Peter Diamandis (
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Peter Diamandis, one of the titans of magazine publishing in the 1980s and 1990s, died at his home in Rowayton, Conn., on June 17, after a battle with lung cancer.
He was 81.
Diamandis, who proudly boasted of his humble roots as the son of a Greek-born green grocer and an Irish-American mother, was born in Newark, NJ, but rose to the pinnacle of the magazine world as the head of the old CBS Magazine Group.
Diamandis took the CBS unit private in 1987 for $650 million with backing from Prudential Life — forming Diamandis Communications Inc.
While he had a keen business sense and earned his backers a nice profit, Diamandis could also put them on edge.
For example, when he was signing the deal to take over CBS Magazines in the selloff by CBS boss Larry Tisch, he was at Prudential’s headquarters in his hometown of Newark.
“I feel a little like Kunta Kinte today,” he remarked, referring to the African-American slave who was the central character in Alex Haley’s “Roots,” which was a popular TV series a decade earlier.
“My father was a green grocer right down the block,” he said.
The suits laughed nervously at the reference to his humble roots.
Less than a year later, Paris-based Hachette Magazines offered to buy the entire company, which published Woman’s Day, Car & Driver, Road and Track and host of other special-interest magazines, for $712 million, plus assumption of nearly $300 million in debt.
“He was my true mentor,” said Greg Coleman, one of the many executives who got their first leg up the corporate ladder from Diamandis.
Coleman, now president of Criteo, would go on after his stint at Diamandis Communications to become president of Reader’s Digest Magazine Group, executive vice president of global sales at Yahoo! and president of Huffington Post.
At Diamandis Communications, he was put in charge of the launch of the magazine, Memories.
“He was incredibly bold,” said Coleman. “His calling card was how he dealt with people and how he used humor. He used it both offensively and defensively.”
Ellen Levine, now the editorial director of Hearst, noted, “He hired me from Cosmo, way down on the masthead and gave me the job as editor-in-chief of Woman’s Day. He took a big chance.”
“He had an aura about him where people wanted to work for him,” said Coleman.
At Woman’s Day, he turned it into the biggest ad page leader in what was then known as the Seven Sisters, a group of women’s service magazines, and it catapulted him to the top spot running magazines for CBS.
When Tisch began selling off non-core assets, Diamandis put together a group of executives and then found Prudential as its backer.
He was famous for never forgetting the small guys — right down to the mail room clerks.
Many middle managers under Diamandis were awarded stock in the CBS deal.
Instead of a Christmas party the year after the Hachette takeover, he gave every employee who was not directly involved in the deal a $1,000 bonus — a move that cost the company, which had nearly 1,000 employees, close to $1 million.
Diamandis ultimately had a falling out with the French owners when they decided they wanted to sell Woman’s Day — hoping it would fetch more than $200 million.
But the early ’90s recession made it impossible to sell magazines at a premium price. Ad pages began plummeting and the French decided, after all, not to sell it off when they could not get offers much beyond $100 million.
That certainly soured the Diamandis-Hachette relationship.
When his contract to run his eponymously named company expired, the owners decided not to renew.
Their plan was to offer the top job to his No. 2 executive, Robert Spillane.
Instead, Spillane and Art Sukel, the No. 3 executive, walked out with Diamandis in a show of support.
David Pecker, the highest-ranking remaining American executive, decided to stay put and was offered the top job — opening up a breach with his former colleague that was never mended.
During his career, Diamandis worked as publisher of Mademoiselle, New York Magazine and its sister title, New West.
He was named Marketing Man of the Year for successfully launching Self for Condé Nast.
Diamandis was also named to be the head of the Magazine Publishers Association — now known as the Association of Magaine Media — in the late 1980s and early 1990s.
“He had a lot of jobs and he worked for all the lions,” said lifelong friend Howard Berg, who once went into a fragrance business with him called American Essence that was not too successful.
While the two never made any money on the deal — eventually selling the company to Colgate — Diamandis once said they never stiffed any vendors or suppliers as money ran short.
Years later he said his clean record probably helped him when he called on Prudential to get the money in the CBS magazine deal.
“He gave people a chance — and he had a good time at work,” recalled Levine.
Survivors include his wife of 58 years, Joan, one daughter, Holly, five sons — Peter, Christian, Cameron, Alexander and Jason — and 10 grandchildren.
A memorial is planned for July 11 at the United Church of Rowayton, Conn.
In lieu of flowers, the family asked that contributions be made to the Childrens Tumor Foundation (ctf.org).
Wenner’s paper
Jann Wenner, the boss of Wenner Media, had tried a move to the less expensive supercalendered paper several years ago for Us Weekly, several paper industry sources said, but returned to lightweight glossy when he experienced blowback from advertisers and readers.
Wenner executives declined to comment on their paper selection plans now or in the future.
Magazine publishers, aiming to cut costs, have been switching to the less expensive paper stock — with mixed results.
One influential print media buyer, who asked not to be named, criticized the move to cheaper stock by Time Inc. and others.
“In this day and age, I think it is more important for consumers to have a premium-quality experience,” said the ad executive responsible for placing millions of dollars of ads into magazines annually.
“It is really the only experience they have that is not on a screen. The more junked up it gets, the more likely readers will move to digital.”
On 2nd thought
In the June 19 Media Ink detailing how Time Inc. had moved most of its weeklies, including Sports Illustrated, Entertainment Weekly, Time and a large amount of People’s press run, to the less expensive supercalendered paper stock, we said Fortune was also moving to the SC stock.
But that was incorrect.
Fortune will stay on lightweight glossy stock, the company said.