FOR the second time, Kent Brownridge has raided his old stomping grounds at Wenner Media for a new top editor.
Joe Levy, a 10-year veteran of Rolling Stone and currently its executive editor, is the new editor-in-chief of music magazine Blender.
Craig Marks, who had been the carryover editor from Blender when Felix Dennis owned it, is out. His last day is Feb. 1.
Brownridge earlier raided Jann Wenner‘s publishing empire when he lured Men’s Journal Editor Jim Kaminsky to be the editorial director of flagship Maxim.
With backing from Quadrangle Group, Brownridge last year bought the formerly Dennis-owned titles and changed the company’s name to Alpha Media Group.
Despite the intensifying rivalry between Brownridge and his former boss Wenner, both were trying to take the high road yesterday.
“I don’t look upon it as a raid,” said Brownridge. “I’m pleased I got him and he just happens to work for Wenner. The other key people I’ve hired at Blender were not from Wenner.”
Wenner, who’s been known to go ballistic when he loses people, was similarly civil. In a statement he said, “Joe was a good friend and a terrific editor. We will miss him, and think he will do a great job at Blender. Making another music magazine great will help everyone.”
Brownridge said he plans to boost Blender’s rate base to 1 million in early 2009, putting the rate-base within striking distance of Rolling Stone’s 1.4 million.
Buying spree
Rock star Bono is looking to buy into the Robb Report, the bible of conspicuous consumption.
The U2 front man, through his investment firm Elevation Partners, is in talks to buy into CurtCo Media, which owns the Robb Report, Worth and several other magazines.
Last year, William “Wild Bill” Curtis, CEO of CurtCo, had attempted to sell the entire company, but was disappointed when buyers were unwilling to pay a premium based on potential future earnings of the company.
Curtis felt his company, which targets the luxury market, was worth close to $500 million, but offers fell well short of that and he eventually took the company off the block.
Discussions with Elevation, in which Bono is a partner with Roger McNamee and four others, began late last year and are ongoing.
McNamee has a string of high-tech success stories under his belt and is actively searching for companies in need of technological know-how to bring them into the future.
Elevation last year paid between $250 million and $300 million for a 40 percent stake in Forbes Media from the Forbes family. Since then, Elevation has made small add-on acquisitions, such as Investopedia, to bolster the Forbes.com franchise.
If a deal with CurtCo is hammered out, most observers are expecting it to be along the same lines as the Forbes deal, in which Elevation takes a substantial minority stake. Some of the money would go to CurtCo investors, but a good chunk would be pumped back into the company to expand its Web presence.
Officials at CurtCo and Elevation declined to comment.
Staying
Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia President and CEO Susan Lyne was back at the company’s headquarters Monday working to squelch internal speculation that she was getting ready to jump ship.
Media Ink reported Jan. 3 that Lyne’s original three-year deal at the company, which paid her $4.4 million a year, expired Dec. 31, and that she was now working on an automatic one-year contract extension. Some had taken the absence of a new deal as a sign that she was looking to walk away from the company founded by Martha Stewart.
“I want to discuss an item that ran in the press while I was away suggesting I might leave MSLO in the near future,” Lyne wrote in a memo distributed Monday to employees. “Nothing could be further from my plans.
“I love this company; more importantly, I believe in the company. We made a big investment in our future this past year – an investment that will start paying off in 2008 – and I want to be here to see that growth,” she wrote.
Lyne also said that she has not sold any shares and took a portion of her bonus last year in stock and will do the same this year.
The memo said nothing, however, about her inking a new contract similar to her earlier three-year agreement.
Fallout
Condé Nast watchers were still trying to figure out who will emerge as a winner after the dust settles around the sudden ouster of three top executives, Golf Digest Group President Mitch Fox, Condé Nast Media Group Senior Vice President Amy Churgin and Lucky Publisher Sandy Golinkin.
One veteran observer said the timing – so shortly after the death of one-time CEO Steve Florio – gave the axings an odd feel.
Fox, Golinkin and Lou Cona – the New Yorker publisher who in the shake-up was tapped to replace Churgin – were all seen as allies of Florio, who left the company a year ago.
“It sort of reminds me of ‘The Godfather,’ ” said Steve Cohn, editor of Media Industry Newsletter. “They go to the funeral and then they blow everything up.”
However, there appears to be one big winner: Condé Nast Portfolio President and Publisher David Carey. He adds Wired and the Golf Digest Group, which includes three magazines, a Web site and golfing schools, to his list of responsibilities.
Cona, meanwhile, is facing a potential negative downside to his new role, though he does know a lot of the advertisers he will be dealing with thanks to his earlier days at Vanity Fair and In Style.
A lesser winner is Tom Florio, who gets the business side of Teen Vogue, which, on paper, finally puts him on equal footing with Vogue editrix Anna Wintour, who previously had domain over the business side of Teen Vogue. He also adds the title of senior vice president to his resume.
A potential winner could be the old Fairchild unit, which includes W, Women’s Wear Daily, Daily News Record and Footwear News. It used to report into Fox and now reports directly to Condé Nast CEO Charles Townsend.
A loser could be Wired, which loses President Drew Schutte to the New Yorker, where he’ll replace Cona.
The San Francisco-based magazine is now a little more closely aligned with New York and less independent.
Bill Wackerman, the Glamour publisher, also gets a little title inflation with the boost to a senior vice president – but more importantly gets the Bridal Group, which could make for some nice ad packages with the ad people interested in the Glamour demo. keith.kelly@nypost.com