ANOTHER TOP TURNOVER MEANS CHANGE AT LIFE & STYLE
Contact The Author
BAUER Publishing, parent company of struggling celebrity magazine Life & Style, is now said to be scouring Fleet Street in London for a new editor-in-chief.
Sources say the incumbent editor, Debbie Armstrong, who joined the weekly only in June, is planning to return to her native Australia at year’s end following the birth of a new baby.
It will mark the advent of the sixth editor in the magazine’s four-year history.
The first was launch editor Sheryl Berk, now an author; then Debra Birnbaum, who’s now running TV Guide; Mark Pasetsky, now a consultant; In Style Editor-in-Chief Richard Spencer, who for six months did double duty on both magazines; and then Armstrong.
The search comes as Life & Style’s newsstand sales continue to lag. According to sources, its latest cover, featuring Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie, sold just 340,000 copies.
Street shock
Even before this week’s shocking turn of events on Wall Street, magazine publishers were expecting 2009 to be one of the toughest years on record.
Perhaps the only bright spot is that the three big companies leading this week’s collapse – Merrill Lynch, Lehman Brothers and American International Group – didn’t do much advertising in magazines.
Total advertising in all media last year from the battered trio was $157 million, according to TNS Media Intelligence. In the first half of this year, they spent about $75 million.
It sounds impressive until one calculates that the latest Microsoft campaign is budgeted at $300 million.
Lehman, which filed for bankruptcy earlier this week and has already had units sold to Barclays Plc, seemed to be nearly absent from most conventional advertising, according to TNS.
Total ad spending in radio, newspapers and magazines was a scant $501,000 for the first half of 2008, and the firm didn’t spend a penny on TV or display Internet advertising.
In all of 2007, Lehman spent $1.2 million, down from $2.6 million the year before.
Meanwhile, AIG, which is being taken over by Uncle Sam, was a comparatively big spender, ponying up $53.1 million for TV ads, up from $36.6 million in the first half of last year, TNS data show. Magazine ad spending in the first half fell to $5.8 million from $6.1 million a year ago.
Merrill Lynch cut its ad spending in conventional media to $10.3 million in the first half of this year from $13.5 million at the same time last year. Its magazine advertising held steady at around $5.4 million.
For all of 2007, Merrill spent $37.1 million across all forms of media, vs. $38.2 million in 2006.
Not OK!
Kent Brownridge, famously dubbed by one media wag “Dr. Evil,” arrived at OK! magazine as its new general manager, and within a week sev eral top editors exited.
The company in sists, however, that the events are unre lated.
Sources said the company called a staff meeting to an nounce that Rob Shuter, a one-time con troversial p.r. man to the stars, had left as OK!’s executive editor after a year and a half.
A few days later, Laura Schreffler, a senior writer, also departed.
“Despite speculation, the changes are not a product of Kent Brownridge coming in and ‘cleaning house,’ ” said a spokesman.
“The two editors have moved on to pursue other opportunities and the magazine will search out suitable replacements.”
Good News
Daily News owner Mort Zuckerman and Editor-in-Chief Martin Dunn won’t have to swing the ax at the beleaguered tabloid, after all.
Insiders said the paper managed to find 25 editorial staffers to take a buyout by a Sept. 12 deadline, although no full list of names was released, not even to insiders.
Among those said to be departing are veteran librarian Faigi Rosenthal; longtime drama critic Howard Kissel; reporters Don Bertrand, Jay Maeder, Chris Coleman, Nancy Katz; and editorial writer Karen Zautyk.
Unlike past buyouts, there were quite a few people in their 20s and 30s who decided to take Mort’s money and run.
Among the younger set said to be heading for the exit is police reporter Ethan Rouen, award-winning photographer Michael Appleton, and Tamer El-Ghobashy, who covered Hurricane Katrina and worked overseas.
A Daily News spokeswoman did not return a call seeking comment.