Conde Nast is asking employees to rat out fellow staffers, using its new 24/7 fraud hotline.
Insiders got a memo yesterday from Chief Financial Officer John Bellando, revealing that the company set up the hotline to stop the “release of proprietary information, accounting/audit irregularities, falsification of company records, theft of goods/services/cash,” and even “unauthorized discounts/payoffs.”
This could put a damper on some of the perks inside S.I. Newhouse Jr.‘s empire.
Last fall a hacker broke into Condé’s system and stole early copies of GQ, Vogue and other magazines, which were posted online.
Yesterday’s move seemed to put the brakes on CEO Charles Townsend‘s happiness campaign. Trying to boost morale after 2009’s turmoil and layoffs, he recently did a coast-to-coast tour to give a corporate pep talk and encourage staffers to “get their mojo back.”
Last week, he bought publishers down to Key Largo, Fla., for the annual publishers meeting, which was scrapped last year. He gave Publisher of the Year honors to Drew Schutte, head of the digital sales operation.
Book delay
Where is MSNBC news anchor Rachel Maddow ‘s book?
In 2008, when she was a rising political analyst without her own show, she inked what was believed to be a low-six-figure deal to write about the shifting role of the military.
The book was delayed beyond its 2009 publication date, and now it appears the original idea has been scrapped.
Random House’s Crown imprint referred calls to Laurie Liss of Sterling Lord Literistic. “She’s been very busy lately,” the agent said. “Hopefully, she will hand something in by the end of this year.”
The topic, she said, has “changed so many times. It’s non-fiction and it’s definitely not a memoir.”
Rachel Clayman — who edited Barack Obama‘s “Audacity of Hope” — is the editor.
RDA woe
Top brass at Readers Digest Association could lose big as it failed to emerge from Chapter 11 bankruptcy as planned on Monday.
CEO Mary Berner and other execs, including Eva Dillon and Suzanne Grimes, were set to split a bonus pot of $3.7 million if the company completed its pre-packaged bankruptcy by Feb. 1.
But British regulators nixed the deal because they did not like the payout that RDA had arranged to satisfy its $180 million obligation to British pensioners.
RDA was going to pay just under 10 cents on the dollar –$17.6 million — and give the pensioners one-third equity stake in RDA British unit, which is pro jected to have free cash flow of $25 million over the next five years.
Bankruptcy Court Judge Robert Drain gave RDA 72 hours to come up with a compro mise. If it fails, the American operation said it will place the unit into “administration” — the British equivalent to bankruptcy.
If RDA USA manages to emerge from bankruptcy by Feb. 28, Berner and company will split a $3.1 million pot. If things drag into June, the pool drops to around $900,000.