DONALD Trump is not hav ing the best of weeks — and it’s only Wednesday.
After being reminded earlier this week that there are some who question his multibillion net worth, comes word that Jason Binn‘s Niche Media has pulled the plug on Trump’s vanity mag.
Niche, which inherited The Donald’s title as part of its acquisition of Ocean Drive Media in 2007, has been closing down a number of Ocean Drive titles since last July.
Trump’s eponymous publication, which was aimed at affluent readers in major US markets, suffered from sagging ad sales during the recent recession. However, it was never a big money maker.
The magazine’s publisher, Lauren Bogage of Niche Media, confirmed the magazine’s death to media blog inVocus media yesterday.
On Monday, author Timothy O’Brien asked a New Jersey judge to throw out Trump’s defamation lawsuit against his book, “Trump Nation: The Art of Being the Donald.”
O’Brien’s book questions Trump’s net worth, pegging it at a fraction of the $4 billion to $6 billion that The Donald himself says he’s worth.
Of course, The Donald acknowledges that even those calculations are subject to interpretation. At one point during a deposition in the case, Trump testified, “My net worth fluctuates, and it goes up and down with the markets and with attitudes and with feelings, even my own feelings.”
Enthused
Hachette Filipacchi is about to take another step to preserve itself.
Sources said that the company is going to sell five of its enthusiast magazines to the Swedish publishing giant Bonnier Corp. The group of mags is said to have revenue of around $35 million.
Sources tell Media Ink the deal is imminent, but Hachette wasn’t confirming as of late last night.
“We confirm that we have received interest for the purchase of our enthusiast titles Boating, Flying, Popular Photography, American Photo and Sound & Vision. “When we have something to announce, we will issue a statement,” the company said.
New look
When Reader’s Digest Editor-in-Chief Peggy Northrop won the first-ever National Magazine Award for General Excellence, she didn’t go to some trendy downtown hot spot to celebrate.
Instead, she hooked up with a few former Rodale chums and partied at the rather middle-brow House of Brews a few blocks away from the awards ceremony at the Time Warner Center.
And now we know why.
Parent company Reader’s Digest Association isn’t in a partying mood.
The company, which already cut 8 percent of its workforce in January, is running out of cash.
At the end of 2008, RDA’s cash balance was only $70.2 million, and it had $206 million remaining on a $300 million credit line. Now, it’s estimated the company has just over $100 million left on that credit line as RDA continues to bleed red ink.
According to an SEC filing late last week, RDA reported a first-quarter net loss of $462 million, compared with year-earlier red ink of $53.6 million, driven in part by a $527.1 million impairment charge. Revenue was $479.1 million, compared with $575.1 million a year ago.
McCourt ill
Pulitzer Prize-winning author Frank McCourt of “Angela’s Ashes” fame is facing a “life or death battle with cancer,” the Web site Irishcentral.com reported yesterday.
The Web site said that McCourt was hospitalized recently in New York for treatment but declined to name the hospital.
McCourt, was born in Brook lyn to Irish immigrant par ents, and became a world wide phenomenon after he won the Pulitzer for “Angela Ashes” in 1998. The book told of how his dirt-poor family moved back to Limerick, Ireland, during the Great Depression.
Frank’s brother Malachy is also a best-selling author.
His publisher at Scribner’s at Simon & Schuster did not comment on the news of McCourt’s condition.
Three of McCourt’s siblings died in childhood. McCourt himself almost died of typhoid when he was a child.