Former Conde Nast president Steve Florio has sold a deep-dishing book about his experiences in the publishing world, according to WWD's Jeff Bercovici. The "memoir-cum-management treatise" (purchased by an "undisclosed publisher") will reflect on his time heading up the business side at GQ, The New Yorker and eventually all of Conde Nast.
Gossipy excerpts, courtesy of WWD:
On former GQ publisher Ron Galotti (who gets his own chapter, "Managing Mr. Big"): "The story of Ron Galotti is the story of how celebrity can ruin a perfectly good executive ... Ron started believing his own bulls--t." On re-hiring Galotti to helm GQ: "[T]he worst decision I ever made as president and CEO ... The magazine needed someone with a very steady hand, and Ron didn't have it anymore."
On former New Yorker editor William Shawn: "He was one of the most manipulative human beings I had ever encountered."
On Star! empress Bonnie Fuller, formerly of Glamour: "She damn near killed the magazine. She made it trashy as hell."
On Mandi Norwood, the last EIC of Mademoiselle: "Within six months she took a century-old institution and put that baby out of business."
On the illicit habits of the GQ sales staff in the 80s: "One guy in ad sales was a cocaine freak; another was a notorious sex fanatic. An out-of-town sales rep was a cross-dressing nut — hose, bras, hats and the works — with a wife and kids. At our first sales meeting, at the Montauk Yacht Club ... all the gay guys showed up in dresses. Strapless numbers."
Florio is repped by William Morris. No details about the deal are public as of yet.
Amanda Ernst
