FORTUNE is back in the sights of Time Inc. Editor-in-Chief John Huey, who has assembled a high-level SWAT team of in-house and external experts to revamp the biweekly business magazine.
However, the move creates a tough balancing act for Huey, who must try to implement changes to rejuvenate the brand without alienating the magazine’s top editor and a onetime protégé, Andy Serwer, who has been Fortune’s managing editor since late 2006 and who oversaw a major redesign less than two years ago.
“I don’t think it’s a happy situation,” said one source.
Word of the redesign comes the same week that McGraw-Hill Cos., publisher of Fortune rival BusinessWeek, confirmed that it was putting that magazine up for sale.
Sources familiar with the Fortune matter said Serwer is sitting in on the redesign meetings, and for the moment is said to be welcoming Huey’s participation.
To assuage any potentially bruised egos, Huey in the past month awarded Serwer with a new three-year contract, insiders said, which will keep him on the payroll until at least 2012.
A source said that Serwer has been quietly exploring options outside of Fortune in recent months, most notably using an agent at William Morris to explore a gig on TV. However, any options would be in addition to his day job as Fortune’s editor, he said.
“I have not looked at anything else in print,” said Serwer.
As far as the redesign, Serwer said, “I’m intimately involved in the process,” adding he welcomed the idea of getting a fresh perspective from inside and outside the magazine. “Times are tough in the category, but this is a commitment to moving ahead into 2010.”
Unlike BusinessWeek, which lost an estimated $42 million last year, Fortune is said to be producing a small profit for Time Inc.
And while it performed better than its rivals in the last year, it has struggled recently. Through its June 22 issue, the mag’s ad pages were off nearly 39 percent to 697.1.
By comparison, Forbes is down 29 percent through the first half of the year, while BusinessWeek, through its July 13, has posted a 37 percent decline.
Among the outsiders, Huey’s so-called SWAT team includes designer John Korpics, who recently redesigned Money magazine, and Sheryl Hilliard Tucker, a onetime Money editor who is now an editor-at-large at Time Inc.
Also on board is Kyle Pope, who was most recently one of two deputy editors to Joanne Lipman at the now-defunct Condé Nast Portfolio.
Insiders say the tactical team also includes marketing officials from Time Inc., which indicates the concern about Fortune focuses on both advertising and readership.
“In this day and age, you don’t do this kind of thing just to look pretty,” said one source. “Nobody has the money for that anymore.”
There’s no timetable for when readers will see the changes, but it is believed to be months away and is expected to involve intense consumer focus groups to garner feedback.
One change that will be visible right away will be a more timely closing date. Currently, the time between when editors stop tinkering with stories and the time the magazine hits newsstands is 11 days — considered an eternity given the current financial crisis, when banks can fold up in a weekend.
Under the new close, Fortune will be available six days after the final edit in all markets. In some cases, up to 25 percent of readers will see Fortune appear in mailboxes and on newsstands only three days after the editorial close.
The change comes with the Aug. 17 issue, which goes on sale Aug. 3.
Carlin Cont.
The Free Press imprint of Simon & Schuster is going to publish a George Carlin memoir posthumously.
The company said that for more than 10 years before his death in June 2008, the award-winning comedian had been working on his memoir with Tony Hendra, author of “Father Joe: The Man Who Saved My Soul,” and who had been one of the original editors of National Lampoon.
The book is to be called “Last Words” and is based on taped interviews, drafts and some polished chapters.
Carlin rose to fame as an irreverent comedian whose career went through several ups and downs, hitting his peak in the mid-1970s when he released the album “Class Clown,” which includes his hilarious skit on the seven dirty words that can never be uttered on TV.
Play date
Martha Pickerill is out as the managing editor of Time 4 Kids, the money-losing educational offshoot of Time magazine.
This spring, her staff was consolidated with the Sports Illustrated Kids editorial team, offering one of the few examples in which Time Inc.’s re cently formed news group actually combined two fiefdoms into one unit.
As a result, Bob Der, the top editor of Sports Illustrated Kids, will oversee both brands. keith.kelly@nypost.com