One tabloid news outlet has taken to bashing People Managing Editor Larry Hackett, insisting that he will be gone when his contract is up at year end.
One problem with the scenario being painted is that it is out of sync with reality.
Hackett’s already the second-longest serving editor in People’s history with eight years under his belt — and his current contract runs until June 2014 — not year end.
He was also the hand-picked successor of his current boss, Martha Nelson, now editor-in-chief of all the Time Inc. titles.
People averaged newsstand sales of 828,590 for the six months ended June 30, down 11.8 percent from a year earlier. But the newsstand misery is shared across the industry.
People’s biggest competitor, Us Weekly, saw newsstand circulation fall 16.7 percent in the same period, to 477,208. People remains the biggest money-maker inside Time Inc., which is preparing to spin itself off from Time Warner sometime next year.