In a bold move to show Janice Min that they don't give a shit what she thinks of their "reporting," Life & Style and In Touch are both kicking things off this week with the obligatory baby rumor mill.
Meanwhile, Life & Style, Us Weekly, and Star search desperately this week to find some hard-hitting celebrity news. Unfortunately, they fail, and instead resort to luring readers with their default "We Have No Story" covers of beach bodies, and celebrity BMI's.
Then, to round out this week's "Talk of the Tabs," In Touch can't seem to get enough of Angelina, as the notorious childnapper graces the cover for the umpteenth time, while OK! gives us yet another profile on someone that we really don't care about.
Let the games begin!
Intern Joe's heartfelt analysis, after the jump.
While fingering Us Weekly for going three weeks in a row fingering the mistakes of others is still good fun, the other tabloids have different things on their mind. Or not.
As we learn from Intern Joseph's salt licking of this week's celebrity glossies, there's little out there besides what Reader's Digest is printing about Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt. So let's get to it.
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Yesterday we told you about some mildly high-profile exits this week at Star. Publicist Public relations coordinator Nekiesha Walker tired of being Bonnie Fuller's bitch, and put in her two weeks. Also making for the door: New York bureau chief David Caplan. What follows is his farewell letter, where he announces the new gig he's taking that he wouldn't tell his AMI bosses about. Hint: He's headed to VH1, where he'll join Web 2.0!
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Depending on how you look at things, the exits at Star we're just hearing about – not to be confused with those other exits – could be bad news for an already-struggling tabloid, or good news for new EIC Candace Trunzo, as she aims to trim the fat and install her own regime to kick sales back up. Either way, the news still comes just after publisher AMI finally got around to reporting how bad its financial outlook is, which is certain to get in the way of the cheer we feel reporting this crap.
• New York chief David Caplan yesterday announced his exit, says an unverified source, and while he does know where he's headed, he wouldn't tell his bosses — so they asked him to leave immediately.
• Meanwhile, senior reporter Sue Rodezba told Star last week that she was taking a job at Life & Style. She, too, was asked to pack her things right away.
• And PR coordinator Nekiesha Walker – who was left to run things mostly by herself after they axed Kate Ottenberg – has tired of also being Bonnie Fuller's gopher. "Apparently so traumatized by taking on new duties as being Bonnie's personal assistant she is said to take time off to travel," says a source. "Overheard in pantry talking about realizing between publicizing that Lindsay buys a new dog to nuking Bon's coffee that life is too short." Nekiesha has put in her two weeks notice.
While it isn't in our nature to ring up Star and ask for their side of things, something tells us a phone call to, uh, Nekisha might not be the best move right now.
While we've already done our one-two punch with Us Weekly, there are some other tabloids worth talking about. (We're told.)
For instance, how is In Touch's Richard Spencer feeling about Paris' sentencing? What matters more to Sarah Ivens than Lindsay Lohan's blow documentary? These are questions that need answering, so we grabbed this week's tabloids and forced Intern Joseph to wade through them all. It was a thankless task, but we learned this much: Candace Trunzo's Star magazine is really into lezbo prison sex.
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Don't get us wrong: We have exactly zero personal grudges with Janice Min (though it'd be nice if she started replying to our emails again), much as we don't have personal grudges with anyone, really. (Even Marty Singer is a Friend of Jossip, little does he know.) But when she puts herself out there, as she does in this week's Us Weekly on page 70, she must know by now that we're going to call her on it.
So here we have "All The News That's Fake: That's faux biz! A Look at 'stories' too shocking to be true." Mark Cina is signed up to look at the competition – Northern & Shell's OK!, Bauer's In Touch and Life & Style, and AMI's Star ("led" by Janice's former boss) – and find out where those other glossies took the story too far.
There's OK!'s J. Lo-Marc Anthony split, In Touch's boob jobs (debunker: celeb publicists deny their clients had work done!), Life & Style claiming Jennifer wants Brad back, and Star's claim that Katie was thinking about divorcing Tom.
But this is the tabloid biz. And try as she might, even Janice isn't immune to getting it wrong.
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Those rumors about Star magazine relocating back to Boca Raton are once again rearing their head. We hear from a Star insider that, come Labor Day, the tabloid will move "the majority of its operations" back to Florida. EIC Candace Trunzo is not sticking around NYC permanently, and will return to Boca, where she's got a growing team in place. The New York office, meanwhile, will empty out: no new hires, and "current staffers in New York are lambs being led to the slaughter." (Wait, didn't that already happen?)
In addition to Boca, we're told Star will keep the L.A. outpost. As for AMI editorial director Bonnie Fuller? She's sticking around in New York, where she can wrestle with Muscle & Fitness.
Update: Or it could all be a bunch of hooey. What do we know? We don't even read Star, let alone know where to find Boca on a map.
As we mentioned earlier this week, In Touch decided to take itself out of this week's tabloids race to bring us a cover story of actual sociopolitical import. But did their courageous move inspire their fellow weeklies to likewise abandon celebrity culture?
Answer: No, no it didn't.
While People came through with an in-depth look at the survivors, the victims and their friends and family, Us Weekly, Star, Life & Style and OK! threw themselves full-throttle into this week's celebrity gossip rat race, devoting their respective covers to Prince Williams' breakup, Brangelina's rumored** split and Larry Birkhead's cash-cow daughter, Dannielynn.
But was this a glaring oversight on the parts of the celebrity-obsessed glossies, or a brilliant strategic move?
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The bloodletting at Star magazine isn't over, we're hearing. After the 10 editorial slashings two weeks ago, there's more: Research chief Anette Deinzer was "asked to leave the offices right away" after announcing on Thursday that she was leaving for In Touch. And that comes after she had to fire one of her researchers last week.
• Buy FuckedCompany.com. Then report on how stupid a mistake that was on FuckedCompany.com.
• Candace Trunzo's Star magazine cuts 10% from its rate base, leaving just 1.35 million readers wondering when Bonnie Fuller is jumping.
• NYT shareholders should refrain from voting to show their power, recommends advisory firm ISS. Yeah, that'll show the Sulzbergers!
• TV networks ban eBay advertising auction scheme, pissed they didn't think of it first.
• MSNBC delves into Top Model territory.
• Life magazine's EKG registers another blip.
• Blog growth growing, says Technorati. Blog growth slowing, says Technorati.
The tales from American Media Inc.'s bloodshed this week have been pouring in — and there's plenty to sift over. With cuts at Star in the 10-20 range, there's plenty of folks willing to share war stories of their own and of now-former colleagues. As you'll recall from when we broke rumors of the staff slash, among the axings were exec editor Jon Auerbach, film and television critic Marshall Fine, and in-house publicist Kate Ottenberg.
Most staffers were let go the lazy way: as a group, with HR vice prez Daniel Rotstein leading the parade. Says one witness: "Most of the editorial people were let go at the same time in the conference room," says a witness. "So basically, they had like 10 people in there and were like, 'You're all fired.'" Ouchy.
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We already told you about AMI's financial woes (WWD reports that AMI lost $147 million on pubs like Star, Weekly World News and the National Enquirer) and Bonnie Fuller's affinity for the "missionary" position. And now we're hearing there's about to be an involuntary exodus.
Word on the street is that Star's looking to overcome their financial woes by ripping a page out of Time Inc. and MTV's playbooks and cutting jobs to keep their expense accounts open.
"Star is going to fire a bunch of people [today], heads up!" writes a tipster. "Star is making cuts everywhere. I can't remember, but it was something like 19 positions! Although that could be off…Headcount reductions here they come."
But how many cuts? And will this affect the senior staffers or just the underpaid/overworked underlings?
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Contrary to what David Pecker might actually think, this press release is not doing good things for him. From the just-issued missive by American Media Inc.:
WORLD EXCLUSIVE: STAR MAGAZINE AND NATIONAL ENQUIRER SOLVE ANNA NICOLE’S MYSTERIOUS DEATH
Star magazine and the National Enquirer have demonstrated the strength in combining newsgathering resources under Enquirer editor-in-chief David Perel, who also leads Star’s West Coast news operations and newly appointed Star editor-in-chief Candace Trunzo. Just days before the medical examiner will announce the cause of death, Star and the Enquirer’s joint reporting reveals that the former Playmate died with a toxic level of the sleeping medication chloral hydrate in her system. Also, contrary to speculation, tests show she did not have methadone or any other painkilling drug in her system at the time of her death.
So, Star and the National Enquirer had to team up to put this one together? Granted, the release sounds as if Perel wrote it himself – it's time to stir things up, Candace! – but it points out the obvious flaws in The Case For Two Tabloids: If these rags are doing each other's homework, why keep them both around when those outrageous printing costs get in the way of paring down billions in debt?
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According to a recent Media Life survey, this supermarket checkout counter just ain't big enough for the half-dozen or so celebrity rags out there. Three quarters of readers agreed there will likely be a shakeout sometime in the celeb titles sometime in the next few years, and nearly half agreed that OK! would be the first to go:
Meanwhile, Life & Style could be next to go (though In Touch is likely "safe") while the revamped TV Guide was essentially "a disaster." People was voted least endangered and the best overall, while Star—though picked as the third-safest title—was also voted as the publication that does "the worst job." And according to media types, Bonnie Fuller won't be at the helm for very much longer:
Asked will Fuller be working for American Media in six month, two thirds said no, agreeing with the statement: "No way. It was an ill fit for a brilliant editor. I believe the rumors that she’s headed for TMZ or Hachette Filipacchi."
That's the thing about media types. Despite the overabundance of celebrity-obsessed rags, they never really seem to get "starstruck." Unfortunately for Star, the same could also be said about Bonnie.
Though he was expected to make an exit at the end of the month, it looks like Joe Dolce is staying on at Star. The outgoing EIC signed a consulting gig with boss David Pecker, "which effectively turns him into the Friday and Monday editor of the Star in New York," reports Keith Kelly. All of which means, of course, that he'll be in the office when new chieftess Candace Trunzo starts rearing her head on April 1.
Bonnie Fuller, meanwhile, continues insisting she's hanging on the reigns of the AMI tabloid, contrary to popular rumor. And advice.
With rumors (and denials) surfacing that Star editorial director Bonnie Fuller might be looking for an out at AMI, we thought it appropriate to weigh the pros and cons of leaving a cushy gig atop a faltering tabloid empire. Is it worth sticking around for the Candace Trunzo era while the most staffers may or may not be forced to decide whether they're looking to relocate to permanent suntans?
Let's find out.
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Above: Star's Deputy NY bureau chief David Caplan and former staffer Jen Birn take a somber look at troubled reality star Anna Nicole Smith.
Below: David Caplan maintains a neutral stance on Paris Hilton (left) and Dina Lohan (right).
Awwwww, isn't it almost refreshing to see this level of journalistic integrity from a magazine that reportedly ousted its editor in chief to pay for Bonnie Fuller's new Fall wardrobe?
As we were the first to suggest, Globe editor Candace Trunzo is taking over where Joe Dolce is leaving off at Star. Joe exits at the end of March. Candace's first day as Bonnie Fuller's Hovering-Over-Desk-mate is April 1.
Calling Clay Aiken a faggot? April 2.
The email to staff from AMI chief David Pecker, after the jump.
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Anna Nicole Smith dying on a Thursday was (and let's be honest here) good news for most entertainment press outlets, who were able to get the story out last night and all today before the weekend brought with it the usual snooze button of the news cycle. But for the tabloids, a story breaking on a Thursday is never good news — that week's issues are already on the newsstands and it'll be another week before they can update supermarket shoppers on the latest.
Which doesn't put tabloid editors in very good spirits.
An American Media insider tells us the mood was at a boil over at Star magazine yesterday, with top editors rushing to put together copy for the barely acknowledged website. Staffers at Us Weekly and In Touch, we're told, are still struggling to find a way to play the story in their magazines — and so far, they're coming up short.
Says one Us insider: "They don't have any idea what the angle is going to be so far. It's too late to break the news in the magazine, so now they need a fresh angle … and every time they think they come up with something, they see the headline already broke on TMZ."
Meanwhile, over at In Touch, a tattler relays: "By the time Tuesday rolls around to close the issue, all of the news will have already been in Page Six or on TMZ or, hell, even on Jossip. I'm sure we'll end up going with something about the aftermath, like what this means for her new baby [Dannielynn] and all the paternity tests."
And as for OK!? Well, we're sure Jessica Simpson can provide a paid-for cover. She sorta looks like Anna Nicole anyhow.
Could the next editor of Star be … the current editor of The Globe?
Her name is Candace Trunzo, and you might remember her as the woman who had no problem putting Kobe Bryant's accuser on the cover of her tabloid.
An American Media insider tells us Trunzo is in town from Boca Raton and making the rounds in the New York office. Not that her presence is a declaration that she's taking over for current Star EIC Joe Dolce, who's expected to exit next month. But it does have staffers suspicious — and one insider suggests Trunzo taking over is a definite possibiliy.
Or, with all those rumors of Star closing up shop and moving back to Boca (or not), Trunzo could merely be on a talent hunting mission — just like the one National Enquirer editor David Perel is rumored to be taking soon.
