CONDÉ Nast raided the New York Times to hire Stefano Tonchi, editor of T: The New York Times Style Magazine, as the new editor of W.
He replaces Patrick McCarthy, the editorial director who has been at the helm since 1985, but who was bounced last week.
Although Tonchi’s primary job will be to re-ignite the magazine editorially, observers think his connections to fashion designers will help on the ad front. W’s ad pages tumbled 45 percent in 2009 and skidded another 18 percent through April of this year.
But Condé Nast is also embarking on a risky strategy by pulling W out of the Fairchild orbit.
For one, it is losing veteran staffers. Executive Editor Bridget Foley and about eight staffers who had done duty with W and Women’s Wear Daily will now work only on WWD. Many of McCarthy’s acolytes, including creative director Dennis Friedman, are expected to be pushed out.
There will also be the loss of the unspoken power that came from bundling W and the gritty daily newspaper of the fashion world. Fashion insiders long believed that an ad in W could stave off criticism in WWD.
“[McCarthy] wielded a lot of power behind the scenes with W and WWD combined,” noted one source.
Now at 450,000, W’s circulation is less than half that of its larger rival Vogue. One of Tonchi’s biggest challenges may well be avoiding stepping on the toes of Vogue editrix Anna Wintour.
Tonchi spent his salad days at Condé Nast. He was fashion creative director at Esquire from 1998 to 2003, Self’s creative director from 1994 to 1996 and editor and fashion director of L’Uomo Vogue from 1987 to 1994.
Condé’s Editorial Director Tom Wallace called Tonchi “an extraordinarily versatile editor whose expertise in the world of art, fashion, design and entertainment will help W realize its full potential in both print and digital formats.”
BW says stay
Oops. Josh Tyrangiel, the new editor-in-chief of BusinessWeek, may have “over-fired” in his recent downsizing, when he knocked about 30 people from the money-losing weekly that Bloomberg LP bought from McGraw-Hill last year.
He fired the entire art, photo and design depart ments, but then appar ently had to ask Senior Art Director Steve Tay lor, Deputy Photo Ed itor Scott Mlyn and Managing Art Director Joni Danaher to stick around for another six weeks to help get out the next issue.
Arthur Hochstein, the former longtime art director of Time magazine, is also hanging around to consult on the covers for a few more weeks.
The incoming art director, Richard Turley, imported from the Guardian in London, and ex-Blender man David Cathars, the new director of photography, are hard at work on the redesign scheduled to be unveiled in mid-April.
Back: Frost
Tony Frost has quietly been named editor-in-chief of the National Enquirer and its smaller, more ribald tabloid sister The Globe.
He replaces David Perel, who last year took over the American Media-owned Web site Radaronline.com.
Frost has had an up-and-down relationship with American Media CEO David Pecker, who tossed him when he was co-editing the Globe back in 2004.
Pecker had a change of heart and bought Frost back in 2006 when his “British invasion” did not work out and he sent two dozen Fleet Street reporters back to merry old England.
Frost was brought back as a consultant working out of Boca Raton, Fla. “I made him editor-in-chief in February,” Pecker told Ink.
Fashion St.
The Sixth Avenue region long known as Publishers Row will soon become a battleground for bitter fashion world rivals.
Hachette Filipacchi Media, publisher of Elle, is moving from 1633 Broadway into the Time & Life Building at 1271 Avenue of the Americas. It is taking over the three floors that Lehman Brothers was renting when it went bankrupt in 2008.
That means Elle will now be in the same building as its Time Inc.-owned rival In Style.
And W, instead of moving into the Condé Nast headquarters at 4 Times Square from its current Fairchild offices on 750 Third Ave., will be at 1166 Avenue of the Americas. keith.kelly@nypost.com