Business

OK! GIVES THUMBS UP TO NEW EDITOR, PUBLISHER

OK! magazine tomorrow is expected to announce a major leadership shakeup with the appointment of a new editor, publisher and executive creative director.

Susan Toepfer, who was most recently editing the now-defunct Hearst weekly Quick & Simple, will become the magazine’s new editor-in-chief.

She replaces Sarah Ivens, who had come from the British version of OK! to launch the US version three years ago, and has since announced she is stepping down to get married at year-end and move to Kentucky.

Meanwhile, Tom Morrissey is out as publisher, even though ad pages were up 34 percent through September to 781 pages.

The new publisher is Lori Burgess, who had most recently been a senior vice president and publications director at Niche Media before she stepped down in March. She also has held publisher jobs at House & Garden, Elle, Mademoiselle and Seventeen.

OK! has also hired Trey Speegle, who had been working freelance at Radar, to be the new executive creative director. He had earlier worked at Us Weekly under Liz Betts.

The changes mark the first major moves by General Manager Kent Brownridge, who was hired in September by Richard Desmond, who runs OK! parent Northern+Shell, to turn around the money-bleeding American edition.

Desmond has spent about $100 million on the US edition so far, and is said to be growing weary of the losses, which totaled just under $35 million last year.

Brownridge said he expects to make a profit next year.

Toepfer is a 30-year publishing veteran who worked at People from 1987 to 2002 and at one point was rumored to be in the running for the top editor’s job at that magazine. When she didn’t get it, she left and served as the editor-in-chief of Rosie, where she famously feuded with Rosie O’Donnell before the magazine crashed and burned in a nasty court fight.

Despite industry rumors, Brownridge insisted he did not try to woo the high-priced Bonnie Fuller to the top editor’s job. Fuller also denied any interest, despite some recent reports that she is consulting for the magazine.

“It had never been Bonnie,” insisted Brownridge. “Susan was my first choice. From the start, I wanted an American weekly editor who lives here and is an aficionado of the culture here.”