Earl “The Pearl” Monroe, a star of the last New York Knicks team to win an NBA championship, has inked a deal with Rodale to write his autobiography.
“Earl the Pearl: My Story” is set to hit next April to coincide with the 40th anniversary of the Knicks’ last title. Monroe is one of the only members of that team to not cash in with a book.
Rodale won the rights to the autobiography at auction. Terms of the deal were not disclosed, but it is believed the shared advance is in the $200,000 to $400,000 range.
The book is being written with Quincy Troupe, the collaborator with jazz musician Miles Davis on “Miles: The Autobiography,” as well as co-author of the best-selling “Pursuit of Happyness,” a memoir about the rags-to-riches life of stockbroker Chris Gardner.
“I expect to start writing in November,” said Troupe. “Earl Monroe was one of the first artists of the basketball court. He invented the spin move and the crossover, which are a part of the game today.”
Monroe, 68, had humble beginnings. Born in a tough South Philadelphia neighborhood, his dazzling ball handling eventually had him named one of the 50 all-time great NBA players.
“It will chronicle everything from my immaculate birth to the 1973 championship,” Monroe quipped to Media Ink.
He had been a bitter rival of the Knicks when he played alongside Wes Unseld with the Baltimore Bullets, his first NBA team where he earned rookie of the year honors in 1967. By the 1971-72 season, he had a falling out with management and was demanding a trade.
He ended up getting traded to the Knicks team — including Willis Reed, Dave DeBusschere, Bill Bradley, Dick Barnett and Phil Jackson
— that was already anchored by a flashy guard, Walt “Clyde” Frazier.
Monroe said he still keeps in contact with most of his Knicks teammates and regularly pops into Frazier’s Manhattan restaurant, Clyde Frazier’s Wine and Dine.
Stop press
Dow Jones’ SmartMoney is shutting down its print edition and laying off most of its staff as it tries to make a go of its digital-only version.
Like many of the books in the financial category, SmartMoney never regained its footing after the financial crisis in 2008 — in fact, it was still reeling from the burst of the dot-com bubble in 2001.
The magazine was started 20 years ago as a joint venture between Hearst Corp. and Dow Jones, publisher of the Wall Street Journal. Dow Jones is now part of News Corp., which owns The Post.
The magazine launched into the teeth of the early ’90s ad recession with Steve Swartz as editor-in-chief and David Carey as publisher. Swartz is now the No. 2 executive at Hearst, while Carey is president of Hearst Magazines.
SmartMoney seemed to enjoy an editorial buzz that rival Worth never achieved. But SmartMoney’s ad pages, which had soared to 1,289 by 2000, are just a fraction of what they were. Through July of this year, the mag sold 186.9 ad pages.
Wall Street Journal Editor-In-Chief Robert Thomson, in breaking the news to staffers that the magazine was closing, said it “was losing a lot of money” despite picking up a bushel of journalism awards. One source estimated the losses at $5 million a year.
Some of the staffers will be retained by the digital side. But Editor-In-Chief Jonathan Dahl and 24 other staffers will stay in the office through July 23 to produce one more issue.
“It’s always a surprise or a shock when it actually happens, but what are you going to do?” said Dahl, who has been in the post for the past six years and has worked a total of 28 years at Dow Jones. “My hope is to find openings for as many people as possible.”
Getting active
Spanfeller Media Group is scrapping the eKaida name that it had cooked up for its active sports enthusiast website and changing it to The Active Times.
The website, edited by John Rasmus, covers running, hiking, kayaking, surfing, skiing and five other sports.
It is the second vertical to be launched by Spanfeller. The Daily Meal now has about 3 million unique visitors and is pulling in $100,000 a month in ad revenue.
“We were faster to 3 million than Huffington Post, Gawker, Business Insider, Bleacher Report or Yelp,” said CEO Jim Spanfeller of the foodie site.
Curried
File this under “making lemon out of lemonade.” Ann Curry, who is being booted as NBC’s “Today” show co-host, had a sit-down months ago with Lee Woodruff for a cover story in Ladies’ Home Journal.
The issue hits newsstands July 10, but due to the long lead time there is nothing the editors can do to alter the story at this point.
However, LHJ is distributing some quotes that indicate that Curry realized months ago that she was on the hot seat. “It’s hard not to take it personally,” she said. “You worry: am I not good enough? Am I not what people need? Am I asking the right questions?”