With all the publicity Rielle Hunter has netted in recent weeks, longtime GQ contributor Lisa DePaulo, who scored the first interview with the woman at the heart of the
John Edwards love-child scandal, seemed well-positioned to weigh in on the drama.
But apparently GQ Editor-In-Chief Jim Nelson canned her some time ago because he said she was not fulfilling the word count under the terms of her contributing-writer contract.
DePaulo managed to persuade Edwards’ longtime mistress to forsake Graydon Carter’s Vanity Fair and give her the first sit-down interview to GQ. The piece made waves when it hit in April 2010, garnering DePaulo worldwide headlines and morning show appearances ranging from “Today” to “Good Morning America.”
GQ’s internal numbers at the time showed it generated over 800,000 in free media exposure worth an estimated $22 million. (The story got an extra bump when Rielle complained that the accompanying photos made her look trampy.)
Hunter had an affair with the failed Democratic presidential candidate while his wife Elizabeth was battling the cancer that eventually killed her. She recently wrote a memoir, “What Really Happened: John Edwards, Our Daughter, and Me” that put her back in the news — but not with DePaulo or GQ.
Neither Nelson nor a GQ spokesman returned calls.
DePaulo specialized in non-fashion gets for the Condé Nast men’s fashion bible. In January, GQ published her sit-down with New York Governor Andrew Cuomo — one of the few lengthy interviews he’s given since taking office and one of the last pieces she wrote for the magazine.
DePaulo played on both sides of the political aisle, earlier getting former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld to give his first big interview after he was bumped by President George W. Bush.
She also did cover stories on celebs ranging from Matt Damon to 50 Cent.
DePaulo, who spent nine years at the title, currently teaches at New York University.
“She delivered major scoops,” said her friend, Sheila Weller, author of “Girls Like Us.” “She was upset, but I think ultimately there was a sense of relief about not having to be on the treadmill.
“But I think any editor who would release her from her contract is crazy. The industry has become so challenged.”
Reached by Media Ink, DePaulo said, “Nine years is a long time and I loved most of it.”
D-day
Today is the deadline for Sports Illustrated’s writers and editors to volunteer for a buyout package, as SI Group Editor Terry McDonell tries to shave an estimated $3 million in costs from the budget.
McDonell told staffers weeks ago that if he did not get enough volunteers then involuntary layoffs will follow — a prospect that now seems likely.
One source said he expected few volunteers to step forward, especially among print people on the main weekly edition covered by a Newspaper Guild collective-bargaining agreement.
“The buyout package is the same package you’d get if you were fired,” the insider said.
The 210-person editorial staff also produces SI.com, Golfing Magazine, SI for Kids and all the other sporting spin-offs and special editions. Only writers on the main magazine are covered by the guild contract.
Bob Townsend, the Time Inc. rep at the Newspaper Guild, said he had no idea how many employees had stepped forward — guild members or otherwise — but was expecting to huddle with SI human resources on Monday.
One factor contributing to cutbacks at SI was a deal with Turner Sports, another arm of the Time Warner empire. In a bid to counter the clout of ESPN magazine, the Disney/Hearst sports rival, Time Warner handed off ad sales for SI.com to the Turner Sports Network. Meanwhile, McDonell, the group editor of Sports Illustrated, retained edit responsibility for the website.
However, costs for SI.com were borne largely by Turner while the internal joint venture was in play. When the marriage fell apart (when has “synergy” ever really worked?) the costs were back on the SI ledger.
After the layoffs, there is expected to be a big reorganization that McDonell hopes will break down the entrenched “silos” between print and digital, in part by arranging writers around sports which they cover, regardless of the platform where their work appears.
An SI spokesman would not comment on the process.
Reuters mag
Is Thomson Reuters going to try to battle Bloomberg LP — publisher of Bloomberg Markets and Bloomberg Businessweek — on the magazine front?
The second edition of Reuters Magazine was dispatched to participants at the Aspen Leadership Conference last week, with a 10,000-copy press run and eight paid ads.
“The goal at this point isn’t to make a lot of money,” said Jim Impoco, the former Condé Nast Portfolio deputy editor who is editor of the Reuters venture. “It’s to flex our consumer muscle a little bit and to show off our longer-form journalism and photography.”
Paul Ingrassia was the mag’s deputy editor, while Harry Evans contributed along with tech writer Jonathan Weber, one of the co-founders of the defunct The Industry Standard.
Impoco said he is planning another edition for January during the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, where the first issue debuted earlier this year.
So is a green light in the offing for a full-scale launch?
“I’d imagine by the end of the year, we’d have some decision on whether it is a quarterly, a monthly or a bi-monthly,” he said.
Oops!
Most of the celebrity weeklies had some version of the Tom Cruise/Katie Holmes split on their cover this week. OK! also had some coverage on the “TomKat” front, but since it went to press on Thursday — the day before the bombshell divorce was filed — the American Media title was caught off guard. Most other celeb magazines, including OK’s sister title Star, close on Monday, while People has until Tuesday.
OK! featured a picture of Holmes and 6-year-old daughter Suri running together on page 20, under the headline, “C’Mon Ma! Get the Lead Out!” The photo story caption says, “The pair rejoined Tom for his 50th birthday on July 3.”
In reality, Holmes filed for divorce on June 30 and was staying as far away from her estranged hubby as possible, moving from California to a new pad in New York.
Parent American Media moved OK!’s deadline to Thursday to save money, while the staff also banged out an another mag, the ill-fated Reality Weekly.
The last print version of the reality magazine hit this week. But OK! still may not pick up the extra day on deadline because Reality Weekly is hoping to come back as a digital-only version at some point in the next few weeks.