also helped launch the national edition, and worked in Metro and Business
before joining the Calendar staff in 2000.
In this
expanded role, she will oversee the paper’s multimedia coverage of all arts and
entertainment, including Calendar, The Envelope and Company Town, as well as
more than a dozen latimes.com blogs, according to an L.A. Times report.
As far as
pitching the writers and editors, all say email pitches are preferred.
'The Envelope' Contacts:
Sallie Hofmeister, Editor
Sallie.Hofmeister@latimes.com
Elena Howe, Editor,
theenvelope.com
Elena.howe@latimes.com
Betsy Sharkey
film
critic
Elizabeth Snead
contributing
editor
Patrick Kevin Day
Patrick.day@latimes.com
Joseph Kapsch
Zap2it.com
