Time Inc. tapped Paul Fichtenbaum to be the new editor of the publishing giant’s sports group, replacing Terry McDonell, who has been running Sports Illustrated since early 2002.
The legendary McDonell, 68, will now move upstairs as a senior adviser to the parent company, working on “digital initiatives.”
Chris Stone, a 42-year-old assistant managing editor, was elevated to the No. 2 job of managing editor, running the weekly magazine that is still the heart of the sports franchise.
While Stone was seen as the front-runner, insiders said he won a bake-off against three other assistant managing editors (Mark Mravic, Hank Hersch and Chris Hunt), Senior Editor Stephen Cannella, who runs the baseball vertical, and even senior writer Jon Wertheim. Each worked on producing at least one issue over the summer.
The changes were announced late yesterday in an internal memo from Time Inc. Editor-in-Chief John Huey.
The McDonell-to-Fichtenbaum handoff has been in the works at least since July, when Fichtenbaum, 52, was named editorial director of the sports group, a notch below McDonell’s group editor title.
By m-dAugust, McDonell moved his office to the 34th floor at the Time & Life Building, where Huey and other corporate executives are based.
Meanwhile, Fichtenbaum moved his office, where he had been running SI.com for the past eight years, down one floor to the 31st.
Stone currently has a standard-issue AME-sized office, but as one insider noted yesterday, “You can anticipate his real estate will be getting bigger.”
Fichtenbaum worked over the summer to realign SI into about a dozen sports verticals, such as NFL, MLB and college football, designed to break down the lingering barriers between print and digital.
“People understand that we’re not just a once-a-week publication. We’re a 24/7 phenomenon,” said Fichtenbaum, who oversees about 200 editorial staffers across Sports Illustrated, SI for Kids and Golf magazine and its related websites and tablet editions.
“We understand that in the future, people will be using their smartphones and handheld devices in even greater numbers,” he added. “It’s an evolving process.”
The company also launched an hour-long monthly sports show on NBC this fall.
Fichtenbaum added that the 3 million circulation print weekly is still “nicely profitable.”
“The emphasis on digital will force people to be smarter and more ambitious on the weekly,” said Stone.
As part of the evolution, the company recruited Matthew Bean from Rodale earlier this year to take over Fichtenbaum’s former job running SI.com. In addition, Chris Hercik, who was the creative director of the weekly magazine, was made creative director for the entire SI brand.
McDonell, who was inducted in the Magazine Editors’ Hall of Fame this spring, has emerged as a pioneer of media offerings on tablets and other mobile devices.
Early efforts were hampered due to Time Inc.’s squabble with Apple over subscription data and Steve Jobs’ desire to have Time magazine — not Sports Illustrated — on the first iPad devices unveiled two years ago.
SI estimates that its print mags and digital products combined reach a total audience of 32 million a month.
Going home
Sally Singer, who was recently bounced as editor-in-chief of T, the New York Times fashion magazine, is going home.
As first reported by Women’s Wear Daily, she is going back to Condé Nast as creative director of Vogue digital, a new post. She will be reporting directly to her former boss, Vogue editor in chief Anna Wintour.
Singer, who left Condé Nast as Vogue’s fashion news and features director in 2010 to join T, was reportedly forced out at the Times because she didn’t see eye to eye with NYT Executive Editor Jill Abramson.
Deborah Needleman, who lost out to Singer for the T job two years ago, was lured from WSJ Magazine to take the T job this time.
On Wednesday, the Wall Street Journal, which, like The Post, is owned by News Corp., raided Harper’s Bazaar Executive Editor Kristina O’Neill to fill the vacant editor’s job at WSJ Magazine.
The musical chairs also continued on the business side. WSJ two weeks ago lured Nina Lawrence, who had spent 15 years at W magazine, as vice president of global marketing, advertising sales.
Also yesterday, Condé Nast said Lucy Kriz, who was working as a senior executive director in the Condé Nast Media Group, was promoted to publisher of W.