CALL it the downside of S.I. Newhouse Jr.‘s cost cutting at Condé Nast.
While Newhouse might have thought he was helping out his publishing empire in the long run when he bounced the ad-sales team of Brides magazine last week and replaced it with Cookie’s sales force, it looks like it might be a while before that wisdom is realized.
According to an insider, longtime Brides advertisers are “jumping ship,” causing the magazine to hemorrhage ad pages and sending panic through the magazine’s new regime.
The chaos, the insider said, is “a direct response to Condé Nast’s move to replace the Brides ad-sales team” with people from Cookie, one of four Condé magazines shuttered last week.
“What Condé Nast fails to realize is that from the publisher down, the relationships developed and maintained in the bridal category were hard fought and won,” this person said.
“The endemic category to the magazine has always been very leery of Condé Nast, and this latest move has made Condé Nast’s arrogance even more glaringly obvious.”
Sources said the new ad team, led by newly named Publisher Carolyn Kremins, is scrambling to learn the clubby bridal industry, which by and large has no ties to the fashion and parenting worlds that Cookie’s ad staff operated in.
The unrest comes as the magazine is rushing to put together a December issue on short notice. Brides has never published a December issue before, but because of Condé’s decision to shut two sister bridal titles and raise the frequency of Brides to 12 issues per year from six, everyone is in a mad dash to finish the edition in time, sources said.
It’s all part of what some observers have described as a humbling experience for the once-mighty Condé, particularly on the advertising side, where it is losing hundreds of millions due to the ad slump.
“They’re openly known as Condé Nasty — the elitist of the magazine world — and for years [they] have sneered at anyone remotely implying they should lower rates,” said Brandey Butler* , director of print media at ZenithOptimedia.
“And that worked for them for a long time, but now they’re having to fish from the pool they once looked down on. . . The company has some pride they need to swallow — yes, coming down on rates — but if they don’t, this could be the beginning of the end,” Butler said.
Kremins insisted, “It is going well. We have an iconic brand and going monthly gives us an opportunity to speak to these women at an important time in their lives.”
Bad karma
It’s certainly not a good thing.
A former ad exec for Martha Stewart‘s Body + Soul magazine has filed a lawsuit against the domestic diva’s company, claiming she was callously and unjustly axed after being struck by a car and breaking her back in May 2008.
Kiki Paris, 53, of Manhattan, said she was forced to take a leave of absence following an accident that left her with several broken vertebrae and a seven-pound metal “halo” ring around her head, according to a suit filed in Manhattan federal court late last week.
Paris’ suit alleges that within a month, her bosses, including Associate Publisher Donna Merritt and Senior Vice President and Publisher Jan Bruce, pressured her to start making work phone calls and send ing e-mails — despite knowing how seriously she had been hurt.
Fearing she would lose her job, Paris said she agreed to work from home, but was fired three weeks later, in August 2008.
The suit, which seeks unspecified damages, alleges Merritt and Bruce’s actions were a blatant violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act.
Merritt, when reached in the Boston office of Body + Soul, declined to comment.
The suit does not name her or the magazine founder Jan Bruce as defendants, but does name Martha Stewart and her company, Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia.
“A car broke Kiki Paris’ neck, but Martha Stewart broke her spirit,” Paris’ lawyer, Gary Phelan, told The Post’s Lukas Alpert.
Meanwhile, Women’s Wear Daily this week reported that Bruce had had it with the company. She will stay through mid-November to help with the transition. Group Publisher Sally Preston will assume her duties.
A company spokeswoman said the two events were unrelated.
Bruce, who had sold her magazine to MSLO five years ago, said in an e-mail message yesterday: “I resigned my post at MSLO. The business is successfully integrated and growing, and I look forward to a new adventure.”