THE Time Inc. empire struck back yesterday.
After rival Condé Nast snagged four executives for Lucky magazine, Time Inc. staged a counter-raid. Tim O’Connor was lured from his job as associate publisher at Vogue to be associate publisher at InStyle.
O’Connor replaces Karin Tracy, who was made publisher of Time Inc.’s People StyleWatch.
Of course, the StyleWatch job only opened up because Michelle Myers jumped back to Condé Nast last week to be the new publisher of Lucky. She then convinced three more execs from StyleWatch to follow her, including ad director Julie Arkin, who is now the new associate publisher of Lucky.
No sooner did Arkin land at Lucky than Stephanie Sladkus swapped her associate publisher job there for the associate publisher position at StyleWatch.
Condé sleuths
Condé Nast’s new anti-fraud hotline has reportedly snared a number of people.
According to inside buzz, one Wired staffer was let go after taking stuff from the magazine’s pop-up store, which was set up in the Meatpacking District in December.
Meanwhile, an ad-side employee has been under investigation for several weeks for allegedly taking (and having subordinates take) cash advances for “tips” at fashion shows or on road trips.
The company is looking into whether the advances were instead going straight into the longtime executive’s wallet.
Word has it that the employee pocketed an extra $10,000 a year. But so far, we hear, the top brass thinks there is nothing to this one.
When we called the employee earlier this week, the response was: “I don’t know anything about that.”
Media Ink is not naming names, since the individual is innocent until proven guilty.
Enquirer cred
The Pulitzer Prize board is said to be considering the National Enquirer’s submissions for the top award in newspaper journalism, for breaking news of the John Edwards love-child scandal, according to reports.
The Pulitzer board at first blocked the submissions because the Enquirer billed itself as a national entertainment magazine — not a newspaper.
According to the reports, the board conceded that the tabloid is qualified to compete with mainstream news outlets in two categories: Investigative reporting and national news reporting.
Barry Levine, executive editor of the Enquirer said, “It’s amazing. The competition is going to be great, but they are officially reviewing our submissions.”
He said he expected the Enquirer’s practice of “checkbook journalism” to be an issue, since most mainstream papers don’t pay for news.
“It’s not just writing checks for sources,” he said. “Nobody gets anything until the story is published. It still has to check out, and we go through pretty intense vetting, including having the sources take lie-detector tests. In the end, this came down to old-fashioned shoe-leather reporting.”
Although the Enquirer first broke the story of Edwards’ affair with Rielle Hunter in late 2007, Levine said it published three significant stories connected to the scandal in 2009: the federal probe into the possible illegal use of campaign funds, the DNA test that proved Edwards was the father and Hunter’s request for financial support for the now two-year-old baby.
Nails online
Bankrupt ex-ballplayer Lenny Dykstra is trying to make a comeback in the financial advice business
Dykstra has been running ads on CNBC for a Web site he calls “Nails Investments.”
He says in the spot: “Each week we provide our subscribers with key option plays designed to make $1,000 or more.” Dykstra claims to be 140-0 in investing advice.
For $89 a month (the single) or $899 a year, (the home run) subscribers can get access to Dykstra’s “forecasts.” He’s also throwing in an autographed baseball.
A CNBC spokesman said, “It was not sold by CNBC ad sales, it was a local buy through the cable company.”
All cellphone numbers we had for Dykstra have been disconnected. An e-mail to the Web address listed in the ad wasn’t answered.
Variety stays
Reed Elsevier is still trying to sell off dozens of its American titles but is reportedly planning to hang onto Variety.
The company late last year sold Broadcasting & Cable, Multichannel News and This Week in Consumer Electronics to New Bay Media. The company has said it plans to sell off more assets, assisted by the Jordan Edmiston Group.
It tried to sell off the entire Reed Business Information magazine portfolio in the US market in 2008 through an auction, but failed.
Nielsen recently sold Variety’s archrival, Hollywood Reporter, to a new company, e5 Global Media.