Only two weeks after engineering the takeover of Nylon and booting the husband and wife team that founded the edgy fashion title, new CEO Joe Mohen said he, too, is stepping down.
Meanwhile, the two top people who served below the founders, Editor-in-Chief Marvin Scott Jarrett and his wife, Publisher Jaclynn Jarrett, have also resigned.
“It was just time for me to go,” said Associate Publisher Karim Abay, who works out of the magazine’s L.A. offices. “I just want to be able to do my job and not deal with all the chaos.”
Executive Editor Ashley Baker also resigned after turning down an offer last week to succeed Jarrett as EIC.
“I am grateful to Nylon’s new ownership and management team for the offer to become Nylon’s next editor-in-chief, but I have declined the position,” she told fashionweekdaily.com.
Baker told Media Ink she plans to stay through June 6 to finish out the August “denim” issue.
The Jarretts founded the magazine in 1999 with backing from Sam Waksal, who would go down in infamy — along with Martha Stewart — in the 2002 ImClone stock scandal.
A majority stake was sold in 2006 to a group headed by Philadelphia businessman Donald Hellinger.
Hellinger was even more problematic than Waksal — pleading guilty to processing $44 million in gambling money in March 2012.
Later that year he was sentenced to a 36-month prison term.
Hellinger’s Twittter account still lists him as the chairman of Inked and Inked Girls magazines.
Michael Cantor, a lawyer who represented the sellers — presumably Hellinger and associates — in the latest deal, said he was “not at liberty to disclose” where Hellinger is today. Cantor did say he represented Hellinger only in business matters.
Asked for the identity of the other investors with Hellinger, Cantor said, “I am not at liberty to disclose that.”
The Jarretts had a 49 percent stake.
The majority ownership group apparently sold their stake without informing the Jarretts.
As Page Six previously reported, the Jarretts retained lawyer Mitchell C. Littman to explore legal options. Littman fired off a letter to the other minority shareholders threatening to sue, but at this point no legal action has been taken.
Mohen had made the buyout with backing from Santa Monica, Calif.-based Diversis Capital and Backbone Capital Advisors.
Mohen says now he was the “acting CEO” and said his departure was not related to the unhappy circumstances tied to the Jarretts’ sudden ouster.
“No, not one bit,” he insisted when asked if the two events were related.
Mohen said he will continue as an adviser to the new firm and that Diversis bought out his stake.
“I got an offer to sell most of my stake and I took it,” he insisted.
Dana Fields, the chief revenue officer and publisher, is now the senior operating person at the company.
“I am leading the editor-in-chief search,” said Fields. “The edit and business side report to me.”
Fields said that the Jarretts were not employees of Nylon at the end, but were under contract.
The new owners opted not to pick up the contract.
Of course, with Baker leaving June 6, it means no editor in charge as the fashion title races toward deadline next month for the all-important September issue.
“An awful lot of the work has been done already,” insisted Fields. “I think there is an edge to Nylon that makes it very attractive to 20-something women — that is what we are going to be selling to the ad community.”