Business

GOLDMAN’S NEW ‘LIST’

FORBES magazine, which has lost two top editors to cable TV in recent months, has now lost the editor who compiles its popular Celebrity 100 list.

Lea Goldman, a senior editor, is joining Joanna Coles at Marie Claire to be the features editor – a new job at the Hearst-owned magazine. Goldman starts the new gig on April 1, a Hearst spokeswoman confirmed.

Matt Miller, who took over the task of running the Forbes 400 when Peter Newcomb was poached by Graydon Carter’s Vanity Fair a year and a half ago, will now add the Celebrity 100 to his domain as well, a source said.

Last October, Forbes lost Managing Editor Dennis Kneale to CNBC, and Senior Editor Liz MacDonald to Fox Business News.

Sources said that Goldman was torn between staying and going, but Editor Bill Baldwin did little to compel her to to stay.

There’s no word of a replacement for Goldman.

Five months after Kneale left Forbes, the managing editor’s position remains unfilled, even though Deputy Managing Editor Tom Post has been hungering for the position.

In August 2006, the company was taken over by Elevation Partners, which includes U2 front man Bono and aspiring rock star Roger McNamee, who were attracted by the upside potential of forbes.com, which has received investments to buy other niche properties.

There has been speculation that Forbes Chairman Steve Forbes would sell the remainder of the company in the next few years, but the company has insisted that nothing is imminent.

Elevation is believed to have paid between $250 million and $300 million for about 40 percent of the company.

The investment effectively split the company’s assets in half, with Elevation owning a stake in Forbes Media, which includes magazines and the Web site.

Meanwhile, the Forbes family keeps control of the Forbes building, which is being sold, and their yacht, The Highlander.

The family ranch, a 171,400-acre spread in Colorado known as the Forbes Trinchera Ranch, was sold to fund manager Louis Moore Bacon for $175 million.

The Forbeses have also sold two of the family’s helicopters.

Sing off

A Karaoke smackdown is pitting Martha Stewart and her magazine, Martha Stewart Living, against the Kristin van Ogtrop-helmed Real Simple.

There is no word on whether the two lifestyle divas will make the scene, but plenty of their staff will be on hand to battle it out.

The duel is on for next Thursday at Spotlight Live in Times Square.

The showdown is the work of Nykia Spradley, an editorial assistant at Real Simple, and her twin sister, Jessica Cumberbatch, a research editor at Martha Stewart Living.

Her sister came up with the idea.

“We invited our whole editorial staff,” said Spradley.

The rival magazines have frequently raided each other for staff, but the twins insist the sing-off is all in good fun.

Party favors

Plenty of business was being cooked up at the fifth annual Kelly Gang fundraiser staged Monday night at Michael’s restaurant in Midtown.

Playboy Editor Chris Napolitano assigned a story on NYPD Commissioner Ray Kelly to author and Kelly Gang Chairman Tom Kelly.

And Men’s Health Editorial Director David Zinczenko, after hearing Hall of Fame QB Jim Kelly speak about his late son Hunter, is also considering a story on Kelly’s work with Hunter’s Hope Foundation. Kelly’s son died in 2005 after being diagnosed with Krabbe disease, an illness that affects an infant’s nervous system and is fatal.

Zinczenko’s discussion of numerology with Cindi Leive of Glamour became the subject of a story in the Off the Record column of Wednesday’s New York Observer.

Due to the Monday-night deadline of some weekly celebrity magazines, many editors had a tough time making the scene.

People Managing Editor Larry Hackett, normally a regular attendee, skipped this year’s event. He was busy laying out the cover that would feature Marc Anthony and Jennifer Lopez’ twins. Hackett reportedly paid $6 million for the rights to photos of the babies.

Meanwhile, John Huey, editor-in-chief of Time Inc., was one of the first in the door. He managed to arrive ahead of Time magazine Managing Editor Rick Stengel, who made a grand entrance just as retired NYPD bomb squad Detective Mike Stapleton and the boys from the NYPD Emerald Society Pipes and Drums began raising the roof.

Sarah Ivens, editor-in-chief of OK! magazine, arrived early to the party, having wrapped up her latest issue, which features dieting tips from actress Jennifer Aniston.

Janice Min, on deadline for Us Weekly, was busy putting the finishing touches on a cover of Lauren Conrad from MTV’s “The Hills” when she popped in midway through the evening.

Bonnie Fuller, editorial director of American Media, was given a ribbing by Jossip’s David Hauslaib, for arriving so late that it could not even be considered fashionable.

She was chatting about her well-received blog on the Huffington Post, in which she delved into the psychological impact that the sex scandal involving Eliot Spitzer and a prostitute would have on his three teenage daughters.

Richard Spencer, editor-in-chief of In Touch and Life & Style, couldn’t break away from his office in New Jersey to make the event, but he did the next best thing: He sent over “Gossip Girl” star Kelly Rutherford with a mock-up In Touch cover that featured her with Media Ink’s Keith Kelly and proclaims Rutherford “the newest member of the Kelly Gang.”

Last year, Jim Kelly was delayed getting to the event by an ice storm that diverted his plane to Washington. He grabbed a car service and spent nearly nine hours on the road before arriving.

He vowed to come back this year, with his five brothers. And so he did.

Bill O’Reilly, who had earlier named Jim Kelly a Hero of the Week on his show, got a little face time with the retired QB.

Megyn Kelly, the Fox News Channel anchor who is just back from her honey moon, made the bash for the second year in a row.

All told, 225 people attended the bash, rais ing over $85,000. After expenses the proceeds will be split between Hunter’s Hope Foundation and the Annie Moore Memorial Project.

Teresa Smith DeHesus, a great granddaugher of Annie Moore, the Irish immigrant who became the first person to be processed through Ellis Island in 1892, was on hand to receive the Kelly Gang donation.

keith.kelly@nypost.com