The tragic events in Benghazi, Libya, on Sept. 11, 2012, are still of great interest to Americans — and book publishers are willing to pay up to tell the story.
Twelve Books, which announced this week it signed a deal with four members of the elite security team from the annex of the US Embassy in the Mideast town, is paying a $3 million advance, Media Ink has learned.
The book by the authors — whose names were not released — is scheduled to be released in 2014.
“The actions of these men were nothing short of amazing,” Sean Desmond, Twelve editorial director, said in a statement.
Neither Twelve Publisher Deb Futter nor Richard Abate, of 3 Arts Entertainment, which sold the rights to Twelve, an imprint of Grand Central Publishing/Hachette Book Group, would comment on the size of the advance.
McKinsey @ Condé
The dreaded McKinsey consulting firm is working inside Condé Nast.
The last time the firm undertook a major project at Four Times Square was in 2009 and memories of that create a sense of unease.
By the time the year was over, Portfolio, Domino, Elegant Bride, Modern Bride and Gourmet were shuttered.
As a result of that and other prunings, more than 400 jobs were lost.
This time around, however, informed sources say the study is not geared toward trimming excess.
“Most of it is focused on consumer marketing,” said one person in the know. In part, it is centered on how to get more substantial revenue and profit from the digital side of operations.
It also is trying to figure out how best to price subscriptions and determine price points for tablet subscriptions.
A Condé Nast spokeswoman declined to comment on McKinsey’s current work at the publisher.
Time for a CEO
It is now obvious that Time Warner CEO Jeff Bewkes has missed his early target of picking a new CEO of Time Inc. by the summer.
It’s June 28, after all. But Bewkes is believed to be continuing the search — and keeping the process under tight wraps.
The 61-year-old executive clearly is working on a short list, but not exactly sharing it with a wide circle of friends.
Since Time Inc. is spinning itself off and not undertaking a formal public offering, there are no SEC requirements on when the actions have to take place.
Some sources are speculating that Bewkes might go to a dual leadership role since he has favored co-CEOs in other divisions of Time Warner over the years — although not always with glowing results.
Time Inc. has always had one top executive. The closest it ever came to dual leadership was in the late 1990s, when Don Logan was the heir apparent and served for a year as president/COO under Reginald Brack, who hung around as chairman/CEO for a transition year.
Of the three insiders who were mentioned as possible candidates — Executive Vice Presidents David Geithner and Todd Larson and Chief Financial Officer Howard Averill — Averill would seem to have inside track.
Larson, who heads the division that includes Time, is seen as too green since he only arrived a year ago.
Geithner, the brother of former Treasury secretary Timothy Geithner, does not seem to be openly jockeying for the job.
Averill, who was part of the interim triumvirate who ran Time Inc. in the days after Jack Griffin was forced from power, still seems to harbor ambitions higher up on the corporate masthead, sources said.
“He would clearly have to be involved in some way,” said one former executive. “They are going to need someone with a lot of background in finance.”
One of the outside names to surface was the current American Media Inc. CEO David Pecker.
When Media Ink first broke the news that Pecker was in the mix, some insiders felt it was a long shot, but his return interview suggests that he is indeed among the finalists.
One ad agency executive said Pecker would make a strong candidate and was disdainful of any of the inside candidates.
“If it goes to any of the three insiders, the battleship is sunk,” this ad agency executive said.
Newark blues
There doesn’t seem to be much early hope of a quick and painless agreement between the Newhouse’s Newark-based Star-Ledger and its Mailers Union.
A union boss put out a statement yesterday saying its members in the past agreed to a $15-an-hour give back when asked for concessions — and the paper agreed not to sub-contract out work.
Steven Grant, the Mailers’ secretary-treasurer. said the paper should resolve the union’s NLRB complaints first before asking for more concessions.
The paper said this week that if it didn’t get $9 million in concessions from its unions, it would stop publishing on Dec. 31.