Business

It’s not Dave’s Health

The startling news that high-profile Men’s Health Editor-in-Chief David Zinczenko had exited Rodale after seeming to come to loggerheads with Chairwoman and CEO Maria Rodale richoceted around the publishing world last week.

Although the contract was just over a month from its expiration, insiders said that there had been surprisingly little discussion about renewing it. Zinczenko was summoned to a routine budget meeting on Monday morning in Emmaus, Pa., when Chairwoman Rodale dropped the bombshell announcement that his contract was not being renewed.

In publishing circles, it raised a new round of questions about the magazine and book empire now in its third generation of family ownership.

In the end, sources said, the end seemed in part fueled by Rodale jealousy of the constant attention that Zinczenko commanded, from the Rodale books he authored, including “The Abs Diet” and “Eat This Not That,” best-sellers for which he was said to have received royalties of 10 percent, to his frequent appearances on NBC’s “Today” show.

Several executives in the publishing world thought the Men’s Health brand would survive, but it would still be hurt by the loss of Zinczenko, arguably its highest-profile editor in history.

When asked about that, Rodale snipped, “It’s not Dave’s Health, it’s Men’s Health.”

Still, with Zinczenko gone, many publishing executives — not just in New York — think it may get harder to attract talent to Rodale.

“[Former CEO Steve] Murphy believed in hiring talent, and he knew he had to pay for it,” said one former insider. “Maria seems like she likes having invisible people running businesses for $80,000 a year.

“They’re kind of back to being country bumpkins — and they seem to like it that way.”

As Zinczenko’s responsibilities expanded to include those of executive vice president, and editorial director of Women’s Health, Prevention and Organic Gardening, so did his compensation. One source said that his base pay was more than $1 million.

“She wants to take back the company and make it about her and her vision,” says an inside source of Maria Rodale.

While still marginally profitable, Rodale’s revenues are believed to be in the $400 million range, down from more than $600 million five or six years ago.

Asked recently if the company was profitable, Maria Rodale insisted it was: “We’re fine.”

And asked if she had any plan to sell it, she insisted, “Nope,” and said family members were solidly behind her.

Zinczenko’s replacement at Men’s Health is Bill Phillips, who was running the companion website to the magazine.–Keith J.Kelly

Foursquare follies

It’s no longer hip to be Foursquare.

Once arguably the city’s coolest startup, with a moptop CEO in Dennis Crowley, the company has been humbled as it tries to convince investors it’s no one-hit wonder.

Insiders tell us that some of the city’s top venture capitalists are reluctant to join in any new fundraising round, since the company is barely making money. Foursquare was valued at $600 million during its last fundraising round in June 2011.

The company may have trouble “locating” future money, sources told us, and already the Web-based location app firm has been told by a few investing types to come back when it can show real revenue.

“All the big New York VC firms say the valuation is too high. Talk to us after the New Year, when we can see the books after the holiday quarter,” one insider told On the Money. “Not a single VC has said, ‘Yes, we’re in.’”–Garett Sloane

Getting Hitch-ed

Alfred Hitchcock may have been the master of suspense, but even the legendary director wasn’t able to overcome the challenges of film financing.

Fox Searchlight’s new movie “Hitchcock” touches on the auteur’s struggle to secure funding for “Psycho.”

Hitchcock’s longtime studio, Paramount, reportedly refused to put up the money for the movie, so he wound up financing “Psycho” himself, making it for roughly $800,000.

“Hitchcock” producer Joe Medjuck said he could empathize with the financial situation faced by the film’s subject.

“We had the same problem making this movie,” Medjuck told us at last week’s premiere. “We were just like him. We didn’t have enough money; we didn’t have enough time.”

The film stars Anthony Hopkins as the legendary director and co-stars Scarlett Johansson as Janet Leigh.

Medjuck added, “Until Fox Searchlight came in, we couldn’t get the movie made. The other producers who brought it to us had been working on it for seven years and hadn’t been able to get it made.”

Indeed, “Hitchcock” had been in development for years at Paramount before it was set up at Fox Searchlight.

(Fox Searchlight is owned by News Corp., as is The Post.)

Although “Hitchcock” left Paramount, Medjuck and his colleagues at The Montecito Picture Co., which has a first-look deal with the Viacom studio, have no plans to do so themselves.–Hilary Lewis