Celebrity TV chef Sandra Lee is in negotiations to renew the contract with TV Guide to publish her eponymous magazine — but the political aspirations of her boyfriend, Gov. Andrew Cuomo, are making for a more complicated deal, sources tell Media Ink.
The lifestyle magazine is believed to be turning a comfortable six-figure profit, so the belief is that TV Guide de facto CEO Jack Kliger and Lee would like to renew their joint venture.
But with Cuomo widely believed to be weighing a White House run in 2016, a renewal has to be handled delicately.
Some political observers think Cuomo will opt in only if Hillary Clinton decides not to seek the nomination.
One source close to the situation believes a renewal deal will soon get done, but that it will only be for two years — until late 2015.
A November/December 2015 issue would probably wrap up in September — more than three months before the first primaries in early 2016.
The current iteration of Sandra Lee, the magazine, appeared in late October 2012 in a one-year joint venture with TV Guide and its owner, OpenGate Capital.
An earlier version, Sandra Lee Semi-Homemade, from Birmingham-based Hoffman Media, published from 2009 until late 2011.
The six-times-a-year magazine distributes about 225,000 copies of each issue to newsstands and is available via apps.
At the outset, it offered no subscriptions. The magazine just boosted its cover price from $6.99 to $7.99 — which some see as a sign of vitality.
Neither Lee nor Kliger would comment on the negotiations.