Business

New AMI shake-up: Perel named Star editor

In the latest shake-up to rock American Media Inc., Candace Trunzo was given the heave-ho as editor-in-chief of Star Magazine after four years and replaced by Radar Online editor David Perel.

AMI also hired Jose Lambiet — who until he resigned last Friday was the editor of the Palm Beach Post’s gossip column, known as “Page 2” — to run Radar Online from Hollywood.

The company cut nine editorial employees from both staffs, although at least three will be replaced. Among those ousted was Neil Blincow, Star’s Los Angeles bureau chief.

Lambiet is being brought on board as an executive editor to run Radar. Perel — who is keeping ultimate jurisdiction over the 11 remaining editorial employees at Radar along with the 38 editorial employees at Star — said the two staffs will be integrated.

The latest move indicates there’s still intense pressure on the bottom line from AMI investors. Former bondholders Avenue Capital Partners, Angelo Gordon and Capital Research own the vast majority of AMI’s stock after CEO David Pecker led the company through a pre-packaged bankruptcy last November.

Since exiting bankruptcy, the company has taken additional cost-saving measures. In the first quarter, all AMI employees took three furlough days, and next month the company is slated to consolidate its midtown Manhattan offices, primarily on Park Avenue South, into a new building in the Battery Park City area at 4 Park Place.

There are also concerns that Star under Perel –a 25-year AMI veteran who spent most of his time at the National Enquirer — will take on a meaner tabloid tone. He insisted that Radar Online is “very celebrity friendly. We’re going to bring a little of that over here.”

Pecker acknowledged that Star’s newsstand circulation has fallen to between 400,000 and 450,000. One source said that was the worst newsstand sales in the history of the weekly.

Aside from Charlie Sheen‘s rants, there have been no spectacular marriage bust-ups or scandals to fuel consumer interest in the celebrity magazines, which are also facing renewed competition online.

Pecker blamed the lackluster sales more on the poor economy and sky-high gas prices. “The whole market is down,” said Pecker.

Digital Beast

Tina Brown‘s Newsweek Daily Beast has tapped a one-time Google executive to become its first chief digital officer.

Daniel Blackman, a former strategic partner development officer at Google from 2005 to 2007, was more recently co-founder and chief operating officer of Howcast, a site offering instructions on how-to videos on You Tube.

Blackman said one of his first jobs will be transitioning newsweek.com, once a strong standalone site, into a destination within thedailybeast.com site. Blackman said his start date is April 27. “I might sneak in a few days earlier. I’m eager to rock ‘n’ roll.”

The job is considered key to the the joint venture’s future. Newsweek lost nearly $40 million in 2009 and 2010, while the Daily Beast in its second full year of operation was losing about $10 million.

Steve Colvin, president of Newsweek Daily Beast, said numbers have been improving since Newsweek’s new owner, Sidney Harman, and Barry Diller-owned Daily Beast finalized the joint venture in January.

Advertising on the Daily Beast’s site is up 367 percent in the first quarter compared with the same period a year ago, he said. Of course, the site had a prolonged period of time with no ads at its start, so 2010 was the first year of selling advertising.

Meanwhile, he also said single-copy sales of Newsweek, while still a relatively small portion of overall sales, are up 57 percent since Brown unveiled a redesign last month.

Although a full year of profit is at least a year away, he insisted the newsweekly is moving in the right direction. “The losses of 2011 will be down more than 60 percent from 2010,” said Colvin.

Sources estimated that still means another loss of close to $10 million in 2011.

But then he sees black ink on the books. “The company will make a profit in 2012,” Colvin predicted.

No-go

Hell no, they won’t go!

Walt Disney Co. ap pears to be having a heap of trouble con vincing the New York staff of ESPN the Mag azine to move three hours north to the corporate campus in Bristol, Conn. Close to half the staff is quitting the twice-a-month sports magazine rather than make the move.

“There will be roughly 35 open positions when they move to Bristol,” said an ESPN spokesman. The full staff numbers close to 100.

Gary Belsky, the editor-in-chief for the past four years, is not going to make the jump and yesterday the magazine appointed Chad Millman, currently a senior deputy editor, to the job, effective June 15. Belsky will stay on board in a consulting capacity until January 2012. Aside from the commuting hassle, sources said the editorial staff in New York enjoyed editorial independence and feared it will be compromised once it operates from the same base as the powerful TV network.

Gary Hoenig, the general manager and editorial director, was also said to be resistant to a move to Bristol but was apparently able to work out a deal where he could keep some base in New York. Not so for most of the staff.

In a prepared statement yesterday, Hoenig said of Belsky, “As we prepare for our move to Briston, Garty’s preference was to remain primarily in New York, which we understand and appreciate.”

Millman, who was with the magazine at its launch in 1998, has written seven books including two New York Times bestsellers, “Iceman: My Figthin Life,” written with Chuck Lidell, and “They Call Me Baba Booey.”

He’s also in charge of the gambling beat coverage in the magazine.

kkelly@nypost.com