Business

RAY’S PIZZAZZ FADES

THERE are signs of tension at Every Day with Rachael Ray, the magazine that became an overnight success and was hailed as the hottest magazine launch since the early days of O, the Oprah Magazine.

Ray, the founder and editor-in-chief, is said to be upset with the executive upheavals at her namesake magazine, which occurs at a time when the magazine’s meteoric growth rate appears to be slowing down.

The magazine is still growing its rate base – the amount of circulation it promises advertisers it will deliver each month. But the plan to push it to 1.7 million by August – announced with much hype around the time of the American Magazine Conference a year ago – was quietly scrapped over the summer.

In its place is a more modest boost, to 1.5 million from the current 1.3 million circulation. A move to 1.7 million won’t come until next February.

The magazine was also forced to scrap a newsstand price hike after four months. In April, the price was raised to $4.99 a copy, but as single-copy sales plunged, parent company Reader’s Digest Association reversed course in August and lowered the price to $3.99.

RDA officials said the falloff in single-copy sales was a sign that many early newsstand buyers simply converted to being subscribers.

Skeptics wonder, however, if the once sizzling hot magazine is nearing the end of its growth curve.

“No way, absolutely not,” insisted Ray.

However, the magazine has also been without a publisher since Chris Guilfoyle bolted for Women’s Wear Daily in August after helping lead the magazine to Launch of the Year and Start Up of the Year honors from Advertising Age and Adweek, respectively.

On top of that, some industry sources say that there are some signs of discontent between Ray and her magazine keepers at RDA.

Ray was very close to Bonnie Bachar Kintzer, who in March was bounced as the head of North American magazine operations after Ripple wood Holdings in Feb ruary completed its takeover of RDA.

However, Ray has stayed in touch with Kintzer, who was one of 60 guests that Ray invited to accompany her and her hus band John Cusimano to a second wedding anniversary celebration last month at a castle in Tuscany.

Regarding the divorce rumors, Ray said. “We were literally in Italy celebrating our second anniversary when the National Enquirer said we were getting a divorce. I don’t know where they get it.”

Ray made little secret that she missed Guilfoyle.

“I loved Chris. I was heartbroken that she left, although it was a great opportunity for her.

“I miss Chris. I was extremely upset. She could not have worked harder for us and I can’t imagine anyone else filling those shoes.”

When asked about the departure of Kintzer, Ray said: “Bonnie and I were in Italy together. She’s still kind of a liaison between me and the magazine.”

One source said that Ray hates when decisions are made without her – one reason why the search for a new publisher is dragging on.

“I have to finish interviewing folks,” Ray told Media Ink. “That will happen, hopefully, by the end of next week.”

Ray and RDA publicly insist everyting is fine.

“I haven’t thought of taking it anywhere else and I think they are very happy with it,” said Ray of her magazine.

Don’s home

Don Logan, a longtime Time Inc. chief who later became one of the top three executives at parent Time Warner, has had no trouble stepping away from the bright lights and big city lure to return to his roots in Birmingham, Ala.

“I haven’t missed living in New York at all,” said Logan, 63, who grew up in the rural south and was so poor as a youth that he used to hunt squirrels for food. “I miss some of the people. But it was time to come home.”

After 48 consecutive quarters of growth at Time Inc., he handed off the magazine division to Ann Moore in early 2002, and then two years ago retired as chairman of Time Warner’s media and communications group.

He retains a minor link to the media giant as the executive chairman of Time Warner Cable, essentially tasked with chairing the quarterly meetings.

While some ex-Time Inc. folks have attempted to stay in the game by hooking up with big financial players on the prowl for acquisitions, Logan instead teamed up with his two sons, Steve and Jeff, to become an owner of the Birmingham Barons, a Double-A Minor League Baseball team that’s affiliated with the Chicago White Sox.

“In some ways, [owning a ball club] is like magazine publishing. You have subscription sales with season ticket holders, you sell advertising – and then you put on a show.”

But he said he takes such a laid-back hand in operations that he never bothered to put a title on a business card. “I’m in charge of getting the right hot dogs,” said Logan.

Logan is also an investor in a number of small publishing companies, including greeting card company Seek Publishing, in which he and his sons are the majority owners. But he says he has no interest in stepping back into the trenches full time.

Indeed, he has spurned many of the large financial players that wanted him to lead takeovers of other media companies.

“I’ve had a lot of people call me from the very large companies,” he said. “If I wanted to stay in the game in a major way, I would have stayed in New York.”

In his latest venture, Logan sits on the board of Hoffman Media, which is headed by entrepreneur Phyllis Hoffman and is based in Birmingham. He has also taken a minority stake in the company.

Hoffman founded her company in 1983 as a small publisher specializing in sewing crafts, with titles such as Just Cross Stitch and Sampler & Antique Needlework Quarterly, and sold it to Primedia for $2 million. She was able to buy it back in 1998 for $500,000.

Today the com pany has annual sales of around $12 million.

“It’s a throwback to the traditional model,” he said. “It is focused on reaching consumers.”

“If I invest in something, I want to be close enough to be involved, but I don’t want to run it,” said Logan.

Sealed deal

The Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval just got a new sheriff.

Miriam Arond, the former editor-in-chief of Child magazine, has just been tapped by Good Housekeeping to be the new director of the Good Housekeeping Research Institute.

Want to know how important that is in the Hearst tower hierarchy? The magazine is believed to be the second or third most profitable magazine in the company, behind O, The Oprah Magazine and Cosmopolitan.

“They do all the product evaluation and testing that goes into any story,” said GH Editor-in-Chief Rosemary Ellis. In addition, the Institute also tests the claims of advertisers to make sure that all copy delivers what it promises to deliver and is “fundamentally true,” said Ellis.

Any product that wants to earn the coveted Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval must undergo rigorous testing at the Institute, which is staffed by 20 full-time scientists.

Arond, in addition to serving as the TV face for the Institute in a monthly segment on ABC’s “Good Morning America,” will also top edit about four to eight magazine pages each month for a section called “The Goods.”

On top of that, Ellis just raided her old stomping ground at Prevention to hire Jennifer Cook as a second executive editor on the magazine.

keith.kelly@nypost.com