FRED Drasner, one-time business partner of Daily News owner Mort Zuckerman and now an auto entrepreneur, is said to be in the hunt to buy Newsweek.
“Fred Drasner has had discussions with the Washington Post Company about buying Newsweek,” said one source close to Drasner.
If Drasner stays in the hunt, it would raise to five the confirmed number of bidders in the second round. The others include TV Guide owner Open Gate Capital Partners; Newsmax, the right-leaning Web site that also publishes a monthly magazine of the same name; Thane Ritchie, a former pro football player who runs the hedge fund Ritchie Capital Management; and Sidney Harman, the 91-year-old businessman who is 14 years older than the weekly magazine he’s bidding for.
Drasner vanished from the New York media scene around five years ago after his frequently strained and stormy partnership with Zuckerman dissolved.
He had been the chief negotiator for Zuckerman first as a real estate partner and then as his partner in a media empire that at one time included the Daily News, Atlantic Monthly, Fast Company and US News & World Report.
He’s now involved as a principal backer of the Troy, Mich.-based Vehicle Production Company, which builds handicapped accessible taxi cabs.
Sources say he is expected back in New York City this week.
If Drasner succeeds in his bid to buy Newsweek, it would put him in competition with Zuckerman, whose media holdings have shrunken to include only the now-monthly US News & World Report and the Daily News.
W job cuts
Six people were given the ax at W yesterday, sources said, topped by longtime Deputy Editor Julie Belcove. She did not return a call seeking comment.
A spokeswoman for W confirmed that six people had left, but declined to identify them.
Sources said the bloodbath included: Senior Fashion Features Editor Dana Wood, Photo Editor Nadia Vellam, Editorial Manager Brian Sullivan, Assistant Photo Editor Lauren Kill and one other staffer.
Stefano Tonchi, who was announced as Patrick McCarthy‘s replacement in April, is beginning to put his stamp on the magazine. He had earlier raided Jody Quon from New York magazine to be his new creative director.
But so far, the departees at W look to be a little more abundant than the new Tonchi hires. Quon replaced Dennis Freedman, who had hoped to land the top job that went to Tonchi. W also lost stylist Camilla Nickerson and design director Ed Leida.
Out of Vogue
Sally Singer, a top editorial force at Vogue, said she was leaving as fashion news/features director at the mag to become the new editor in chief of the New York Times insert magazine, T.
That was the job that Tonchi had before he was recruited to W. Singer’s name had been mentioned prominently as a W editor contender — the job that eventually went to Tonchi.
In the past, if Anna Wintour lost a top deputy to a rival fashion title, she had a tendency to turn positively frosty, as when Kate Betts left to take over Harper’s Bazaar. Singer said she didn’t expect that to happen this time.
“It was life-changing to work for Anna — in a very positive way,” said Singer. There would be no “Devil Wears Prada” stories coming from her, she insisted. And she doesn’t see T and Vogue as head-to-head competitors.
Moore book
We now know who the winning bidder is for the Demi Moore memoir. HarperCollins Publisher Jonathan Burnham announced yesterday he had acquired the book.
Moore had toured publishing houses with agent Luke Janklow in May the week before Book Expo America, and many had expected the publisher to make the announcement of a deal at BEA. But for whatever reason, that did not happen.
HarperCollins, which like The Post is owned by News Corp., declined to reveal the size of the advance, but several reliable industry sources said it was believed to be in the $2 million range.
The book is currently untitled. It is expected to chronicle her life and acting career, from her marriage and divorce from Bruce Willis to her “complicated” rela tionship with her own mother, Virginia King. The book is tentatively slated to appear in 2012.
Echo hosts
The Irish Echo is hosting a two-day conference in New York aimed at strengthening the cultural and economic bonds between Belfast and New York. Declan Kelly, the special US economic envoy to Northern Ireland, is slated to address the conference at the Ritz Carlton Battery Park.