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Wenner is pulling Us Weekly from national distributor Comag, which is co-owned by Condé Nast and Hearst, and placing it with Time Warner Retail Sales.
Consumers won’t notice the shift, but it is sending shockwaves through the cutthroat magazine-distribution world.
National distributors supervise the shipment of magazines from printing plants to wholesalers and ultimately, to retailers’ shelves. For their work, they get anywhere from 1.5 percent to 3 percent of a magazine’s retail sales. Us Weekly was believed to be paying Comag around 2.5 percent.
“He did it for one reason: more money,” one source said about Wenner’s move.
Switching national distributors for Us Weekly and his other two magazines, Rolling Stone and Men’s Journal, could mean an extra $500,000 to $1 million a year in Wenner’s pocket, said a knowledgeable industry source.
The multi-year distribution contract is probably good for around $10 million a year in revenue, one source estimated. That’s a windfall for Ann Moore‘s hard-pressed Time Inc. division. Conversely, Hearst and Condé Nast can ill afford a seven-figure whack to the bottom line.
If there is a downside for Wenner, it is that he has to trust that the distribution arm of his most bitter rival, People, will take good care of his magazines.
Time Inc., Time Warner Retail, Comag and Wenner Media would not comment for the record. But a reliable source said that Wenner sent the word to Comag via fax yesterday.
The multi-year contract is expected to kick in next year.
Unguided
TV Guide lowered the boom on its business side yesterday, axing Publisher Peter Haeffner and four other senior executives.
The company, now owned by venture capital firm Open Gate Capital Partners, also unveiled plans to replace the staffers with consultants.
Also out in the shakeup are TV Guide Associate Publisher Gary Kleinman, Associate Publisher/Marketing Mindy Nathanson, Vice President of Business Development Gary Geiger, and Research Director Marc Turk.
“I wouldn’t call it a bloodbath so much as a restructuring,” said Jack Kliger, who has been acting as CEO since Scott Crystal was ousted in May. He said the old positions would not be replaced. “This is a model about how magazines should be run in the future. We need a much more Web-like management structure than the traditional magazine structure.”
Nick Matarrazo, who was a senior vice president at Hachette Filipacchi Media when Kliger was the CEO there, is believed to be headed for a senior consulting gig. His Hachette job was eliminated earlier this year.
TV Guide’s ad sales tumbled 26 percent in the first nine months of the year, to 556 pages, according to Media Industry Newsletter. The magazine said it would cut its rate base by 30 percent, to 2 million.
New map
The National Geo graphic Society is also shaking up its magazine group. It has tapped insider Claudia Malley to be the new senior vice president and publisher of National Geographic Global Media.
Steve Gianetti, the longtime publisher, and Dawn Drew, vice president of travel, will exit the not-for-profit company.
“While we believe that this new structure positions us well in this challenging media environment, it is truly hard to say goodbye to Dawn and Steve, who have contributed so much to the success of the franchise over the years,” said John Q. Griffin, publishing president of the National Geographic Society.
Variety hiring
Variety, where longtime Vice President and Editor-in-Chief Peter Bart stepped down mid-year, ran a help-wanted ad in yesterday’s edition saying it was looking for an editor for Daily Variety.
It didn’t specify a salary, but said that the person will be responsible for running the print edition and supervising 50 reporters.
This comes only weeks after parent company Reed Business Information announced it would put Variety’s online version behind a pay wall sometime in 2010.