Stunned In Touch insiders are still trying to figure out why Editor-in-Chief Richard Spencer abruptly left his job on Monday.
Signs point to a monumental blow-up between Spencer and Hubert Boehle, CEO of In Touch owner Bauer Publishing — possibly over Spencer’s demands for a boost in the $750,000-a-year compensation package he was said to be pulling down.
Sources said Spencer tossed a New Year’s Eve party in the company conference room only last week, and that there was no hint of the gathering storm. He had been at Bauer for 15 years.
“It took everyone by surprise,” one insider said.
In what was viewed as a demonstration of his pique, Spencer left mid-afternoon, when the magazine was in full deadline mode as it scrambled to close the issue that goes to print this week.
“That’s political,” an insider said. “They’re sometimes there as late as three in the morning on Tuesday. Obviously he had been thinking about it over the new year.”
Sources said there was no farewell address or even a memo, and that Spencer even abandoned his company-leased SUV in the company parking lot.
Spencer, who in the past had been approached by Northern + Shell Chairman Richard Desmond to take over his struggling OK!, was said to be pushing for more money.
Though it’s unclear whether his departure was a result of salary negotiations, Spencer tried to have his lawyer contact Boehle, to let him know he was exiting, a source said.
Instead, the call went directly to a Bauer attorney.
Spencer called to let his deputy, Executive Editor Michelle Lee, know he had resigned. She moved quickly to notify the staff.
Apparently, she moved even faster than Bauer’s in-house counsel did, since staffers heard about the departure before Boehle, according to one source.
There was some speculation that Dan Wakeford, editor-in-chief of sibling title Life & Style, might return to In Touch, although others say Boehle isn’t likely to want to solve one problem by creating a new one. Lee is expected to take over day-to-day operations.
Spencer is leaving the company on a high note. Industry sources said that the current issue of In Touch, with Brittany Murphy on the cover, reached newsstand sales of 1.1 million, about the same as rival Us Weekly and not far behind the 1.5 million that category leader People moved this week.
Spencer hyped the cover as Murphy’s “last interview” even though it consisted of a few hurried answers to questions fired at her at a red carpet event shortly before she died.
“That was a huge sale for them” said one rival, who said that putting Murphy on the cover was a calculated gamble that many competi tors avoided. “He was able to package covers very well.”
Spencer did not return calls or e-mails seeking comment.
A company spokeswoman said only: “Bauer Publishing can confirm that Richard Spencer resigned his position at In Touch Weekly.”
Newsday nay
Newsday could be on the verge of labor chaos.
The International Brotherhood of Teamsters, the parent organization of the Local 406 of the Graphic Communications International Union, called a halt to member voting on a new, tentative agreement that the company hammered out with the union that cut salaries, trimmed vacation time and increased weekly hours for Newsday employees.
Newsday is unusual in that one union controls both the white-collar reporters and the blue-collar press operators, truck drivers and maintenance workers. Six bargaining units — with contracts that expire on a rolling basis from February through June — were slated to vote on the accord on Jan. 10.
Near the end of a late afternoon informational session for 250 editorial employees on Tuesday, union boss Michael O’Connor said he had been notified that the Teamsters International board would not let the vote be held until they had had more time to study the proposals.
O’Connor did not return a call seeking comment.
The man on the hot seat is likely to be Tad Smith, the one-time head of Reed International Business USA who was brought in by Cablevision boss James Dolan to oversee Newsday and Cablevision’s Long Island operations.
The proposal, which started going out to the rank and file on Monday, called for an average of 10 percent pay cuts and less vacation time. It forced employees to return to a standard 40-hour workweek after decades with a 35-hour workweek. Truck drivers were going to be particularly hard hit, with 15 percent pay cuts and about 9 percent of the 160 members being laid off.
In a lengthy e-mail to his members, Zachary Dowdy, the head of the editorial unit, called the contract “horrible and unprecedented in what they demand.”
He seemed resigned to the package in light of the “crisis.” Dowdy said the union had examined Newsday’s audited results. “Their books show the company has lost at least $7 million in 2009,” he said. “And weak advertising revenue projections by independent analysts project double-digit losses in advertising revenue in 2010 and 2011.”
O’Connor said the new contract was projected to save about $8 million for Newsday, which the Dolan family bought from Sam Zell‘s bankrupt Tribune Company in 2008 for $650 million. Newsday has been losing money ever since for the cable behemoth, which also owns Madison Square Garden and the New York Knicks and Rangers.
Meanwhile, in the always simmering Newsday newsroom, one of the more bizarre changes of late is the pending return of Debbie Henley as executive editor and number two to the new editor-in-chief, Debby Krenek.
Krenek was installed as EIC last month, when John Mancini suddenly resigned after a five- year run. The word on the new deputy went out between Christmas and New Year’s and staffers are still scratching their heads.
When the two Deb bies were both deputies to Mancini, they were all involved in a standoff with Cable vision last January. It resulted in Man cini mysteriously staying away from the newsroom for five days, while then-publisher Tim Knight worked to smooth Mancini’s way back into the fold.
At the time, insiders speculated that the Dolans were upset about how much attention the paper was giving to a sexual harassment charge by a male chauffeur against Knicks center Ed Curry.
The two deputies returned first and Mancini came back a few days later, to a standing ovation.
In February, Henley departed again, saying she was retiring.
In a staff memo headlined, “What’s Going On,” Krenek said that Henley is slated to return on Jan. 11, where she will “oversee the newsroom and work on strategy implementation.”
“I was shocked,” said one insider. “She walked out with Mancini [last January]. Nobody knows what’s going on.”
Twin fan
Michael Klingensmith, one- time executive vice president at Time Inc., and the launch publisher of Entertainment Weekly in the early 90s, is said to be a candidate to become the new publisher of the Minneapolis Star Tribune.
According to Min nPost.com’s Braublog, as of late December, Klingensmith had re signed from New York-based mergers and acquisitions advi sory firm AdMedia Partners, and his name is in the Strib hat.
Klingensmith did not re turn a call seeking comment. He hails from Minneapolis and was an avid Minnesota Twins fan throughout his days in New York as he climbed the executive ranks at Time Inc.