Condé Nast has expelled the upper echelon at Self, replacing Editor-in-Chief Lucy Danziger with Cosmopolitan Executive Editor Joyce Chang.
Publisher Laura McEwen is also out — but no replacement was named.
Danziger’s departure marks the third top editor change since Vogue editrix Anna Wintour was elevated to the role of Condé Nast artistic director a year ago.
Insiders said Danziger, a competitive tri-athlete who seemed to embody the Self lifestyle, had not taken well to the guidance she was getting from Wintour as she began to scrutinize Danziger’s Self redesign that had not caught fire.
In March 2013, Danziger and Creative Director Cynthia Searight unveiled a redesign with Gwyneth Paltrow on the cover, hoping to capture younger readers.
But Wintour felt the need to push it further from its roots as a fitness book. It didn’t help when Danizger ended up with a public-relations black eye when the magazine mocked a woman running in a race wearing a tutu.
It turned out that the woman in the tutu was also a cancer survivor. When that news surfaced, Danziger quickly issued a heartfelt apology — but it still generated a lot of negative publicity in the blogosphere.
Insiders said the flap probably was not a deciding issue, but it did not help an editor already on thin ice.
The bigger factor in Danziger’s ouster was that while Self was trying to recalibrate itself with limited success, its two main rivals — Women’s Health and Shape — were thriving.
“It did not surprise me the way sales had been going,” Steve Cohn, editor of Media Industry Newsletter, said, referring to Thursday’s shake-up.
Single-copy print sales dropped 10 percent to 143,253 in the second half of 2013, while overall circulation was flat at 1,495,832 — helped by 90,000 free copies distributed each month.
Self’s 2014 ad pages, through April, tanked 18.5 percent, to 204.2, according to MIN, while Women’s Health was up 6.6 percent and Shape was up 11.9 percent.
In 2013, Self’s ad pages dropped 5.5 percent, to 855.9, according to MIN. Women’s Health last year soared 28 percent, while Shape rebounded from a dismal 2012 with an 11 percent jump in ad pages.
Despite Shape’s rise over the past year, it is also without an editor- in-chief after incumbent Tara Kraft announced a month ago that she was quitting to get married and move to London with her husband.
Executive Editor Elizabeth Goodman Artis is the acting top editor, working with the company’s Consulting Editorial Director David Zinczenko. No replacement is expected to be named for the top spot at the company, which is pinching pennies.
Danziger, who held the top spot for 13 years, seemed philosophical on her way out the door.
“I am looking forward to my next adventure,” she said. “I said to my team, change is good, everything will be fine. I wish Self and the new leadership all the best.”
But most observers see the move as the start of a major purge and another editorial overhaul.