The Revolving Door

This week, we learned of two top magazine staffers, one publisher and one editor-in-chief, leaving their posts after just a few months on the job.

First came word that Susan Reed is leaving her spot as editor-in-chief at O, The Oprah Magazine after less than a year at the helm of the Hearst pub. Before joining O, Reed served as the editor-in-chief at Golf for Women for more than six years. She will be replaced by Time Inc.'s Susan Casey.

Also this week, the New York Post reported that Francis Farrell will be leaving the publisher slot at Men's Journal after less than six months. Farrell formerly worked as publisher National Geographic Traveler and joined the men's magazine in October 2008. Farrell will be replaced by Matt Mastrangelo, the Post said.

The Post also reported that American Media, which publishes Star and National Enquirer has lost its CFO Dean Durbin after only a year and a half -- not quite as short a stint as the others but a quick turnaround nonetheless.

Last week, we learned that four people had asked to be let go at Irvine, Calif.-based Entrepreneur magazine. We spoke to publisher Ryan Shea, who told us he was amazed that his staffers wanted to brave the iffy employment market of the current economy.

Our sister blog FishbowlLA said those who left the company are research editor James Park, associate editor Kim Orr, associate editor of franchise Allison Gergley and associate Web editor Elizabeth Wilson. Although Shea had said these staffers had previously been part of former editor Rieva Lesonsky's team (she left the magazine in April 2008), she told FishbowlNY that only two of the four had worked for her.

Lesonsky, who started content provider GrowBiz Media with her three top editors from Entrepreneur after leaving the magazine last year, said she had nothing to do with the recent departures. "The corporate culture had changed a little," she said about her reasons for leaving. "It had become untenable for people who had been there for so long."

continued...

Reports are swirling that USA TODAY publisher Gannett Co. will be laying off a large number of employees soon.

The Wall Street Journal reports that the company will cut 1,000 and 2,000 of its 41,500 employees. The layoffs will come from Gannett's U.S. Community Publishing division, consisting of its 80+ daily newspapers, and USA TODAY will not be affected, the Journal added. The New York Times points out that Gannett's U.S. and British newspaper divisions have cut more than 10,000 jobs in 2007 and 2008, which includes about 2,000 layoffs this past fall.

In May, our sister blog MediaJobsDaily reported exclusively that USA TODAY had laid off three ad sales reps in its New York office and one in Chicago on May 13. Gannett has also made other cost-cutting measures this year, saving $20 million through furloughs in the first quarter and requiring most of its employees to take a second furlough before June. Apparently such measures were not enough to avoid additional layoffs during the second half of 2009.

We'll keep you posted as this story develops. But we have a feeling this bad news may come down on Thursday afternoon or Friday when all the world is already on vacation for the Fourth of July.

Update: Gawker Bob Dickey, which states that about 1,400 people will be losing their jobs and announcements should be coming down on July 9.

Hey all you unemployed writers, reporters and editors, Josh Marshall's Talking Points Memo Web site has announced several openings that is it hiring for in its New York and Washington, D.C. offices -- so get those resumes cleaned up and ready.

There are four open positions in New York, including a reporter/blogger post for the site's Muckraker section, a news writer, a senior news writer and a night/weekend editor. They are also looking for interns.

Good luck!

Fairchild Fashion Group CEO Richard Beckman is at it again.

After appointing a new CRO to the group, which publishes trade pub WWD, last week and assigning a new publisher to Footwear News the week before that, Beckman yesterday named three new associate publishers to the women's wear publication.

Erica Bartman, Paula Fortgang, and Elizabeth Webbe Lunny will all take on roles of associate publishers at WWD starting July 13. All three women join Fairchild from various positions at Conde Nast, which owns the smaller fashion trade publisher. They have all worked with Beckman during his career there, he said.

"Erica, Paula, and Elizabeth are some of the best professionals I have worked with in my time at Conde Nast," Beckman said in a release about the appointments. "Each will bring great intelligence and intensity to their new positions at Women's Wear Daily."

Full release and more background information about the new associate publishers after the jump.

continued...

We got a tip this morning that there were layoffs at Entrepreneur magazine, but upon further investigation we learned that wasn't 100 percent true.

Ryan Shea, vice president and corporate publisher for the magazine, told us that four editorial staffers had recently left the mag but they were not fired. They asked to be laid off, although Entrepreneur management hadn't asked for volunteers, he said.

"It's actually the weirdest thing I've ever dealt with, but people never cease to amaze me," Shea told FishbowlNY.

continued...

Today, The Hollywood Reporter has more information about Tuesday's layoffs at MTV Networks.

First, THR said the number of axed employees was only "50-something" and not the 75 of previous reports. And, in an interview with MTV's president of programming Tony DiSanto, THR learned that a majority of the layoffs were part of a broader reorganization of MTV.

"It was not done for financial reasons, it was purely creative -- an overhaul of the organization to better meet the creative needs of MTV," DiSanto told the industry trade.

DiSanto said that seven executives under him and his number two, Liz Gateley -- about half of MTV's development team -- were let go, including senior VPs Maira Suro and Aaron Meyerson, who worked on the scripted and unscripted sides, respectively.

DiSanto is now putting together a new creative structure for the network which will involve a New York-based comedy team led senior VP Brent Haynes and a bicoastal series development team led by Gateley, THR said.

Broadcasting & Cable is reporting that MTV Networks laid off a big group of staffers today -- with possibly as many as 75 employees getting the axe.

According to B&C, the cuts mostly affected "mid-level executives in the program development department, digital division and scheduling at the company's music and logo group which houses channels including MTV, VH1 and Logo."

Representatives for MTV were not available for comment this evening.

The cuts come just over six months after MTV's owner Viacom cut 850 staffers, with a bulk of that bloodbath coming from MTV.

And last week, MTV dumped Brian Graden, president of entertainment of the Music and Logo group, saying it was part of a "broader reorganization," the New York Post reported. Looks like the reorganization is very much under way.

If you have any tips email us.

Our mediabistro.com family got a little bigger this week with the addition of new WebNewser editor David Cohen.

David's an experienced reporter with 13 years at Reed Business including serving in several editorial roles at Multichannel News. Most recently, he served as was deputy editor of digital media for Multichannel and its sister publication Broadcasting & Cable. We're looking forward to reading his coverage of the Web -- and he's already been furiously posting during his first two days. Welcome, David!

Today, we noticed a mediabistro.com job posting for a managing editor position at TVGuide.com. Further inquiry revealed that current ME, Jennifer Holland, is leaving her post after only a year because she is getting married and moving out of state with her husband-to-be.

The managing editor is responsible for the day to day operations of the Web site and manages seven editors. The position reports directly to TVGuide.com's editor-in-chief and vice president of marketing Christy Tanner.

Tanner spoke to FishbowlNY today about what she's looking for in a new managing editor.

"TVGuide.com is a very exciting place to be right now," Tanner said, pointing out that the Web site and the TVGuide network are now owned by Lionsgate, and completely separate from the magazine version of TVGuide. "We have quadrupled our traffic in past two and half years and we have 19 million unique users. We're number one in engagement metrics among our competitive set."

continued...