Business

HACHETTE JOB FOR ELLE

PARIS-based Lagardére is said to be in talks with Hearst Corp. about taking over the US operations of fashion magazine Elle, a source tells Media Ink.

According to the source, the most likely scenario would be the creation of a joint venture or long-term licensing deal, similar to how Hearst publishes Marie Claire. That magazine is printed in the US through a licensing deal between Hearst and Marie Claire Album, a Paris-based company that’s owned by Lagardére.

A combination would apply only to the US version of Elle, not to the French version or any of the other worldwide editions. Some estimates peg the value of the US version of Elle at $200 million.

If the talks are successful, Elle would fall under the domain of Hearst Magazines CEO Cathleen Black — and likely send shock waves through the close-knit fashionista world.

The talks come as profits at the privately held Hearst Magazine division of Hearst Corp. have fallen to around $225 million last year from $325 million a year earlier, and are expected to fall even more this year.

Elle is believed to be the most profitable magazine in the US for Lagardére’s US publishing subsidiary, Hachette Filipacchi Media, having surpassed Woman’s Day, Hachette’s supermarket staple.

Calls to Hearst Corp. CEO Frank Bennack and to Hachette CEO Alain Lemarchand were not returned by presstime.

Fashion magazines, which last week released their ad tallies for the all-important September issues, are having a very tough year as high-end luxury advertisers and retailers sharply cut back on ad spending amid the recession.

Through the August issue, Elle was down 20 percent to 1,099.5 ad pages, according to Media Industry Newsletter, giving it a brief lead over industry standard Vogue for the first eight months of 2009. However, Vogue, with 427 ad pages in September, passed Elle to regain the lead. Through September, Vogue has about 1,476 pages, compared with Elle’s 1,428, according to preliminary estimates.

Still, the fact that the race is thisclose is a boon to Elle and its editor-in-chief, Robbie Myers, since the magazine has never come close to beating the segment leader, which is led by Anna Wintour.

Hearst, meanwhile, is far behind in the race with its entry, Harper’s Bazaar, which through August was down 27.2 percent in ad pages to 754.5.

McGraw shill

BusinessWeek owner McGraw-Hill Cos. this week is expected to begin making presentations to prospective suitors and is trying to fast-track the talks in order to wrap up the first step of the sale process by the end of August.

Insiders said that McGraw-Hill officials told BusinessWeek employees that there are three scenarios under consideration: an outright sale, a strategic partnership or no sale accompanied by drastic cutbacks to the 190-person editorial staff.

So far, one of the only viable names emerging as a potential suitor is Bruce Wasserstein, the boss of Lazard who, through a family-controlled investment company, owns New York magazine. He also owns The Deal and Penton Media, a business-to-business publisher.

BusinessWeek is projected to lose about $33 million this year, but, according to documents prepared by Evercore, the investment bank retained to explore a sale, the company attributes about $20 million of that red ink to corporate overhead. Without it, the loss is around $13 million. Revenue is in the $150 million-to-$160 million range.

Perhaps as a sign of the challenge McGraw-Hill faces trying to sell the mag, Wall Street analysts showed little interest in the fate of BusinessWeek when the company held a conference call yesterday to discuss second-quarter earnings.

When Goldman Sachs analyst Peter Appert asked if any other magazines in the information and media group would be spun off now that the flagship was being auctioned off, McGraw-Hill CEO Harold “Terry” McGraw III, also known as “Three Sticks,” ducked the question.

Ashes to ashes

Fans of Frank McCourt might recall that the Pulitzer Prize-winner and author of “Angela’s Ashes” had been working on his first-ever novel at the time of his death.

However, it doesn’t look like enough progress was made for it to be published posthumously.

McCourt never rushed his writing and had not even pres ented the novel proposal to his longtime agent, Molly Friedrich. Insiders at Simon & Schuster Inc. said they weren’t aware of anything in the pipe line.

“Angela’s Ashes,” about his hardscrabble days growing up in Ireland, sold one million copies and won the Pulitzer Prize in 1997. Two subsequent memoirs, ” ‘Tis” and “Teacher Man” were also bestsellers. keith.kelly@nypost.com