Since another state isn't legalizing same-sex marriages, our quota on GLBT stories requires an update on outgoing Out publisher Joe Landry. Stolen from Out by BlackBook (only fair, since Out stole EIC Aaron Hicklin from BlackBook), Landry is set to leave in March. And while some are glad to see him go, one tattler says insists "Joe was 'fabulous,' to use one of his favorite words. Let's show him a little love."
And by love, we mean the memo to LPI Media staffers announcing Joe's exit, from president Bob Cohen, which includes the following newsworthy nugget:
This week, we will announce the selection of a new creative director for OUT and a design consultant for the redesign of The Advocate. Plus, we have already launched a wide recruiting effort to bring in a new group publisher for our print division. Stay tuned for further developments.
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Dear Colleagues,
Joe Landry, LPI Media’s SVP and Group Publisher, has announced his resignation and will be leaving the company in the middle of March. Joe will be taking over as president of BlackBook magazine.
Joe rose up through the ranks of LPI, starting with The Advocate 13 years ago and moving into assignments as associate publisher, publisher, and now group publisher. He has been a classy and charismatic representative for LPI throughout the ad trade and LGBT community. We thank Joe for his energy and commitment to our company, our brands, and for building a superb sales & marketing team.
These remain challenging times for the print media business. The unfavorable trend in pages and revenues that began in the second half of 2006 has continued into the first quarter of this year and has affected many titles, in addition to our own. In the face of this, however, our commitment to our print brands and to the editorial, sales, and production teams which support them has never been stronger. This week, we will announce the selection of a new creative director for OUT and a design consultant for the redesign of The Advocate. Plus, we have already launched a wide recruiting effort to bring in a new group publisher for our print division. Stay tuned for further developments.
In the meantime, please join me in thanking Joe for his many years of service and in wishing him much success in his new opportunity.
Bob Cohen
Editorial Director
LPI/PlanetOut/Out Magazine etc, is a mini TimeWarner right down to the dotcom buyout (PlanetOutInc/AOL) of a traditional media company (LPI/Time).
Bob Cohen is a numbers guy brought in by PlanetOut for due diligence to make sure that the mags make money.
PlanetOut has made some good changes (Aaron) but Bob is far from an inspiring leader (see typical depressing 3rd graph in his email announcement)
Despite having a CEO from TimeWarner, PlanetOut made some of the very same mistakes as AOL/TimeWarner - trying to force employees to use the corporate email addy(!) instead of individual brands and similar mistakes with corporate business cards, implying that employees worked for PlanetOutInc rather than Out or Advocate.
In the same vein, both media companies suffer from the same irony of having been taken over by a digital media company and having no clue as to how to move the traditional brands into the digital realm.
Good luck to Joe. No surprise he was ousted, given the poor earnings recently released by Planet Out. With a projection of only 2% cash flow, the company is doomed and replacing Joe makes sense. Fortunatley, Joe was able to snag himself a new gig!