New Watchdog on Duty

By Richard Zoglin

This June," the promos blare, "the media's free ride comes to a screeching halt." That pitch can be seen on buses rolling down the streets of New York City, but it's not exactly a line to stop traffic. Didn't the media's free ride end years ago? Haven't we all grown used to the cycle in which every big news story, from Princess Diana to Bill and Monica, is followed by the inevitable how-the-media-screwed-up mea culpas?

But that, for Steve Brill, is just the point. "There's more frustration and confusion and cynicism about the media than ever before," he says--and he's counting on it. Brill is majority owner and editor of Content, a monthly debuting in June that aims to be, as he puts it, "a consumer guide to the information age." What Brill seems to be crafting is a mix of the probity of the gray Columbia Journalism Review and the audacity of the early New York magazine. Sample cover lines: THE 10 LAZIEST WHITE HOUSE REPORTERS AND DIANE SAWYER'S THREE SAPPIEST INTERVIEWS. Brill is writing a story on the scoops in the early days of the Lewinsky scandal, sorting out who got what and how they got it. Content reporters are also probing into such dark corners as the economics of local TV news (What's worth more to a station--10 new reporters or a helicopter?) and letters to teen magazines (Are they made up?).

Content is sure to cause some nervous fidgeting in media circles. (We're already screening our calls.) The question is whether it will cause much of a ripple in the rest of the world. Brill is aiming for a circulation of 450,000 to 600,000 at the end of five years--an optimistic goal considering that the Columbia Journalism Review's paid circulation is only 26,000. Brill and his minions have been out hustling ads--he expects at least 40 pages in the launch issue--but some Madison Avenue vets are wary. "I don't think the mass of people will be interested," says Roberta Garfinkle of McAnn-Erickson advertising. "The people in our industry who want to read it will probably all be on the comp list." Yet the sign-up rate among those who received Brill's cheeky direct-mail pitches is running close to 7%, far above expectations. That has prompted Brill to boost the projected circulation for the launch issue from 175,000 to 250,000. "Will an audience of nonmedia people be interested in this magazine?" asks Brill. "I think we've answered that question."

Brill, 47, a blunt, beefy fellow armed with an unlighted cigar and a Tab during a recent interview, may be the right guy with the right idea at the right time. A graduate of Yale law school, he founded the irreverent monthly American Lawyer at age 28 and managed almost from the start to throw a scare into the close-knit legal profession--as well as into his own staff. (A former reporter recalls Brill emerging from his office roaring, "I'm gonna make somebody cry!") Later he created Court TV, which earned high marks for its coverage of the O.J. Simpson trial and other high-profile cases.

Even before he dubbed himself an official press watchdog, Brill kept a close eye on his own presses. He gave corrections in his magazines prominent play, printing the names of staff members responsible for errors. And he routinely checked with people mentioned in stories to see if they found the reporting fair and accurate. A Florida real estate man once said he loved the story but not the quotes attributed to him; he had never been interviewed. Brill fired the reporter.

Brill's record as a businessman is less clear-cut. American Lawyer and its sister magazines have never been big moneymakers, and Court TV has struggled to get into the black. Early last year Brill was stymied when he tried to gain full control of his media ventures from partners, including Time Warner (parent company of TIME's publisher), and he wound up selling out to the company instead, a deal that netted him more than $20 million. He'll spend much of that on Content, which he projects will cost $27 million before breaking even. (One of the three other investors is media mogul Barry Diller.)

Brill has stocked the magazine with impressive talent, hiring writers and editors from such publications as the Wall Street Journal, Business Week and TIME (former chief political correspondent Michael Kramer is Brill's No. 2 editor). Washington Post media critic (and author of Spin Cycle) Howard Kurtz will be a contributor, as will former FCC chairman Reed Hundt and humorist Calvin Trillin. Brill has even hired an in-house ombudsman: former New York Times editor Bill Kovach, head of the Nieman journalism fellowships at Harvard, will critique Content's own articles.

Brill has a good chance of ruffling some serious feathers among the media crowd. But he insists he won't be an avenging angel: "If your tone is bitter and scolding, the outsider looking in, that carries its own bias. You have no credibility." So Content will give out pats on the back as well as skewerings. "Not enough of the good stuff is appreciated because it's so swamped by the bad stuff," he says. "We're going to spend a lot of time finding the good stuff."