Giant magazine, the glossy music and culture magazine that looks great on the newsstand but not so much in your media diet (the articles are pretty god awful), is saying goodbye to editor Smokey Fontaine, who's helmed things since August 2006 since coming over from Damon Dash's America magazine.

In his place: former Vibe EIC Emil Wilbekin. (Interestingly, while working at Britain's Trace after an internship at Vibe, Smokey helped hire away Vibe editor Scott Poulson-Bryant, author of a book about black male dick or something.)

But don't think Smokey is going anywheres! Instead of being ousted, he's being pushed upstairs to the title of chief content officer, where he'll oversee digital strategy for parent company Radio One. Ah yes, from DMX autobiographer to digital strategy expert. Silly, those career paths.

When we get wind of the whispers, we run them. This little (not really that juicy but pretty friggin' funny) rumor landed in our tattle box this morning — and because were always jonesin' for some good magazine gossip, we thought we would share the unconfirmed rumors surrounding stressed out Giant founder and president Jamie Hooper.

His recent all-out panic attack was supposedly induced by some negative reader reaction on Giant's website in response the mag's redesign, headed up by former America EIC and Vibe editor Smokey Fontaine. The unedited email recount of this "incident" (along with our pathetic attempt at fact-checking) after the jump.

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• ABC is getting pretty damn good at screwing over its affiliates. [B&C]

• With EIC Gregg Lagambina on the way out, Filter second-in-command Chris Martins has this to say to his staff: "Filter Magazine is hurting right now." It nearly rivals the way Celebrity Living motivated its own troops. [FBNY]

• Reason No. 5421 we heart Details' Dan Peres: He doesn't follow his own magazine's fashion tips. [WWD]

• Learning from the mistakes of Cargo, Giant's editor-in-chief Smokey Fontaine is going on a mad dash to redesign the mag. [WWD]

• When the Boston Globe's Eileen McNamara found out she won the Pulitzer Prize, she was trying to finish cooking her kids spaghetti. [E&P]

• Celeb weeklies aren't the only mags seeing circs disintegrate. Teen titles, as evidenced by Elle Girl's shuttering, are suffering too. Yep, even Seventeen is on that list. [Mediaweek]

We hope you have a few minutes for this breaking news/fresh rumored gossip on the magazine front. Take a seat, grab some M&M's … this might take a minute.

Smokey Fontaine, best known for his most recent stint as EIC of America, the downtown but high end urban fashion and music mag, has been snagged for the top spot over at Giant. It is a position which has been vacant since Mark Remy (now of Office Pirates) left in April, and which oversized shoes Fontaine hopes to fill.

"We need to be big and feel big in a different way," Fontaine stated. To do that, he'll bring more boldness, both in the photography and the edit, a heightened focus on music reporting, and help attract more A-list celebrities to its pages. Fontaine's first full issue will be its August/September edition.

No word yet as to what will be happening with America (and honestly we would be worried about the employees … except for the fact that the entire office was run by unpaid interns). Luckily for Mr. Fontaine, he won't have to worry about those issues over at Giant — nor will he have to live in fear of his former publisher Damon Dash coming into his office and beating the crap out of him.

Rumor also has it that Giant is working out a merger with Complex, a mag that reaches out to those 10 people who can't get enough of that Ashton Kutcher hip-hop hipster style.

Giant could be looking towards the mag in order to bring a music edge to the pub, in which case Fontaine is a natural choice to guide the Giant sails — and hopefully raise those other (15% newsstand) sales as well.

Giant hires Fontaine as editor in chief [Stephanie D. Smith, Media Week]
"Giant" Merger Rumors — New Editor-in-Chief [Magazine Death Pool]