Looking back at Jack Kliger's nine-year run as CEO of Hachette Filipacchi, the outgoing chief has closed five magazines, and only seen three of the other 12 increased their ad pages. [Portfolio]

Hachette Filipacchi CEO Jack Kliger is stepping down. To become chairman. It's totally because Elle is losing the Project Runway deal, isn't it? [Portfolio]

"Most big magazine publishers saw total ad pages decline in the first four months of 2008 compared to the same period last year [...] While some losses can be attributed to the closing of various titles since last year, the broad nature of the declines, cutting across a number of categories, looks ominous for the magazine industry."

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On May 15, 2007, Hachette Filipacchi released Ty Pennington at Home, a one-off magazine that hit newsstands 10 days after he was arrested for a DUI. Now that the Extreme Makeover Home Edition host is cleaned up – albeit bloated, red-faced, and showing major signs of aging – the publisher thinks they've got a hit on their hands: They're turning the single shot title into a quarterly, with the first issue of the now-regular Pennington hitting newsstands today. It goes up against Hearst's O at Home, Reader's Digest's Every Day with Rachael Ray and, let's face it, the eventual launch of supra-designer Nate Berkus' own title.

Wither, Premiere. The movie mag was informed it was no longer welcome under Hachette Filipacchi corporate umbrella last month, with the announcement that the title was for sale. But now, with no takers, Hachette is closing up shop.

The April edition will be the last. Although, as with the closure of Elle Girl and Shock, the company said it would maintain an online version of the movie magazine.

Good lord, must every magazine that can't make it in print maintain a web presence? There are enough Radars in the world already.

With Keith Kelly bringing news that Hachette Filipacchi is playing another round of its fav parlor game – "Which American magazine should we close next?" – with Premiere magazine, we couldn't help but admire the artwork that is the article headline: "Hachette May Draw Curtains on Premiere." Which, naturally, meant it was time for us to engage in our own fav parlor game: "Alternative Headlines."

• Final Show for Premiere?

• Premiere Takes a Bow

• Premiere: No Extended Run Planned?

• Preemie Premiere

• The Movie Magazine You Don't Bother Touching, Even in the Doctor's Office, Will Close Or Be Sold, Not That You Care, Because, Like Most Americans, You Don't Read It

It wouldn't be the Thursday before Christmas without another magazine down the crapper. Hachette Filipacchi brings us today's holiday cheer with news that Shock magazine – which started its tenure as rat cage lining with a little copyright infringement matter – is being shut down after just seven months of newsstand plague. Which is just one more piece of evidence to battle the idea that what's good for a niche blog is not good for a print magazine. Jeez, even Conde Nast knows that.

Ladies and Maer Roshan, meet the new hottie who will be running the ad game at Elle Decor. He's Dan Ragone and, as WWD first reported this morning, Ragone is hopping from his associate publisher gig at Elle to the publisher's chair at Hachette's shelter title. Now the only question that remains: Who will be the first to hop in his new chair with him .. after hours .. and on his lap? We hear there's an editorial assistant with an insatiable libido. (Hachette chief Jack Kliger's memo, after the jump.)

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Interns at Elle are surely thrilled at the good news Nat Ives brings today. Nobody's hiring at Hachette Filipacchi! There is an actual hiring freeze at the company, which oversees mags like Elle, Home, and Shock — meaning all the recent college grads who have spent their summers assisting for zilch may have to look to Hearst to find a home.

As will the former staffers of recently folded mags who thought maybe they would have a shot getting swept up into the arms of the Paramount building.

Freezes also are bad news for the refugees from this year's plentiful magazine shutdowns, which include Cargo, Shop Etc., For Me, Weekend, Celebrity Living Weekly, Shape en Espanol and MPH.

We know. It sucks. But all hope is not lost. Hey, Good Housekeeping's EIC is looking for an assistant.

Hachette, Down 6.1%, Decides to Stop Adding Staff to Make Its Numbers [Nat Ives, Ad Age]

And now for the rubber boots … (this is starting to feel like the day American Media exploded) …

How tactful. Hachette Filipacchi closing up magazines on a Thursday afternoon when they think nobody will notice. Ha! Right, like they could slip something like this past magazine-folding-chronicler Nat Ives.

Along with the Village Voice (and the rest of the magazine world) For Me, the unsexy Women's Day spin-off, was axed.

For Me was conceived to compete for the 25- to 35-year-old crowd, where it was believed there was a room in the market for a mass-appeal title. But its newsstand-centric business model proved its undoing. Company President-CEO Jack Kliger told staff today that newsstand sales, which have been off since February, were too soft to continue the publication. Its October issue will be its last.

It doesn't seem like HFMUS had much faith in their little mag, anyways, considering it's not listed with all their other titles, or even under Women's Day "special interest publications."

We fear this late-in-the-day shuttering will only feed fuel to the fiery rumors that similar mags of this supermarket mom genre (ahem, Hearst's Quick & Simple) may not have the power to wrestle with the pretty home and shelter pubs like Blueprint and Real Simple.

Then again, all suburban and Park Slope moms are reading Cosmo and High Times these days.

Hachette Closes 'For Me,' Citing Sluggish Newsstand [Nat Ives, Ad Age]

We don't know about you, but we are so over this Shock magazine vs. Michael Yon hubbub.

But, its not every day we get a letter signed by Jack Kliger, president and CEO of Hachette Filipacchi, so we thought we would perk up just this one last time. If you've been living under a rock or are not psychotically obsessed with media, you may not be aware of the situation Shock magazine is currently in. (Hell, if you're not obsessed with media, you probably never even heard of Shock.) We'll do a quick summary for you before running their letter.

Shock is the latest launch by Hachette that aims to engage their audience (18-34) by running some semi-controversial photos and topics. Their last cover photo, which they bought from Getty Images, was not Getty's to sell, but actually belonged to photographer Michael Yon. After accusing Hachette of copyright infringement, Yon eventually agreed to settle, and claimed to be "satisfied" that the mag didn't intentionally steal the photo. Then, he bounced.

Well, Yon has a his own blog which has been encouraging readers to boycott the magazine, even causing Rite Aid and Eckerd to pull the mag from their stands. Since HFMUS doesn't a blog (ok, we realize they're a media superpower, but our interns sort of like Shock's website), we thought we'd run Kliger's email. How the powers respond, after the jump.

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There's nothing like a good controversial cover to get interest sparked in a magazine. Hachette Filipacchi's Shock seemed to be following this mantra when their little buzzed about first issue earned some attention via lawsuit.

You all know that photog Michael Yon claimed that Shock stole his photo for their cover, and the mag responded by blaming the shady photo agency who sold it to them. And in the midst of Yon's psychotic determination to tear down the magazine (a.k.a. creating press) the level-headed lawyers reached an agreement.

But the two parties reached a settlement late this evening. In a statement, Hachette said, "Yon is satisfied that there has been a misunderstanding and that Hachette acted in good faith in procuring rights from Polaris to use [his] photograph in Shock magazine. They acknowledge that we have worked responsibly to find a solution, and, after discussions, we have agreed to pay Yon a licensing fee for the photograph that is on the cover of Shock and to make a contribution to Fisher House, a charitable organization dedicated to providing low-cost lodging to veterans and military families."

And in turn, Shock is officially naming June 4th Michael Yon Day and celebrating the fact that without him, nobody would have ever talked about this magazine.

'Shock' Reaches Settlement With Photographer [Ken Wheaton and Nat Ives]
Earlier: Shock's Schlocky Debut

Yesterday's hullabaloo over Shock magazine's debut issue coverphoto – you know, with the Hachette Filipacchi title allegedly stealing an Iraqi war pic from photographer Michael Yon – is being met with the requisite denials and explanations, courtesy Shock's PR team at Peppercom.

Shock didn't unlawfully acquire that photo, at least not personally. You see, they purchased the rights from a "reputable photo agency" — and if anyone is to blame, it's them!

Shock magazine obtained the publication rights to the photograph from a reputable photo agency. The photographer, Michael Yon, is now challenging that photo agency, suggesting that they were not authorized to license the photograph. We are looking into the matter; SHOCK stands behind its actions which were conducted responsibly and in good faith.

AdAge dug a little deeper and fingers Polaris as the photo agency behind this copyright scrum. So far, nobody's talking, which means the finger pointing will continue until photo owner Yon beckons his attorneys.

Earlier: Shock's Schlocky Debut

While we've already poured over the debut issue of Hachette Filipacchi's Shock magazine, we're revisiting the ode to the gratuitous and obscene today for two reasons. First, Shock hits newsstands today, which means your average subway rider just got the visual payoff that Page Six provides with words. And second, because the debut issue of Shock could very well be its downfall, thanks to the copyright-infringing coverphoto they chose.

The photo of an American soldier in Iraq rescuing a little girl belongs to lensman, author, and SpecOp Michael Yon (seen here). From what we understand, Hachette never asked or received permission to use the photo. In fact, Yon explicitly states on his website:

Countless people have asked for reprints, but I wanted to give the matter some thought. I did not want to diminish the symbolism of this photograph, and the American soldiers who risked their lives to save this little girl.

Certainly they can reach some sort of amicable agreement to settle this little copyright matter. Or Yon can drag this into court and provide months of HFM entertainment now that our ELLEgirl amusement has retreated. Guess which we'd prefer?

When you steal from a MilBlogger [BlackFive]
Strength and Compassion [Michael Yon Gallery]
Earlier: We Managed to be Somewhat Shocked by Shock Magazine

Because teenage girls today have trouble reading things in print, Conde Nast is launching a website just for them. Why do you care? Because in this attempt at reaching the new media saturated teen audience, the Condes are letting these girls go wild, and create the site's content themselves.

Huh?

You heard right. Every 12-16 year old who has ever dreamt of being in a sorority and marrying a guy who summers in the Hamptons can now participate in this new wave of "user-generated content." The site (name TK, but we like "teen.style.com") will be sort of like a MySpace meets You Tube for underage consumers.

For now, it seems like their biggest competition will be Hachette Filipacchi's online version of Elle Girl, which, um, blows.

An insider says newsstand sales weren't strong enough to make the business work — and teen magazines have to refresh entire subscriber rolls every two or three years, an expensive and dicey proposition for an age group growing comfortable forgoing print altogether.

But then again, one would hope that EG editors could somehow come up with more interesting content than an 8th grader.

Smells Like Teen Progress [Jon Fine, Business Week]