Mark Miller, who had two high-level stints at Newsweek, resigned Friday to become the new deputy editorial director of The Hollywood Reporter.
He will be No. 2 to editorial director Janice Min.
“He has significant digital and print experience and has experience juggling both sides of a chaotic operation,” said Min.
She said THR had its best month ever on the Web, attracting 5.4 million unique monthly visitors. Many see that as THR’s key battleground in the fight against digital rivals such as Deadline.com and The Wrap. THR’s once-daily print edition now appears as an oversized weekly glossy.
Miller left Newsweek for the first time when the Washington Post sold the newsweekly in 2010, but was lured back by Tina Brown to be director of editorial operations at Newsweek/Daily Beast.
Alison Brower, who was serving as interim editorial director of Hearst’s Seventeen while Ann Shoket was out on leave, is also heading to the West Coast as the new special projects editor at THR.
In the shuffle, News Director Matthew Belloni has been promoted to executive editor, reporting to Min.
The move comes after investor Guggenheim Partners bought out Jimmy Finkelstein’s Pluribus Capital to assume full control of Prometheus Global Media, which owns THR, Billboard and Adweek.
Prometheus has been renamed Guggenheim Digital Media. Todd Boehly, president of Guggenheim Partners, is looking to extend the portfolio beyond the trade mag realm.
Geddes gone
With only one day remaining until the deadline, some prominent New York Times editors are taking voluntary buyouts, but insiders don’t think it will be enough to avoid layoffs.
The deadline to accept a buyout is tomorrow. Executive Editor Jill Abramson said she wanted 30 newsroom managers. If she doesn’t get them, the Times will wield the ax.
So far, those taking buyouts include John Geddes, one of two managing editors, along with culture editor Jonathan Landman and veteran education editor Jacques Steinberg.
Assistant Managing Editor Rick Berke and Susan Chira on the foreign desk — both rumored to be leaving — are staying put.
Meredith layoffs
Associate publishers at Meredith are the new endangered species.
Meredith said last week it was whacking 60 jobs out of 3,400 companywide. More than half were on the magazine side of the company and many of those were APs.
Insiders were angry that the cuts seemed to be concentrated on revenue-generating ad execs and not some of the corporate higher-ups.
Of 10 associate publishers, at least four are gone: Blaire Rzempoluch (Traditional Home), Faith Gingold (Ladies Home Journal), Diane Papazian (Family Circle) and Tony Catalano, an associate publisher on special interest publications.
Two other APs were reassigned. Fitness’s Andrea Rogan and Family Circle’s Brendan Smyth were moved to corporate sales jobs.
A Meredith spokesman confirmed the number but not the names.
The company said earlier this month it was taking a $7 million writedown to cover the downsizing.
AMI downgrade
American Media Inc. took a drubbing just before the Martin Luther King holiday when Standard & Poor’s downgraded its debt deeper into junk territory, cutting it from B- to CCC+.
The news came just as CEO David Pecker was wrapping up a two-day board meeting where he revealed a licensing deal with Gannett to begin producing a USA Today’s Best of series.
AMI will split profits with the Gannett flagship, where former AMI board member Larry Kramer is now the publisher. Gannett is putting up no money.
Pecker told Media Ink he will begin distributing 400,000 copies a month with a theme. The first will be on health.
But the news did not come in time to avoid the downgrade by the ratings firm, which said that “continued declines in circulation and advertising revenues will outweigh the company’s cost reductions, resulting in deteriorating operating performance, rising debt levels and thinning discretionary cash flow.”
Candace Trunzo, who was fired as editor-in-chief of AMI-owned Star after five years in April 2011, will edit the new USA Today’s Best of series. She has been working on a contract basis on one-off mags for AMI.
Pecker shrugged off the downgrade, saying he still expects to post cash flow of between $100 million and $110 million this year. AMI will report quarterly results on March 31, when its fiscal year ends. The company posted cash flow of just under $107 million a year earlier.
“Our bonds are concentrated with a couple of big bond traders and [the downgrade] may drive the price lower, but it will have no impact on the company,” Pecker said.