Details, Jane, and Cookie have been separated from the Fairchild herd and let to Condé Nast Publications' stable, at least on paper. Does this mean that Jane staffers will now experience the wonder of a Condé expense account? Maybe. Does this mean that Details, which flunked out of Condé Nast six years ago, will still make economic sense with Condé overhead? Again, maybe.

And where will Mary Berner find another company to run again? That is her stated reason for leaving, after all. Not Time Inc. or Hearst, obviously. Gruner + Jahr felt her out a few years ago, but has since ceased to exist. Hachette? Unlikely. Primedia? Don't make her laugh. And probably not Condé Nast itself in a year or two (or three), when CEO Chuck Townsend retires. That was her game plan until four months ago, when Fairchild ceased to be run independently of Condé Nast and Berner found herself reporting to Townsend instead of chairman/owner S. I. "Si" Newhouse. It was an obvious loss of face for Berner, who hoped (and expected) to one day succeed her friend Townsend (as she had as publisher of Glamour) rather than answer to him.

So who is the front-runner to succeed Townsend? Fox looks like the easy answer, now that the bulk of Fairchild's portfolio is in his hands. He's also close to Stephen Newhouse, who is expected to be Si's successor. But as Berner's departure proves, strange things can happen on the way to running America's most cutthroat magazine company.

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