It was only this summer we remained interested in Culture + Travel, the hoity toity magazine put out by billionaress Louise McBain, who in 2006 hired (and feted) ex-Conde Nasty James Truman to run the thing before internal fighting led to a parting of ways. In July, though, the first signs of problems: Budget cuts meant the magazine would cut publication from bimonthly to quarterly, "starting this November." That's November, as in tomorrow. Not mentioned back in July? That the magazine wouldn't even last until then. Indeed, Culture & Travel is no more.

Culture + Travel, the mostly ignored and barely read magazine that was the toast of the town when owner and Canadian billionairess Louise (McBain) Blouin hired former Conde Nasty James Truman to run the show, has since been plagued with high-profile departures, staffer exits, gossip leaks, and a situation barely more sustainable than China's algae nightmare. One might think, so many months later, that things are finally rebounding. One might also be an idiot!

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• New Marie Claire style director Cleo Glyde struggled to stay thin. It only took two lipo surgeries later.

• Andy Richter is back on TV. Which explains why we didn't know what the hell that NBC show was in the on-screen guide.

• Portfolio is not doing the Louise MacBain story. Let's hope they're reinvesting their energy in that big Tribune tale.

• Former Page Sixer becomes Post biz editor. Sadly, it's not JPS.

• Us Weekly reporters party with drug addicts. For the sake of reporting.

• New Time has more white space. Less cowbell.

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• Finally, an exposé on David Blum's ouster at the Voice. Why we had to wait full days for this, we'll never know.

• Meanwhile, Blum gives his side of the story.

• Louise MacBain's LTB Media loses another EIC. Peter Terzian walks out after a month on the job. Typical.

• Just like our exclusive report late last night, the LAT (a Tribune paper) says Sam Zell is closer to buying Tribune Co. You don't say?

• David Beckham wears the same shirt twice on Details.

• Us Weekly, cheating the numbers to meet its rate base?

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Wall Street Journal vet Alexandra Peers has taken the unenviable task of turning around Louise MacBain's LTB Publishing empire — which looks more like a favela than anything else these days. Bleeding cash, losing top talent (again and again), crushing MacBain's already shallow rep.

So why is Peers, rumored to be earning $200k, perfect for the job overseeing Art & Auction, Modern Painters, and Culture & Travel?

Of Peers, MacBain said, "I've known for years she's great. She's professional, she knows the art world - and she's not a spender."

Ah, the sweet smell of cheap.

More, Keith Kelly, more! With Anna Wintour being fought over by more than just the media press, our last shining hope of a feisty, fashionable lady of the bubble rests in Louise MacBain — and if Kelly doesn't deliver the latest on our favorite Charles Street resident, who will?

With MacBain's LTB Media flailing – editorial director James Truman and and CFO James Conley quitting while the printing press was nearly still running – what's a girl to do but get her feet wet in this publishing biz? While Keith reports more staffers have left the building – like Modern Painters publisher Deborah Harris, who refused to take a pay cut – he also provides word that MacBain is indeed spending more time in the day-to-day operations of her masthead steed.

The French Canadian millionairess told Media Ink she is planning to spend a lot more time in the Big Apple in 2007. Up to now, she'd spent just 25 percent of her time in town - divided between several homes in the Hamptons and a townhouse in New York - and the rest traveling and in London.

"I'll probably be spending about three quarters of my time in New York," she told Ink, but the extra face time with the boss is not likely to sit too well with the staff of her LTB Media.

Which might pose a small problem if she plans on keeping her Canadian tax status. Something about residency requirements.

• Blame Michael Richards. Niggaspace relaunching as Holla.Us.

• New York helps close out the year not with yet another gift list (they already did that, silly!) but with the ULTIMATE APPROVAL MATRIX!!

• Nerve.com's Babble will be like Cookie, only written by more pretentious self-referencers.

• Newsday staffers egg on Tribune Co. fall out.

• Lots of words dedicated to Louise MacBain. We prefer pretty pictures.

• Jack Shafer speaks from the mount, gives maybe-plagiarizing novelist Ian McEwan a pass.

• Louise MacBain continues snapping up art properties, ignoring her art magazines.

• Rodale takes a groundbreaking step to give a shit about the Internet.

• InStyle begins to look like a herd at the feeding trough.

• NBC received 4,000 emails about its single sponsorship stunt. Single sponsor Philips soaks up the PR.

• Nick Denton comes off every bit as smarmy in his Guardian profile as he does at his loft parties.

• Anna Wintour leads the charges in figuring out what to do with skinny bitches banned from runways.

• CNN Headline News' attempt to reinvent its Headline Prime as a zero attention span-friendly Fox News is paying off.

• Kent Brownridge can only spend so much time in cow country.

• The WSJ nips three inches off its hips while getting a full MAC color makeover.

• Vogue plans an Indian edition, where thanks to malnutrition there are few hundred million young girls with the appropriate frail body type.

• CNBC's website gets a new look (video!), though probably still not enough to fend off Fox News' coming biz channel.

• Yahoo and Reuters team up to make anyone with a camera phone a roving paparazzi. Paid? Doesn't sound like it. But let's get all excited about citizen journalism again!

• Magazine publisher, philathorpist, billionaire, and Canadian Louise MacBain defaults on a charity cheque.

• CNET editor James Kim and his family still missing.

It looks like Seventeen and Life & Style aren't the only places you can witness a bloodbath — which is great news on World AIDS Day, when boosting blood supplies is already on people's minds.

Louise T. MacBain, whose name must always ben accompanied by "Candian billionairess philanthropist," is testing out her new 42-piece knife set on her staff. After former Conde Nasty James Truman quit his editorial director post after just one issue and James "He May Or May Not Have Been the CFO" Conley resigned (or was fired, you decide), MacBain is adding to the mortuary with sales/marketing prez Lawrence Kaplan and marketing VP Jill Rudnick all being shown the door.

Isn't it exciting what can happen when the chief of your company takes a moment from throwing cocktail parties at her London pad to check in on domestic operations? Happy holidays!

• Keith Olbermann's online provocateur KarmaBites1 claims she'll unload another 100 or so emails between her and the MSNBC host, all because he won't publicly acknowledge he's like any other guy: quite complacent with a one night stand. [P6]

• Culture + Travel owner Louise MacBain visits the New York offices of LTB Media. For the first time. [NYP]

• Dan Bova pogos from exec editor to EIC at Stuff, replacing Maxim jumper Jimmy Jellinek — and, perhaps, some of his staffers? [FBNY]

• Victoria Hearst is fingered as the nut who left the creepy religious message at the Hearst Tower dedication. How do you know she's crazy? She's anti-Cosmo. [WWD]

• Time Warner stock moves .. upward. Jon Friedman wets self. [Marketwatch]

• Tom Freston and Peter Chernin are smart men. Smart enough to let someone else write their jokes. [Radar]

• Believing a Harvard Crimson columnist would lift an item from Slate would requires two sets of beliefs: 1) Harvard enlists fucktards; 2) Slate publishes worthwhile material. Okay, not such a hard conclusion. [Boston Globe]

New information flows in regarding Michael Boodro, the editor-in-chief of Louise MacBain's Culture + Travel. We heard multiple reports that Boodro, who holds the honor of being one of the last members of the launch's original guard – more on that below – was voluntarily on the way out the door, following the path of editorial director James Truman and CFO James Conley. Tensions of MacBain's tight-fisted budget were the cause, and his utter displeasure with the debut issue's layout and style were to blame. But we now hear from a source close to Boodro that not only is he happy with MacBain – "they [get along] very well," we're told – he has no plans to quit.

Elsewhere, earlier reports we had, picked up by the Post's Keith Kelly, regarding the exit of CFO Conley was incorrect, we're told: Conley did not leave just after Truman, as Kelly reported; he left six months ago "under a cloud." Read: MacBain wasn't happy with him.

And lastly, on a lighter note, we're pleased to present you with some vintage MacBain memorabilia. From London's Observer's coverage of MacBain's foundation opening come these two gems: A shot of her Christmas card from her previous marriage, and a shot of her with Richard Gere looking, as one person put it, "like she's an extra in Guys & Dolls." Full versions, after the jump.

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After the gut-wrenching depatures that Culture + Travel magazine has already been through afer just one issue – with editorial director James Truman making his exit with a grand London announcement, followed by CFO James Conley – we hear the magazine's editor-in-chief (and former Elle Decor exec editor) Michael Boodro is also considering pulling a Roman Polanski and fleeing the scene. With overseer Louise MacBain's interests falling elsewhere (namely, her self-titled foundation), Boodro is only the latest to clash with the Canadian dame. Editorial control, we're told, isn't the issue; like Truman and Conley, it's MacBain's dwindling willingness to open her checkbook.

Update: New sources say otherwise. See here.

Hat tip to Keith Kelly for today's genius headline "Blouin In The Wind." The Post-It media scribe brings new this morning of more trouble at Canadian billionairess Louise MacBain's LTB Media. Not so long after editorial director James Truman grew tired of MacBain's middle-of-the-night phone calls, the vanity publisher's CFO, James Conley, has also stepped down. He was the third CFO in a single year, having started the gig in May. The staple rationale: MacBain seems more interested in her Louise T. Blouin Foundation charity (regularly plugged in each mag's FOB) than in ensuring her trio of haute culture rags has the dolla dolla bills to soldier on. It's not everyday you get to fault someone for being over-interested in philanthropy. Though, to be sure, let's not leave Arthur Carter off this list.

BLOUIN IN THE WIND [Keith Kelly, NYP]

The fallout from James Truman's abrupt depature from Louise MacBain's Culture + Travel magazine continues today. The Post's Keith Kelly gives the matter some ink (though little new information), while New York's Carl Swanson – who's been on Truman's ass like the hipsters are to Marie Antoinette Halloween costumes – filed a quick Q&A with the man intent on starting his own media company. For starters, Truman is staying in New York.

Was MacBain — an inexperienced publisher — as unrealistic about how much good writers and good photographers cost as I hear she was?
One great advantage of art magazines is that you have at your disposal the finest visual images in the world at no cost. I introduced more commissioned photography to the magazines and found the money to hire good writers.

But didn't you get sick of people (like, say — of all people — Radar) saying you didn't have enough money or were paying too little?
Well, we were paying a lot more than Radar!

And — scene!

James Truman Leaves MacBain, Hasn't Heard From Si, and Will Stay in New York [Daily Intelligencer]
Earlier: James Truman, Carrying Own Hatchet, Flees Culture + Travel

After the much-feted debut of high-concept, niche appeal Culture + Travel, editorial director James Truman has quit his post. After one issue. And a damn good party. Having fleed from Conde Nast to Canadian billionairess Louise Macbain's LTB Media to launch his pet art rag project, Truman has already bored himself with all those Pollocks and wine travel stories — and now he's taking off to start his own media company once he gets some Wall Street types to back his ambition, reports the Observer's Michael Calderone. Says Truman:

My interest was in moving on and setting up my own company. I was never going to do it long-term.

Now comes the matter of choosing the correct verb to refer to an editor who only lasts one issue: "to Truman," or "to Pemberton?"

Editorial Director James Truman Resigns, Again; Will Found Media Company [Michael Calderone, NYO]

We don't have a fucking clue what Brian Grazer is doing in New York, either.

With the launch of Culture + Travel from former Conde Nasty James Truman comes the requisite launch party for Culture + Travel — hosted by the Canadian billionaire publisher Louise T. Blouin MacBain (the LTB in LTB Holding), the dollar signs behind such indie titles like Art + Auction and, until just recently, Spoon. Last night's soiree at MacBain's swanky Richard Meier penthouse pad was a collision of media, Hollywood, architecture, PR, and fashion ego: David Carr, Michael Wolff, Lloyd Grove, Calvin Klein, Anthony Hayden-Guest, Brian Grazer, Deborah Schoeneman, Ben Widdicombe, Keith Kelly, Catherine Malandrino .. oh, and Nadine Johnson, the publicess who put all this together. To be sure, however, at least half the guests showed up just to scope the view. (Including, we think, our photog Matthew Krautheim.)

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