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Book Deal for Author Ends Circuitous Path Back to Mainstream

In 1999, a young writer named Jenny Offill published a debut novel called “Last Things,” about a young child being home-schooled by a mother who is slowly going insane. The New York Times called the book, published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux, “remarkable,” and The Los Angeles Times made Ms. Offill a finalist for its award to new writers.

Then Ms. Offill essentially retreated for 13 years. Now she has returned with a two-book deal with Vintage, a division of Random House, but it was a circuitous route back to the mainstream.

After the success of “Last Things,” Ms. Offill started a novel about Nikola Tesla, the Serbian-American inventor and futurist. She worked on it for three years, but in a bizarre coincidence, on the eve of finishing the book, she attended a reading where another writer read from a novel on the same subject. S he moved on.

She had a baby and wrote the words to picture books for Random House, including “17 Things I Am Not Allowed to Do Anymore.”

Time passed. Ms. Offill edited two anthologies of essays and created and taught a course at Columbia about writing from the perspective of an unhinged narrator.

Then she finished another novel about a narrator who is coming apart as her husband cheats on her. That book, now titled “The Dept. of Speculation,” was sent to publishers at the end of last year and created a flurry of interest, according to her agent, Sally Wofford-Girand of Union Literary. More than eight houses bid on it.

Ms. Wofford-Girand said her client's book was elegant and extremely concise. “If your average book is a body, this is an X-ray,” she said.

In the end, that book became the first of the two-book deal with Vintage, where Ms. Offill's editor will be Jordan Pavlin, who has worked with writers including like Jennifer Egan.

People in publishing who spoke on the condition that they not be named say the final deal was for roughly $500,000 for two books. The foreign rights are still being auctioned. The first book will be released next January.

Magazines on Left and Right Unite to Share Office Space

The financial crisis did not bring bipartisanship to Congress, but a difficult media environment may have brought that spirit to two political standard-bearers.

In need of cash and with extra space on its hands, the liberal magazine The American Prospect decided to sublet part of its Washington offices. The American Conservative, tired of working from Arlington, Va., was looking for a new location. When the publishers Jay Harris of The Prospect and Wick Allison of The Conservative were getting lunch in August, they put two and two together.

A six-month lease was soon signed. The self-described bastion of “traditional conservatism” moved in with the self-described “liberal, progressive, lefty” on Dec. 27.

“We have a water fountain labeled conservatives only,” joked Mr. Harris, who cleared the idea with his staff. “We turned to the staff and said, ‘Would you be comfortable?' To a person, the folks who responded said, ‘Our values are pretty different, but we have a lot of respect for what The American Conservative does journalistically.' ”

What they lack in ideological viewpoint, the two nonprofit monthlies make up for in an independent, establishment-bucking mind-set. Each has faced the sort of downsizing that has become all too common in the print world.

The American Conservative, founded in 2002 by Pat Buchanan, ran biweekly before it went out of print for six weeks in 2009 and returned as a monthly magazine. It has a circulation of 8,000. The American Prospect, in print since 1990, announced to its staff in April that if the magazine could not find $500,000 in financing, it would close altogether by the end of May.  With help from good publicity from Prospect alumni and a few large donors - and by shrinking its staff by four - the bimonthly magazine has endured. The publication has combined paid print and digital circulation of nearly 45,000. The Conservative's seven staff members will sha re the white-walled, blue-carpeted 12th floor of 1710 Rhode Island Avenue with The Prospect's fund-raising and advertising departments. They must share a conference room, a potential source of conflict, though Mr. Harris says it could be a site for events the magazines co-host.

Daniel McCarthy, The Conservative's associate editor, said the new locale suits its independent outlook.

“Where we had been,” Mr. McCarthy said of the office in Arlington, “was sort of a hotbed of lobbyists and defense contractors. People who represent a different side of Washington.”

Maisie Allison, a Web editor at The Conservative, said the shared space would help both magazines.

“Since we do not directly compete, we can only benefit from sharing ideas, formally and informally,” she said. “They have a bunch of magazine covers on the wall; we're going to get some of ours up soon.”

Magazines on Left and Right Unite to Share Office Space

The financial crisis did not bring bipartisanship to Congress, but a difficult media environment may have brought that spirit to two political standard-bearers.

In need of cash and with extra space on its hands, the liberal magazine The American Prospect decided to sublet part of its Washington offices. The American Conservative, tired of working from Arlington, Va., was looking for a new location. When the publishers Jay Harris of The Prospect and Wick Allison of The Conservative were getting lunch in August, they put two and two together.

A six-month lease was soon signed. The self-described bastion of “traditional conservatism” moved in with the self-described “liberal, progressive, lefty” on Dec. 27.

“We have a water fountain labeled conservatives only,” joked Mr. Harris, who cleared the idea with his staff. “We turned to the staff and said, ‘Would you be comfortable?' To a person, the folks who responded said, ‘Our values are pretty different, but we have a lot of respect for what The American Conservative does journalistically.' ”

What they lack in ideological viewpoint, the two nonprofit monthlies make up for in an independent, establishment-bucking mind-set. Each has faced the sort of downsizing that has become all too common in the print world.

The American Conservative, founded in 2002 by Pat Buchanan, ran biweekly before it went out of print for six weeks in 2009 and returned as a monthly magazine. It has a circulation of 8,000. The American Prospect, in print since 1990, announced to its staff in April that if the magazine could not find $500,000 in financing, it would close altogether by the end of May. With help from good publicity from Prospect alumni and a few large donors - and by shrinking its staff by four - the bimonthly magazine has endured. The publication has combined paid print and digital circulation of nearly 45,000. The Conservative's seven staff members will share the white-walled, blue-carpeted 12th floor of 1710 Rhode Island Avenue with The Prospect's fund-raising and advertising departments. They must share a conference room, a potential source of conflict, though Mr. Harris says it could be a site for events the magazines co-host.

Daniel McCarthy, The Conservative's associate editor, said the new locale suits its independent outlook.

“Where we had been,” Mr. McCarthy said of the office in Arlington, “was sort of a hotbed of lobbyists and defense contractors. People who represent a different side of Washington.”

Maisie Allison, a Web editor at The Conservative, said the shared space would help both magazines.

“Since we do not directly compete, we can only benefit from sharing ideas, formally and informally,” she said. “They have a bunch of magazine covers on the wall; we're going to get some of ours up soon.”

Universal Pictures Renews Deal With HBO

Universal Pictures on Sunday announced a lucrative renewed pact with HBO that will keep the studio's films on the cable system - and off Netflix - into the next decade.

The announcement came about a month after Netflix nabbed its biggest studio yet, the Walt Disney Company, highlighting the competition between cable players like HBO and Internet upstarts. The old Disney films included in the deal, like “Alice in Wonderland,” are now available on Netflix; new releases will begin to show up on Netflix in 2016, after Disney's current deal with Starz expires.

The first agreement between HBO, a unit of Time Warner, and Universal, a unit of Comcast's NBCUniversal, came in 2003. With the extension through 2022, HBO now has the rights to about half of Hollywood big releases until then.

It has similar long-term deals with 20th Century Fox, Summit Entertainment and its sister company Warner Brothers. A person with knowledge of the deal, however, said HBO did not intend to pursue Sony Pictures, whose deal with Starz is scheduled to end in 2016.

Bruce Grivetti, the president for film programming for HBO, alluded to the company's confidence in a statement on Sunday: “We are excited to extend our relationship with Universal Pictures and have now solidified HBO's position for first-run theatricals into the next decade.”

Movie rights remain critical to HBO, despite the success of original shows like “True Blood” and “Game of Thrones,” because they attract big audiences and fill much of the channe l's schedule. HBO extended its movie deal with 20th Century Fox last year.

By staying in business with HBO through Universal, Comcast is choosing not to go directly to consumers with its own streaming movie service. The closest thing Comcast has to that is Streampix, an on-demand bundle of movies and old TV shows that Comcast cable customers can buy.

Comcast may also be signaling that it is not interested in acquiring Starz, despite industry speculation to the contrary. A spokeswoman for Comcast declined to comment on Sunday.

IAC Is Set to Announce Acquisition of Tutor.com

Through its online dating Web site Match.com, IAC has paired up thousands of happy couples. Now, the Internet and media company founded by Barry Diller plans to use similar a technique to pair students with the perfect tutor.

IAC is set to announce Monday it will acquire Tutor.com, an online service that matches students with educational professionals who help with everything from high-school algebra to advanced physics. The Web site will join an IAC trove of online properties that include Dictionary.com, CollegeHumor.com, About.com, and lucrative dat ing services like Match.com and OKCupid.com.

Tutor.com has been pairing an army of nearly 3,000 tutors with students since 1998. But nearly 90 percent of the company's business comes from contracts with institutions, like the United States military, universities and libraries, rather than selling the online tutoring sessions directly to parents or students.

IAC intends to change that. The company did not disclose the terms of the deal, but one person briefed on the acquisition estimated that IAC had paid just under $40 million for Tutor.com. IAC plans to improve the site's user interface and marketing, and apply the complex algorithms used on Web sites like Match.com and HomeAdvisor.com, which pairs homeowners with contractors.

“We're not educators and we don't want to be, but we're good at taking that network that's been created and bringing to bear real consumer expertise,” said Gregory R. Blatt, chief executive of IAC.

George Cigale, the founder and chief executive of Tutor.com, will continue to run the company as it makes the transition to a more consumer-focused enterprise. Mr. Cigale describes Tutor.com, whose plans start at $39.99 for an hour a month of instant access to an Internet tutor, as “an older brother who knows what you're struggling with and can help you on a moment's notice.”

He says the company had grown to the point that it needed a company like IAC. “We reach hundreds of thousands of students each month, but we could be reaching millions,” Mr. Cigale says. “The best way to do that would be to go directly to the parents.”

IAC is the latest media company to get into the burgeoning field of digital learning. News Corporation has beefed up its fledgling education division, called Amplify, led by Joel I. Klein, a former New York City Schools chancellor. Disney, Discovery Communications and Comcast's NBCUniversal have also invested in digital education tools for K-12 classrooms.

Mr. Blatt said the Tutor.com deal is not part of a broader play by IAC to break into the education sector. “We know some people are out there looking to get into education. That's not what we're doing,” he said. “We found a company we like and we think we can improve the customer experience.”

A Robust Year for Concert Sales, but With Graying Headliners

Sales of concert tickets, a vital measurement of the health of the music industry, returned to their former strength in 2012 after two slow years, with Madonna and Bruce Springsteen leading the most popular tours.

The results, however, point to two trends that have long worried critics of the business: rising prices and the predominance of aging superstars whose fans care little about their new material.

The top 100 tours in North America had $2.5 billion in gross ticket sales last year, nearly equal to their peak three years ago, according to Pollstar, a trade publication. Madonna was the biggest attraction, with $134 million in sales, followed by Cirque du Soleil's tribute to Michael Jackson, “The Immortal,” which had $113 million; Mr. Springsteen was No. 3 with $105 million.

Madonna also topped Pollstar's worldwide chart, with $296 million in gross sales, followed by Mr. Springsteen with $210 million.

These numbers are welcome for the concert business, which faltered in 2010 after more than a decade of swift growth, for reasons variously attributed to the recession, weak lineups and overpriced tickets. It had only a slight rebound in 2011.

Yet fewer tickets were being sold at higher prices. Fans bought 36.7 million tickets for the Top 100 tours in North America last year, still down from 40.5 million in 2009. Last year, the cost of an average ticket rose to a record $68.76. The Rolling Stones' handful of 50th anniversary shows was the most expensive, at an average of $519.

And while fans flocked to see Madonna and Mr. Springsteen in concert, they largely avoided their new albums. Madonna's “MDNA,” released last year, sold 527,000 copies, according to Nielsen SoundScan; as many as a third of those were given away with the purchase of a ticket, according to estimates. Mr. Springsteen's “Wrecking Ball,” also released last year, sold 490,000 copies.

“The well-established acts don't need n ew records to help them sell concert tickets,” said Gary Bongiovanni, Pollstar's editor. “Fans are coming for the hits, and at today's ticket prices, the acts had better deliver. Play a new song and that's an audience cue for a bathroom break.”

Eight out of the top 10 North American tours featured older performers in 2012; in addition to Madonna and Mr. Springsteen, they included Roger Waters, Van Halen, Barbra Streisand and Elton John. The biggest acts under 40 last year were Coldplay (at No. 6 with $55 million), whose members are in their mid-30s, and the 18-year-old Justin Bieber (No. 11, $40 million).

Taylor Swift and Lady Gaga, two major young concert draws, were mostly absent from the North American market last year, but will return in 2013. (Lady Gaga's shows in Asia, Europe and elsewhere last year sold $161 million, putting her at No. 5 on Pollstar's worldwide chart.)

Pollstar's numbers count only the face value of a ticket, not the service fe es and other surcharges that can add as much as 40 percent to a customer's final cost.

Eliot Spitzer End His Show on Current TV

Eliot Spitzer, the former New York governor turned progressive television host, said Sunday that his show on Current TV is over.

The announcement comes a few days after Al Jazeera took control of Current TV. Later this year, the Qatar-owned broadcaster plans to turn the channel into an Americanized version of the international news channel Al Jazeera English.

Mr. Spitzer said he had a “wonderful time” at Current, but emphasized that his relationship was with Al Gore and Joel Hyatt, Current's co-founders, not with Al Jazeera. “Moving forward, their mission will be different,” he said - more international newscasts, less liberal talk about the news.

Mr. Spitzer's 8 p.m. program on Current, “Viewpoint,” was the centerpiece of the channel's fledgling prime time schedule. He said the time slot would have a new host starting on Monday.

A Current spokeswoman said Sunday that Mr. Spitzer “has chosen to step back from hosting ‘Viewpoint.' Unt il further notice the show will be hosted by John Fugelsang.”

Mr. Fugelsang, a comedian, has been a frequent commentator and host on Current recently.

For Mr. Spitzer, the amicable separation is unsurprising. Last spring, nine months after his CNN talk show was canceled, Mr. Gore and Mr. Hyatt abruptly asked him to take over the 8 p.m. time slot on Current. The reason: the 8 p.m. host Keith Olbermann was about to be fired.

Mr. Spitzer said yes and was, by his own account, “thrilled” to do it, but it was never a full-time job, nor a long-term one. His contract expired after the presidential election in November.

Mr. Spitzer, who resigned the New York governorship in 2008 shortly after his liaisons with prostitutes were made public, is presumed by many people to harbor political ambitions. Asked if they were right to presume that, he said in a telephone interview, “Others presume I have the ambitions.” He la ughed and added, “Let me leave it at that for now.”

Along with hosting “Viewpoint,” Mr. Spitzer writes commentaries for Slate and manages real estate investments, among other pursuits.

“I love and always have loved policy issues and trying to have an impact on the issues that are out there,” he said. “I cherish my years in government. I have loved my participation at CNN; at Current; writing; teaching. Where I will go next, I will have to sort out.”

Current TV had been considering a sale for several months. But Mr. Spitzer, like many others, was surprised when Al Jazeera - praised by some in the United States for top-notch news coverage but decried by others as “anti-American” - became its new owner last week.

Al Jazeera said that the progressive talk shows on Current would continue for about three months before changes are implemented. But two of Current's hosts, the former governor of Michigan Jennifer Granholm and the sitting li eutenant governor of California Gavin Newsom, said they would exit within weeks.

Mr. Spitzer said his exit was “more of my instigation than theirs, truth be told.” It was not, he said, due to Al Jazeera's controversial status.

“I view Al Jazeera as a very serious journalistic outfit,” he said. “They have proven to observers around the world that they are serious and objective. They will have to, at a P.R. level, prove to the American public that that is the case. And I think that over time they will succeed at doing that.”

“For me,” he continued, “journalism has been more a matter of projecting a particular approach to covering policies, to covering issues. It was a continuation of what I tried to do in government. And that doesn't fit with their vision of what they are going to do.”