Business

Time Inc.’s Lang briefs staffers on Meredith talks

Time Inc. CEO Laura Lang finally made the rounds of top editors, publishers and executives at the shell-shocked company this week to rally them amid merger talks with Meredith.

Time Warner is hard at work on a deal to spin off most of its magazine titles into a new company that will be controlled by Des Moines, Iowa-based Meredith.

For many, it was the first real face-time with Lang since she took over the top slot a year ago last January.

“She’s just telling people to keep doing what they are doing and not be distracted,” said one source.

Lang, however, is absent from any of the sale talks, which are being handled by her boss, Time Warner CEO Jeff Bewkes.

“She didn’t give away any state secrets,” said one insider.

Lang has taken flak from insiders for failing to articulate a vision during her 14 months at the helm and for her lack of interaction with many on the editorial side.

Some said she seemed more interested in jetting to red-carpet events such as InStyle’s Golden Globes party in Hollywood or Fortune magazine conferences in Asia than in trying to save the struggling publishing empire.

Others concede that declining print profits that led to the proposed sale of magazines, including People, InStyle and Real Simple, started long before she arrived on the scene.

Meanwhile, the bean counters from Meredith flew back to New York on Wednesday.

Although any deal is still several weeks away, the terms are starting to take shape.

It appears that Time Warner stockholders will get a majority stake in a new publicly traded company — somewhere in the 60 percent range — while Meredith shareholders will get around 40 percent.

Meredith CEO Steve Lacy will be the driver of the new entity, with Time Inc. eventually getting around $1.7 billion for the assets it contributes.

The expectation at Time Inc. is that most of the top execs on their side will be blown out once the deal is completed.

Rumors are flying on what name the new entity will eventually take, with some Time insiders jokingly dubbing it “Teredith.”

Some think it should keep the Time Inc. name, but that might be problematic since Time, the iconic magazine founded by Henry Luce, will remain part of Time Warner, along with Sports Illustrated and Fortune.

One source offered “Better People” as a name for the new company — a combination of Better Homes and Gardens from Meredith and People from Time Inc.

O’Reilly on a roll

Bill O’Reilly, who has two books on the best-seller lists dealing with the murder of presidents, revealed on his own show that his next book, co-written by Martin Dugard, will be called “Killing Jesus.”

“Killing Lincoln” has been on the best-seller list for 72 weeks and has shipped 3.2 million copies, including print, e-book and audio editions.

“Killing Kennedy” counts 2.4 million copies across all formats and has been on best-seller lists for 19 weeks.

The franchise is now so successful that O’Reilly and Dugard are announcing the on-sale date for “Killing Jesus” as Sept. 24 even though O’Reilly conceded that, “It’s not finished yet. It’s right in the middle.”

He declined to discuss his advance, arranged by agent Eric Simonoff at William Morris, but said it was a seven-figure deal.

One tidbit O’Reilly revealed is that the book will play up the Romans’ role in the death of Jesus.

“Jesus was killed for money. That’s why they executed him,” he said.



Penske pit stop

Jay Penske, CEO of Penske Media, has been huddling with Condé Nast in recent weeks.

Penske owns the Bonnie Fuller-edited digital site Hollywood Life, the Nikke Finke-edited Hollywood business site Deadline.com and Variety, which he recently purchased from Reed Elsevier.

“We’re very respectful of a number of things he’s doing in digital,” said Condé Nast CEO Charles Townsend.

He said Condé is definitely not talking about buying Penske out.

“There was zero conversation about us buying him out or him being interested in selling,” said Townsend.

So far, the talks have stayed very general in nature, but he said there have been several “cordial breakfast type meetings.”

“We’d love to be in partnership with him,” said Townsend, “to find a way to establish digital platform-based new revenue streams for us.”

“We’ve elaborated on the things we’re doing and could possibly do together,” he added.

“He’s an entrepreneur, he’s well-financed and he’s more advanced as an entrepreneur than we are in terms of digital and being able to monetize it,” said Townsend of Penske.