This week, there has been a flurry of news coming out of Brant Publications, the publisher of Interview magazine.

On Monday, there were reports that editorial director Glenn O’Brien had left the company. O’Brien had been appointed co-editorial director of Interview and Brant’s other publications,Art in America and The Magazine Antiques, last year when longtime editor Ingrid Sischy left the company.

Coming in to replace O’Brien is Fabien Baron, who was originally O’Brien’s co-editorial director but was in the role for a matter of months before being let go.

Of course, this whole shake-up has tongues wagging about the health of the company, with some predicting that the company might be in dire financial straits. As O’Brien told Fashion Week Daily, the publisher simply isn’t able to pay its freelancers.

Brant is now being run by Ryan Brant, a disgraced former CEO of software company Take Two, who pled guilty to stock option backdating. He was appointed by his father, Peter, after publisher Alan Katz departed a few months back.

“Months ago, I wanted to bring in a professional publisher, which might have averted this cash flow situation,” O’Brien told FWD. “Basically, it’s been rudderless [ever since Katz's departure] on the publishing side.”

Read more

FishbowlDC: Former Portfolio staffer Matt Cooper recently got a new gig at The Atlantic but is maintaining his title as editor-at-large for TalkingPointsMemo.com.

TVNewser: Peter Doocy, a recent grad and son of Fox & Friends host Steve Doocy, is joining Fox News.

Folio: Jazz Times has ceased publication but may not be completely dead yet. According to a note on the magazine’s Web site, it “will undergo reorganization and restructuring in order to remain competitive in the current media climate.”

Daily Intel: Brant Publications‘ editorial director Glenn O’Brien has left the company. He was placed in charge of Interview, as well as Brant’s other titles, last year.

Financial Times: Thanks to three recent acquisitions, Bonnier Group has become one of the top ten largest magazine owners in the U.S., only three years after entering the market.

It’s a big week for design magazines.

Yesterday, we reported about editorial staff changes at I.D., and today there is news that Interview magazine publisher Brant Publications is set to launch a new design magazine, Modern, next month.

According to Folio, Modern‘s 118-page debut issue (which includes 58 ad pages) will be mailed to subscribers of Brant’s two art magazines, The Magazine Antiques and Art in America, and will be on newsstands polybagged with the June issue of Art in America.

Your eyes are not playing tricks on you. Next time you go to the newsstand you’ll probably notice that Rolling Stone has shrunk. The magazine announced a few weeks ago that it was cutting down its classic large size due to (you guessed it) dropping sales, as part of an effort to make it more “rack-friendly.”

Interview, however, is also set to launch a redesign and they are going in the opposite direction: according to Folio: the new look will be an inch longer and feature “a striking foil-and-ink cover — the first North American magazine to do so” (better to compete with Esquire‘s digital one, perhaps?), Also, the September issue will carry an additional twelve pages of ads.