Our girl Carrie Sloan is stepping down as editor of Tango Media to head up Girlfriend Getaways, a spin-off of Budget Travel that caters to "female travelers and thrill seekers." According to a release, Sloan will be tasked with "building and expanding the brand both in its print magazine form, with aspirations to increase production to four issues in 2009, and online with the recent launch of girlgetaways.com, as well as on TV and in books."

Good move, Carrie. How hard can it be? Just let the users generate all the content.

It's a British Invasion of sorts. BBC magazines has announced that it will launch a an American version of BBC Knowledge that will be "aimed at readers with a curious mind." We're not exactly sure who they're referring to, though there is something vaguely insulting about that phrase we can't put our finger on.

Anyway, the magazine will be glossy(!), publish six times a year and will pull content from the BBC History Magazine, BBC Wildlife Magazine and Focus, it's also aiming to take on US magazines such as recent Ellie winner National Geographic but hopes to incorporate a wider focus (outer space, perhaps?).

US versions of British brands are not a new thing. The BBC News has an American edition, and the Guardian recently launched Guardian America.

According to Folio, this month's Budget Travel has taken the concept of user-driven content literally. One hundred percent of June's issue has been created by its readers, 324 of them to be exact, including the photography, which, come to think of it, sort of sounds to us like the makings of a reality TV show.

The issue, which paid its contributors "normal fees" was "neither cheap, nor easy" according to editor Erik Torkells. And while it (perhaps, not surprisingly) required an "extraordinary amount" of editing it is also an acknowledgment that in the travel industry, along with just about everywhere else one could add, "consumers are turning to each other as much as to so-called experts."

Which leads us to wonders whether this is the sort of thing Playboy might want to consider in order boost sales.

Like many so before, it looks like Penthouse magazine is turning to God for salvation cash.

Newsweek is reporting that in an effort to "diversify and reinvent" itself after having discovered that "adult content" (porn! your kids can find it anywhere now) is available on the internets for free(!) Penthouse has purchased, among other things, the Christian dating site BigChurch.com (motto: "Bringing people together in love and faith"). According to Penthouse Co. owner Marc Bell "Penthouse is just another Web site. We are in the social-networking business. We are not in the business of Penthouse." Aha, tell that to your minister.

Meanwhile, fellow nudie mag (and yes, we know it's "classier") Playboy is also suffering from the "easy availability of bare flesh on the Internet," having just reported that it lost money in the first quarter of 2008. According to Playboy head Christie Hefner, people should stop looking at the "company as a whole and start considering its individual parts," (sort of like its take on woman, one could add). Anyway, did you know they have a blog?

Alas, it would seem the degradation of women just isn't the solid investment it used to be...unless, of course, you count MoDo's columns.

Craig Matters, formerly the executive editor of Money, will join Fortune in the same position. In the newly created slot, Matters, the founding editor of CNNMoney.com, will oversee Fortune.com as well as the brand's technology and investing coverage.

Fortune editor Andy Serwer tapped the Vasser alum for his experience online. Before joining Time Inc., Matters edited one of the earliest online communities, American Lawyer Media's Counsel Connect.

UPDATE: Looks like it takes two people to do Matters' job at Money. ME Eric Schurenberg promoted Diane Harris and Ellen Stark, formerly assistant managing editors, to executive editors, while Pat Regnier jumps from senior editor to AME. Beth Fenner returns to the Time Inc. world as AME as well.

Wired (helmed by Mediabistro Circus keynote speaker Chris Anderson) is turning 15 this year. The precocious start-up has grown into, well, a precocious teen that's become our favorite magazine for its excellent features and bold photography.

To celebrate, the Condé kids are throwing a party in New York City next week. We just got an invite in the mail and, as our questionable photography skills show, it's enormous. We support this completely: A little overkill never hurt anyone. Here's hoping the party's as over-the-top.

After the jump, the nausea-inducing invite back, which is SFW unless you're hungover.

continued...

We scored a sneak peek at Rob Sheffield's first "Station-to-Station" column debuting in June's Blender. Sheffield, who followed Joe Levy from Rolling Stone, writes about his enduring love affair with Madonna, hence the nightmare-inducing image of the Material Girl.

Image aside, it's an enjoyable read on a Friday afternoon. It takes a big man to write "she was the first woman who ever told me I can dance (I can't)," and a bigger one to admit "some of her songs are so beautiful it hurts to feel them pierce my body, making me too sad to listen to them." He also compares Madonna to Greg Maddux, which although ridiculous, works.

Full column. Jump. Do it.

continued...

Over at UnBeige, Stephanie Murg interviews Enrico Bossan and Erik Ravelo, editorial director and creative director, respectively, of Colors, "a magazine about the rest of the world." Because FishbowlNY is nothing if not international in scope, we bring you our favorite part:

Proudest design moment?
ER: When a friend of mine told me to have a look at an incredible image of an aged Marilyn Monroe he found in the Internet: I was the author of that image!

The complete interview is here.

...for now.

When we first heard Outside was launching a luxury travel spinoff for dudes called Outside's Go, we thought it was going to be thinly-veiled attempt to lure high-end advertisers under the auspices of a legit pub. Imagine our surprise when the first issue hit stands and included actual articles with inteligent, thoughtful prose (alongside ludicrously expensive trips). Future issues continued the trend, highlighted by June-July's in-depth feature on the Mongolian grasslands, which straddles the line between travel journalism and, dare we say, activism.

Yesterday, we caught up with EIC Kent Black, in town to give "some speech," and publisher Walker Mason near Grand Central Station to talk about the future of the fledgling mag, their "polite" relationship with Outside and the advantages of having a cover subject who "nobody knows."

continued...