What's a guy to do with a trio of mags? First off, change the name of their corporate parent. Kent Brownridge, who led Quadrangle's $240 million buyout of Dennis Publishing, will be renaming the umbrella company, giving the Stuff, Maxim, and Blender laddies a new daddy. The former Wenner Media exec, meanwhile, is said to be in the business of adding jobs, not cutting them (which would be hard, given that staffers are already doing multiple jobs). Well, except for Dennis prez Steve Colvin, who's, like, leaving and stuff.
But where's Kent gonna find all this money for new hires? CONTINUED »
• Yankees slugger Alex Rodriguez is confident that this whole cheating-on-his-wife scandal will not affect his game, nor detract from his modus operandi of "hitting lots of homeruns, then sucking in the playoffs."
• Post columnist Andrea Peyser would never take back a significant other if he threw lye in her face, just FYI.
• Has Kent Brownridge finally nabbed Dennis Publishing? And, if so, does this entitle him to an all-expenses paid trip to Maxim's new Dominican Republic brothel hotel?
• LA Times calls So You Think You Can Dance "the most gay-friendly show" on television. Clearly, they've forgotten all about Tinky Winky.
• This woman's morning sickness was so bad she decided to have an abortion. And to think, some people still want to reverse Roe v. Wade!
• Still recovering from a car accident earlier this month, Times' managing editor Jill Abramson has finally checked out of Bellevue hospital. During her stay, Abramson kept herself busy cooking up frivolous lawsuits working on a top-secret investigative project for Bill Keller.
• Despite failing to "shiver me timbers," Pirates breaks box office records over the weekend. Or does it?
• Dennis publishing announces plans to open Maxim Bungalows hotel in the Dominican Republic, presumably catering to those conservative types.
• Forbes encourages NBC to "save the peacock" by adding more reality tv programming. Which is so funny, because we were just talking about the dearth of shitty reality television nowadays.
• Lou Dobbs continues to blur the line between truth and fiction with his controversial reporting. Related: Janice Min to target Dobbs in Us Weekly's next 'Fake News' roundup.
• Alec Baldwin tries, fails, to use that leaked voicemail rant as an excuse to quit 30 Rock.
• 14 new Diana books are due out this year. The books are said to feature never-before-heard details about the late princess, such as her shoe size and her favorite brand of dental floss.
• Forbes tries to figure out exactly how Teen Vogue made Life, Child, Premiere and Elle Girl "disappear."
• "Asking [the Sulzberger clan] to willingly give up their control of the Times is akin to telling the Windsors to put Buckingham Palace up for sale."
• Transsexual sportswriter takes hiatus from LAT to become a woman, mentally prepares himself for the inevitable "you throw like a girl" jokes.
• Bidders vie for editorial control of Dennis Publishing's boobie magazines.
• Conrad Black celebrates the start of his fraud trial by holing up at the Ritz Carlton.
• Two LA Times Pulitzer finalists nominated themselves. When questioned about it, they haughtily remarked, "well somebody had to do it!"
• With the Viacom/YouTube lawsuit heating up, Google suddenly needs to hook up with one of the "popular" media kids.
• Not just anyone can emulate The Economist's overly expensive and "aggressively boring" style!
• Will the publisher of Cookie join the leagues of Conde Nasters jumping to Reader's Digest? Who cares, you only read Teen Vogue, anyway.
• Stuff for sale! No, seriously, Stuff. As well as Maxim, Blender…
Dennis Publications is selling 31 of its non-profitable titles to the highest fastest-acting bidder, as well unloading the accompanying merchandising rights. But what will the media think??
MediaWeek plays it straight:
While Maxim and sibling Stuff paved the way during the laddie phase in the late ’90s, the category has matured in recent years, with the titles experiencing slower growth.
NYP's Keith Kelly gets nostalgic:
"First men into the desert with a beer truck," [Dennis] had said of his magazine's stunning circulation success.
And Radar experiences schadenfreude:
At last, we'll finally get to see whether Dennis Publishing president Steve Colvin's long-running campaign to slap the Maxim brand on everything from hair dye and steakhouses to the Vegas desert itself will translate into big bucks.
Yep, no surprises there. Which pretty much just leaves us wondering: are there any magazines that don't have Eva Mendes as their cover-girl this month?
The masthead slashing party continues, with today's edition brought to you by the letter D. For Dennis Publishing. Or dickhead.
Just put through the chopping block was Andy Ryan, Blender's solo full-time designer. The 30-something received the news of his axing at a most appropriate time: while on the way to the airport to catch a London flight to be with his dying father. It was his boss, Dennis group creative director Andy Turnbull, who delivered the news — a sad fact when you consider the two Andys were quite friendly. Ryan, in fact, was well liked among the entire staff.
Meanwhile, instinctive chatter suggests Dennis brass felt it would be easier for Andy to deal with two catastrophes at once, instead of one after the one. That's Dennis, for ya: the publisher who cares.
What's a Friday without some mass firings? Today brings rumors of major hackings over at Maxim into our inbox.
This just in — totally unconfirmed, but from a connected source: associate editor John Devore, along with associate editor Steve Mazzucchi, fact checker Bart Morrisroe, and nine year vet and production editor Andrij Witiuk all just got fired from Maxim.
Dude. What's going on over there? Did they need to cut the dead weight in order to support new staffer Chris Wilson's salary?
Update: Stuff staffers ("Stuff-ers" har, har) have been pulled to Maxim, joining Wilson at the ass shaking lad mag. [FBNY]
What the hell people? It's Friday … relax. The news that Dennis publishing is pulling former Stuff EIC Jimmy Jellinek to replace the recently "resigned not pushed out" editor in chief of Maxim is not that super surprising. From Nat Ives' column to our inbox:
Maxim magazine today named Jimmy Jellinek to be its next editor in chief, succeeding Ed Needham, who is parting ways with the laddie title May 31 to return to Britain with his family. Mr. Jellinek is currently editor in chief at Stuff, which like Maxim is owned by Dennis Publishing, and was previously editor in chief at Complex.
Ok, everyone. Take a few minutes to crack a beer, stare at some girls in bikinis, and let's get on with our weekend. We are very happy for Jellinek, but it's not like they're selling the magazine to Robert Redford or something totally crazy like that.
'Stuff' Editor Jimmy Jellinek Moves to 'Maxim [Nat Ives, Ad Age]
Maxim Announces New Editor-in-Chief [Jeff Bercovici, WWD]
And just when we were getting so excited over the concept of Maxim India, Felix Dennis, the publisher behind Maxim and Stuff, is putting the entire Dennis Publishing up on the block.
Dennis was the first to import the beer and babe magazine formula to America, where he boldly predicted it would outsell the established men's magazines.
After launching in 1997, Maxim, with its irreverent frat boyish humor, quickly eclipsed the established men's magazines, including GQ, Esquire and Details, and eventually spawned its own niche when it started brother title Stuff.
Just a week after saying goodbye to Stuff's editorial director Andy Clerkson, the lad mags are up for grabs, with a rumored price tag of $250 million.
So, what's next for the founder of glossy keg stands and wet t-shirt contests? Replacing all the trees he's destroyed with his frat boy bathroom literature: "He has often waxed philosophical on a desire to become a philanthropist and restore a major forest to his native England."
Too bad he can't to something truly good for society, like, restoring all of the brain cells that were wasted while ogling his mags.
FELIX DENNIS THROWS IN TOWEL HERE, MAGS MAY SELL FOR $250M [Keith Kelly, New York Post]
Stuff mag employees say goodbye to editorial director Andy Clerkson in style.
After 15 years at Dennis Publishing, Clerkson is moving back to the UK, and at his send-off bash at the Chelsea Hotel, staffers created some mock-up covers of Maxim, Stuff and Blender with him on the cover.
The Stuff cover featured a florid-faced Clerkson bent over a pint glass, amid a profusion of cheeky cover lines, such as "Drunk and Sweaty! Andy Clerkson Can't Cool Down!" and "Justify Your Title! 427 Ways to Micromanage Anything!"
Even though this is the general editor send-off at all magazines, this cover particularly moves us. Not only because we love to see "micromanage" in bold, but because had this cover actually hit the stands, we bet 90 percent of Stuff's readers would be like "yo, I know that guy. I was totally at that same frat party."
GET STUFFED, JOE [Jeff Bercovici, WWD]
Dennis Publishing, a mag house more often forgotten about than even Rodale or Brant, prepares to lose their editorial director Andy Clerkson. In March, Clerkson plans to step down from his post, and return to the UK with his wife to prepare for their first little bundle of joy.
"It was always our intention once we had the baby to move back to the U.K.," Clerkson told WWD Tuesday. "We didn't come to America for life."
The publishing company will not be replacing him, and the move is said to be voluntary, despite the fact that CEO Stephen Colvin is so super excited about "throwing the biggest leaving party ever for him in March." Um, we think it's called a good-bye party.
Not that we've ever really known what editorial directors really do (and since they don't need another one, the answer is apparently "not much") we wish Clerkson good luck. Let's just hope he doesn't have a little girl who grows up to have her spray-tanned tits airbrushed onto the covers of frat house toilet literature.
Clerkson Checks Out [Jeff Bercovici, WWD]
Editorial Director
