JUST before he took off for his annual Sun Valley, Idaho, year-end break, Rolling Stone owner Jann Wenner took the ax to his editorial department, sending at least three people packing and simultaneously postponing an Us Weekly spin-off that focused on fashion and beauty.
Wenner insists he’ll still do the spin-off, to be called Us Style, but it won’t happen until fall 2009.
The latest round of cuts, which came Friday, marked the second time this month that Wenner Media has shed jobs. On Dec. 10, Wenner laid off four people in the editorial department, which now stands at 40 people.
In the latest round, Wenner Media axed respected Rolling Stone Deputy Editor Jason Gay, who just arrived at the company from GQ in March.
Gay had written the David Letterman cover interview, one of the few that the extremely private late-night host had given in years, as well as a cover story about the Jonas Brothers. Gay also played a role in landing Brad Pitt on the cover of the issue out now.
“It was heartbreaking, but we just had to make some tough choices,” said Rolling Stone Managing Director Will Dana. “It was not a matter of cutting the fat.”
Also gone is Erin Kelly from photo and Brian Braiker, a writer who joined in October from Newsweek.
“He seemed to be using the ‘last in, first out’ method of firing,” said one source of Wenner’s cuts.
Morale is down once again, and so is Rolling Stone’s profitability and ad-page count.
Through the Nov. 13, issue, Rolling Stone was down nearly 23 percent to 985.79 ad pages.
Meanwhile, although Us Style’s launch has been delayed, Wenner Media officials insist it’s still full-steam ahead.
“While Us Weekly received a very positive response to its new brand extension, Us Style, with a number of advertisers confirmed, given the current economic environ ment, we have decided to postpone the launch until fall 2009,” said Us Weekly Publisher Vicci Lasdon Rose.
“We are fully committed to extending the Us Weekly brand’s leadership in beauty and fashion through this launch, and look forward to taking Us Style into the marketplace next year.”
Oddly, while Wenner made cuts on the print side, he’s doing the opposite on the Web site, adding some high-priced talent.
He hired Steve Schwartz from Reader’s Digest Association to be the new chief digital officer for the company, and added Robert Mancini from MTV News to be the executive editor of Rollingstone.com.
Cover-up
GQ magazine’s cover shot of Jennifer Aniston – in which she’s wearing only a strategi cally placed necktie – is appar ently too hot for one Manhattan newsstand.
The main Hudson News store inside Grand Central Terminal is covering up the image of Anis ton with blinders so that only the maga zine’s logo is visible to passing commuters.
The issue – which features the former “Friends” star posing nude inside with two male models – went on sale in New York and Los Angeles last week, but didn’t hit newsstands nation ally until early this week.
So far, other more conservative regions of the country don’t appear to be hiding the sexy cover image.
Calls to Hudson News officials were not returned by presstime, but other Hudson news stands apparently aren’t going along with the cover-up, either.
“We checked around and it appears that this is the only one,” said a GQ spokesman.
It was too early to get estimated newsstand results for the issue, which did get a good blitz of publicity as it hit.
No perks
American Media CEO David Pecker is playing Scrooge this holiday season, too.
His debt-laden company, which publishes Shape, Star and the National Enquirer, is scrambling to avoid bankruptcy by reaching a settlement with bondholders and bankers that is acceptable to all parties.
With that in mind, Pecker on Monday told employees that the company will no longer match employee contributions to 401(k) plans.
Pecker is also ending a host of other perks, including reimbursement for day care, smoking- cessation treatment, health- club memberships, tuition, adoption- related ex penses and finders’ fees to employees who help recruit new workers. The changes kick in Dec. 31.
There was no word on how much the com pany expected to save, but one source pegged it as a seven-fig ure savings.
A memo to American Media’s staff from Human Resources said, “As the economic downturn continues, most families today have had to make changes to their lifestyle, some painful. As a corporation faced with the same types of decisions, we also must make changes.
“After again reviewing corporate expenses, we will need to make further adjustments so we can maintain the company’s fiscal integrity and continue to operate the business in a responsible manner for everyone who works at AMI,” the memo read. keith.kelly@nypost.com