The David Zinczenko Men’s Fitness era has officially begun. His ideas about what the magazine should look like are available for all to see with the June issue. Here’s a quick analyzation of the new cover. The old one is pictured on the right.

• The new Men’s Fitness cover features two exclamation points, only down one from last month’s cover. Zinczenko — thank god — still believes MELTING YOUR GUT is worth yelling about.
• Men’s Fitness went with Vin Diesel for the revamped issue. Nice choice. He’s a dude’s dude and his biceps are roughly the size of two (manly) watermelons.
• We have to admit, the updated logo does look much better than the old one. Check out that fancy apostrophe! [Editor's note: You're f*ucking right I care about apostrophes.]
• Both covers mentioned SEX once, but Zinczenko wins again if only because May’s headline was the ultra creepy “Get Your Crib Sex Friendly (And Lure Her to Your Lair).” Lure her to your lair? Is this Sex Offender’s Digest or Men’s Fitness?

Ever since David Zinczenko joined AMI, we’ve been waiting for whatever few differences there were between Men’s Fitness and Men’s Health to disappear. Judging by Zinczenko’s interview with WWD, the morphing has officially begun.

Zinczenko told WWD that he has been “reimagining the magazine [Men's Fitness] cover to cover,” and that he has been courting fashion advertisers to buy space in the glossy. The Men’s Fitness logo, voice and typeface have also been updated, and the new look magazine will hit newsstands in June. “It’s going to be the ultimate active lifestyle magazine for young men,” Zinczenko said. “It’s going to be a cooler magazine.”

Somewhere, Bill Phillips, editor-in-chief of Men’s Health, is shaking his head. It used to be that Zinczenko reserved loving words like “ultimate” and “cooler” for Men’s Health, but no more. It’s only a matter of time now before dude bros put down Men’s Health and instead turn to Men’s Fitness for headlines like “47 WAYS TO MAKE HER HOT AND WE DON’T MEAN TEMPERATURE WE MEAN DOING IT. SEX. SEX AND ABS. SEXY ABS BEING SEXED. BY WOMEN!”

Sorry Phillips and Men’s Health staffers, it’s all over.

Michael de Medeiros is out as editor-in-chief of Men’s Fitness. De Medeiros had been the vice president and editor of the magazine since January of 2012.

The New York Post reports that de Medeiros’ departure is directly linked to AMI hiring David Zinczenko as a consultant. The thinking is that Zinczenko — who built Men’s Health into what it is today — can help Men’s Fitness’ stature.

In related news, Steve Perrine, another Rodale staffer who was ousted along with Zinczenko, is also joining AMI as a consultant. Perrine is part of Zinczenko’s new company, Galvanize Media.

According to The New York Post, John Graney is out at AMI’s Men’s Fitness. Graney had been the magazine’s vice president/publisher since November of last year.

Prior to his time at Men’s Fitness, Graney was associate publisher of Bonnier Corporation’s Field & Stream, Outdoor Life and SHOT Business.

Patrick Connors, most recently associate publisher of Glamour, is succeeding Graney.

Complex Media has named Noah Johnson as its new Senior Editor. Johnson most recently worked as Senior Editor for Men’s Fitness. As Senior Editor at Complex, Johnson will he will oversee the Style and Rides channels, and will report to Bradley Carbone, Lifestyle Editor.

Orlando Lima, Managing Editor at Complex, said Johnson is a welcome addition to the team. “We are committed to investing in new talent as we continue to expand our coverage. Noah definitely brings an impressive mix of experience across the men’s lifestyle category.”

Here at FishbowlNY, we stick to covering stories that affect the media. But it’s the media’s job to cover the biggest stories in the world today. Here, we take a look back at the news stories that left New York and the world riveted in 2009, covered faithfully by our local newspapers and the other pubs that are based here.

Tiger Woods scandal
The intrigue of this domestic-dispute-turned-sex-scandal started Thanksgiving weekend, and continues today — nearly a month later. Tiger’s escapades provided cover fodder for local tabloid The New York Post for three straight weeks, holding the attention of Post editors even longer than 9/11. And beyond the cover of our local papers and tabloid magazines, Tiger also caused some questions for Golf Digest, which has a close relationship with the golfer and, with some serious bad timing, put him on the January cover with President Obama. Men’s Fitness also got mixed up in the whole mess, reportedly striking a deal with Tiger for a cover story in return for covering up the scandal two years ago.

More after the jump

Read more

CNN: Watch The Daily Beast‘s Tina Brown and her husband, Sir Harold Evans, this Sunday on Christiane Amanpour‘s CNN show.

Wall Street Journal: Media scandal of the day: The Wall Street Journal published a story today about Tiger Woods‘ shady deal with Men’s Fitness publisher American Media Inc. without giving any credit to New York Post columnist Keith Kelly, who broke the story two weeks ago.

WWD: Hearst Magazines‘ Chuck Cordray promises a new digital vertical to launch next year “is not one you’d expect from us.” Also, Hearst is planning to relaunch its teen network over the summer.

Huffington Post: Editor & Publisher editor Greg Mitchell blogs about the demise of his magazine, and says there is a “decent chance” that it will be resurrected.

Los Angeles Times: James Rainey profiles The Huffington Post and the challenge of making money on the Web.

Two weeks ago, news leaked that Playboy Enterprises was in talks to sell their holdings to London Fog owner Iconix Brand Group Inc. Hugh Hefner‘s publishing empire’s stock has fallen drastically in the last five years, and the recent economic downturn dealt a major blow to the magazine industry, and drew speculation that Playboy was no longer a sustainable enterprise. (In September alone, Playboy‘s ad pages fell 35 percent.) Turns out, the rumors were only half right.

Read more

According to The Media is Dying those of you who were subscribers to the sadly now defunct Radar magazine can now have your choice of…wait for it…Star, Men’s Fitness, or Shape.

You know there was a time not that long ago where this post would have linked you to The Onion.

Neal Boulton, former Men’s Fitness editor, current Genre editor, and rumored (former) paramour of Rolling Stone head Jann Wenner, has launched his own website called BastardLife.com: ‘How to Navigate the Brave New World of Sex, Dirty Secrets by Neal Boulton’. Per Boulton’s Letter from the Editor:

Love, lust, like — it really doesn’t matter. We are men, and we hunger for the same thing: a connection, a score, a win. Some are short and sweet; others are tough and bitter. Either way, we walk the long road home, collecting many stories, but not enough advice, or friends, to dispel the myths, or dilute the boundaries, of the “game.” We wake up, maybe decades later, telling someone younger the ways of things — with a grin that impresses, but really conceals a wish we knew then what we do now. Sure we have wives, or girlfriends, or boyfriends — or husbands. All told, there’s a bastard in all of us, but managing the vice of manhood is the goal we offer, the manifesto we push.

The site appears to still be in the early-ish stages (it took a couple of tries before it would load properly), that said, there are already a number of posts up, such as ‘Is Your Girl a Guy?‘ and ‘Simple Sex Reminders & Other Military Strategies.’ Navigate away!