Business

A nast-y week for newhouse scribes

Conde Nast is within striking distance of experiencing the biggest bloodbath in recent publishing history, adding at least eight more staffers to the tally yesterday.

Media Ink estimates that Chairman S.I. Newhouse Jr. has laid off 409 people this year following the recommendations of the McKinsey report. It has folded six magazines and the remaining titles are downsizing, scrambling to chop expenses by 25 percent for 2010.

Time Inc., which announced in the fourth quarter of 2008 that it would lay off 600, currently holds the dubious title.

While Bon Appétit was spared in the in-house food fight that claimed sister title Gourmet, Barbara Fairchild‘s staff is not immune to the chopping block. Yesterday, the Bon Appétit editor-in-chief cut six editorial people from the Los Angeles office.

Details, which in the early days of the carnage lost its publisher Steve DeLuca, yesterday saw two more business staffers whacked by Senior Vice President and Publishing Director Bill Wackerman.

While Self’s business side bumped off two people last Friday, the magazine’s editor-in-chief, Lucy Danziger, said she has been spared so far from having to lay off editorial staffers. That is partly thanks to attrition — Caroline Schaefer‘s job as features director, for instance, was not filled when she became executive editor of Us Weekly. Danziger said she also reduced the hours of four editorial people.

Self, with an ad-sales decline of “only” 22 percent through the November issue, was one of the better-performing titles in the company.

“We’re primed for growth,” Danziger said yesterday.

Media Ink estimates that Condé Nast will post a net loss of $200 million for the year, spurred by an ad-revenue fall-off of more than $400 million compared to a year ago.

The constant drip, drip, drip of firings, now well into its third week, is sending company morale through the floor.

“People don’t want to come to work and think, ‘Is this my last day?’ ” said one insider. “A lot of people have taken personal stuff home already just fearing for the worst.”

The Condé carnage is expected to continue today. Magazines that have not yet felt the whip of Newhouse and CEO Charles Townsend in clude GQ (down 30.37 percent in ad pages through November), Ar chitectural Digest (down a whopping 49.1 percent), Allure (down 31.67 percent) and Condé Nast Trav eler (down 43.8 per cent).

The New Yorker, which is bleeding red ink, is going to be spared the cuts, at least on David Remnick‘s editorial side. Three lower-level people under publisher Lisa Hughes, however, were fired last week.

Part of Us

Jann Wenner has taken away the “acting” from Michael Steele‘s title, and officially crowned him the new editor-in-chief of Us Weekly and official successor to Janice Min.

Steele is not thought to have won anything close to Min’s salary, estimated to be in the $1.5 million to $2 million range.

In fact, one reason for Min’s sudden departure in August, when her most recent two-year contract expired, was the expectation that Wenner would try to negotiate a lower figure — even though Us Weekly’s ad sales are down only 8.9 percent through the November issue.

The Steele news is expected to be made official today.

It comes even though the current issue — with “Dancing with the Stars” judge Mary Murphy on the cover — did dismally on newsstands, coming in to ward the bottom of the ce lebrity weekly pack with sales of only around 600,000.

Surprisingly, Jann has been unwavering in his support of Steele.

Observers say there is usually a six- month “honeymoon” period and Steele is very definitely enjoy ing that now.

In fact, one source said that several people e-mailed Wenner in recent weeks, saying they were interested in the top job, but he immediately replied, “Thanks, but Mike is my guy.” Regardless of whether the e-mail came from inside or outside, Wenner would always “cc” Steele — which should make for some interesting moments when aspiring staffers realize that he is now their permanent boss.

People power

One reason for the celebrity slump this past week, aside from the usual year-end decline, is the monster newsstand sales that People generated with the first current photos of Jaycee Dugard, the woman who was kidnapped and held as a sex slave for 18 years.

Sources say that People had sales of 1.9 million.

“When People sells close to 2 million, everyone else is going to do poorly,” said one industry source. “That’s a monster sale — that’s Michael Jackson territory.”

OK!, which seemed to use a fake quote from “Twilight” stars Robert Pattinson and Kristen Stewart, didn’t reap much gain for its gimmick. Its cover said, “We’re already like a married couple,” but the story inside was a write- around with no interview with either of them.

One of the first issues with Managing Editor Mark Pasetsky as the new day-to-day man, OK! sold 454,000 copies on newsstands.

In Touch was in second place for the week, with newsstand sales estimated at 675,000 for its Tom Cruise/Katie Holmes cover: “At War with Tom.”

keith.kelly@nypost.com