Business

Koepp decamps Newsweek, returns to Time Inc.

Turns out, you can go home again.

Time Inc. raided Tina Brown and Newsweek to bring Steve Koepp back inside the tent as editorial director of its fledgling book unit, Time Home Entertainment, Inc.

The news created a buzz among the few stragglers left as BookExpo America was packing up from the Javits Center yesterday. Time Home Entertainment, which had a booth at the show, handles book projects that grow from the pages of the magazine titles including Time, Fortune, Money, Life, People, In Style, Essence and Entertainment Weekly.

It’s a homecoming for Koepp, who had been a deputy managing editor at Time, and later an executive editor at Fortune, before leaving with a buyout in 2009.

He, along with Time art director Arthur Hochstein, surprised their former mates when they turned up working for Brown shortly after she took the reins of rival Newsweek earlier this year.

Hochstein’s gig ended when the Brown’s redesign hit in March, but Koepp had stayed on board and played a key role in the transition, although never quite became a full-time staffer.

Newsweek was taking the high road on the loss yesterday, “Yes, Steve was our interim editor–actually his title is ‘consulting editor’ — until the March redesign, and we extended it a bit to help with transition,” said Executive Editor Edward Felsenthal. “He’s been a terrific help and we wish him the best,” he said. The move follows the loss of Newsweek Managing Editor Brekke Fletcher several weeks earlier.

Time Inc. Editor-In-Chief John Huey, told staffers, “Steve left Time Inc. briefly to serve as interim editor at Newsweek and we’re pleased to have him back in the building.”

BEA chatter

While officially ebooks dominated many of the panel side discussions at BEA, it was still the pop and sizzle of hardback author signings and sightings that generated the most talk.

At a breakfast talk attended by 1,500 on Wednesday, Diane Keaton broke down in tears while doing a reading from her Random House book, “Then Again,” a memoir on her late mother, which is due to hit in November.

Erin Morgenstern‘s book, “The Night Circus,” about rival magicians, seemed to generate the most excitement at a Monday buzz panel. The book, from Doubleday, is already being hyped as a book that could be one of the rare first-time novels that translates quickly into a successful movie.

With the 50th anniversary of the inauguration of President John F. Kennedy underway, the publishing world seems like it can never get enough about Camelot.

Hyperion, owned by Walt Disney, is cranking out “Historic Conversations on Life with JFK,” which lists Jacqueline Kennedy as the author. It’s due to hit in September and will coincide with a TV special on Disney’s ABC network that month.

The book and TV show are based on recently discovered interviews that Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr. did with the former First Lady in 1964.

The Kennedy assassination is also the backdrop for Stephen King‘s latest thriller from Scribner. “11/22/63: A Novel” centers around a high school English teacher in a small town in Maine who discovers a way to travel back in time and tries to stop the killing.

The novel plans to have a 1 million copy first printing on Nov. 8.

Simon & Schuster, a sister imprint, is cranking out, “Jack Kennedy, Elusive Hero,” by CNBC “Hardball” host Chris Matthews.

On the fiction front, Hachette Book Group on Nov. 29 is going to roll out the latest Michael Connelly novel, “The Drop.”

Sober times

Parties were a bit scarce this year, although Harry Belafonte turned up at a Random House party at Cognac in Midtown to promote his memoir, “My Song,” written with Vanity Fair writer Michael Shnayerson. So too did Charles Frazier for “Nightwoods.”

Last year’s bestseller, “One Day,” by David Nicholls, about a couple that keeps reuniting on the same day each year, is due out in vintage paperback this year just as the movie version, starring Anne Hathaway hits the big screen on Aug. 19 from Focus Features. Some lucky invitees got invited to an advance screening, but the press was kept away.

The biggest title from Random House this fall is expected to be Christo pher Paolini‘s “Inheri tance,” which is going to have a 2.5 million first printing to accompany its Nov. 8 debut. Paolini was partying aboard the Intrepid on Tuesday nightwith other Random House authors, including Tyra Banks,whose “Modelland” is due in September, and Lauren Kate, whose “Passion” is slated to hit next month. kkelly@nypost.com