A big Forbes promotion with Microsoft to promote the software giant’s Office 365 with a free Wi-Fi hook-up appears to have backfired.
Some recipients thought the advertising insert that accompanied copies of the May 6 Global 2000 issue may have been a type of incendiary device — so they called Homeland Security.
The Feds then called Forbes, who put them in touch with the printer, Quad Graphics.
The device contained a T-Mobile router that included an electronic chip, a tiny LED light and some wires — all concealed within the ad insert that was sent to an unknown number of addresses.
A Forbes spokeswoman insisted that the device — which offered users a chance to get free Wi-Fi via T-Mobile for up to 15 days — only went to a “limited number” of folks, mostly in the business and high-tech world.
It was not mailed to the magazine’s 900,000 subscribers, she said. Only a “limited number” of complaints were received, she added, putting the total number of calls at “far [fewer] than 40.”
The device had been pre-approved by the US Postal Service before it shipped.
Media Ink heard whispers that more than one call came from senators — but Forbes would not confirm that.
While the spokeswoman acknowledged some people may have been more on edge lately, she insisted, “Forbes is far from the first publisher to run ads that contain these small electronic units.”
And while the unit does have wires and chips, she insisted that users “don’t have to get into the guts and the wires to use it.”
Disappearing act
For a brief moment at the Time 100 party, outgoing Time Inc. CEO Laura Lang was seen chatting with Time Warner CEO Jeff Bewkes.
But it was a rare moment of conversation. Lang is pointedly not involved in any way in picking her successor.
“She’s like a ghost,” said one source.
Bewkes is said to be zeroing in on executives with a heavy financial background as he narrows his search, said another source.
Lang, who once showed up at every star-studded event that a Time Inc. publication tossed, has been to very few in recent months.
One insider said that the last big event she attended before Tuesday night’s bash was the Golden Globes party thrown by In Style in Hollywood in mid-January.
Blog omission
Andrew Ross Sorkin seems to have been downgraded at the New York Times Dealbook blog he launched in 2001.
Earlier this month he was identified at the top of the page as editor-at-large. More recently, Sorkin’s title was much less weighty: “Founder.”
PJ Joshi was tapped as news editor five months ago and supervises much of the blogging — even while Sorkin, a best-selling author and a co-host on CNBC, still spends most of his day at the Times offices.
Joshi, sources said, was concerned that leaving the editor-at-large designation next to Sorkin’s name confused people as to who was editing the site — and pushed to have it taken down.
Sorkin yesterday insisted the disappearing editor-at-large label was the equivalent of a digital typo.
His bio on the website always said founder and editor-at-large and the description at the bottom of the page was recently changed to “founder” — but he said that was an oversight and the editor-at-large title should be going back at the bottom of the page soon — although not on the top of the page.
Sure enough, five minutes later, Sorkin’s bottom-of-the-page ID contained both titles. Who says he doesn’t have juice?
Melo’s Time
New York Knicks star Carmelo Anthony is a co-founder and part owner of Haute Time, a high-end watch publication whose first edition dropped this week.
Anthony, while prepping for his NBA playoff battle against the Boston Celtics, still managed to find time to help jump-start his new venture by tweeting the news of the debut to his nearly four million followers.
Cover subject Tony Robbins also helped by getting the word out to his three million Twitter followers and on Facebook.
Haute Living CEO Kamal Hotchandani said, “We had the digital product pushed out [to] 8.2 million people before the print edition launched.”
The result, he said: “We had 48,000 digital downloads in the first 24 hours.”
Haute Time is one of a series of enterprises being spun out of Haute Living, a 9-year-old company that Hotchandani said has revenues north of $10 million a year.
Anthony, an avid watch collector, is only an investor in the timepiece portion of the company’s media ventures.
“I was approached to be featured as a celebrity ambassador and honored by the gesture,” said Anthony in an e-mailed statement.