The Week, the last surviving American title owned by British publishing maverick Felix Dennis, has ousted Publisher Jessica Sibley and hired Men’s Journal Publisher Michael Wolfe to replace her.
Sibley, who arrived from Business Week two years ago, was given her walking papers last week, sources said. She could not be reached for comment.
Wolfe resigned to accept the new job today. No replacement has been named at Men’s Journal.
“As a business, we did fine, but we could not measure up to last year,” said Steven Kotok, the president of The Week.
After a strong first half — in which the mag seemed to be on target for another trend-defying year with its sixth ad-page increase — the bottom suddenly fell out. The Week finished the year down about 11 percent in ad pages, he said.
Wolfe had been publisher at the Jan Wenner-owned monthly for two years. In the most recent year, its ad pages were up 3.5 percent, according to the Publishers Information Bureau.