Priorities
I noted a few weeks back that Time magazine had let go the award-winning reporting pair of Donald Barlett and James Steele, apparently because it didn't want to pay them what they were worth.
Time appears to have an interesting concept of "worth." It apparently had no problem paying $4 million for pictures of Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie's new baby. Washington Post columnist Richard Cohen estimates that that money could've kept Barlett & Steele on the Time payroll, with research help, for another 10 years.
Anyone who wants to argue that this makes sense even in business terms is welcome to get in touch with me right after pictures of the baby become, on their own, a bestselling book. I won't be holding my breath.
