The NFL has been sacked for a loss again in its second attempt at publishing a magazine.
It was a case of four and out — as in four issues published before the old folderoo.
Eyebrows were raised late last year when NFL Enterprises picked tiny Dauphin Media Group, which already had a spotty record of publishing magazines out of its base in Vancouver, Canada.
At the time, the only two magazines listed on Dauphin’s website, Canadian Architecture & Design and Holmes Magazine, in conjunction HGTV fix-it host Mike Holmes, had both ceased publication.
When the NFL deal was announced last November, Kevin LaForce, NFL vice president of media strategy and business development, said of its selection of Dauphin, “We did our diligence and we feel comfortable they can execute.”
But reports of missed issues began circulating almost as soon as the first issue was slated to come out at the start of the year.
Mike Dunphy, CEO of Dauphin Media, reached out to us on Wednesday to insist that the mag was doing fine and had published four issues since its January debut.
Yesterday, a notice on the NFL website told a different story.
“Thank you for your interest in NFL Magazine. We regret to inform you that at this time NFL Magazine is not accepting any new or renewal orders for this product and will not be publishing additional issues after the Special 2012 Draft Issue, dated April 2012.
“If you are a current subscriber with a fully-paid account and have a balance of unserved issues after the Special 2012 Draft Issue, you will be refunded for all unserved issues.”
The magazine was said to be aiming for a circulation of 400,000 with an annual subscription price of $19.99.
A call to the toll-free number yielded an operator who said she had no further information on the magazine.
Meanwhile, Dauphin’s New York office has apparently been shut down. Calls to the Toronto office connected to an answering machine that was not accepting any more incoming messages.
Dunphy, after contacting us earlier in the week to assure us that all was well at the NFL Magazine, did not return a call to his cell phone yesterday seeking comment.
The NFL last tried to publish a magazine about a decade ago, but suspended publication after three years.
Inside Condé
Bill Wackermann, a publishing director at Condé Nast who has been described as one of the last uber-publishers at the glitzy shop, has a new self-help book ready to hit the market.
“Flip the Script: How to Turn the Tables and Win in Business and Life,” will arrive May 8 from the Free Press imprint of Simon & Schuster.
Although Wackermann doesn’t identify his colleagues and associates by name, insiders are already trying to get their hands the pre-publication galleys to see who they can identify from the anecdotes that pepper the tome.
Wackermann has been at the company for 18 years and today is head of Glamour, the second most profitable magazine at Condé Nast, and previously ran the business side at W, Details and Bon Appetit. He has emerged as something of a Mr. Fix-It.
Wackermann insists the self-help tome is not primarily a publishing story. He said it incorporates lessons he learned from his mother while growing up in Port Jefferson,, as well as friends in other industries including accounting.
While Si Newhouse, the octogenarian owner and chairman of Condé Nast, put the kibosh on a how-to management book that the late Steve Florio was working on near the end of his Condé career, Wackermann said the brass did not object to this one.
“This is a personal project, much like opening a restaurant,” he said, a reference to Vanity Fair Editor-In-Chief Graydon Carter, who owns the Waverly Inn and is a partner in the Monkey Bar. “They are aware of it, but it is not about Condé Nast,” he said.
Huff out
There’s yet another exit at Mort Zuckerman’s ailing Daily News. Richard Huff, long-time TV reporter and “Inner Tube” columnist, is leaving to become executive director of communications at CBS News.
“This is a great opportunity,” he said yesterday. “I loved this place and would not leave unless it was the right fit.”
Still, it is the latest in a string of departures that have rattled the newsroom and is almost as unsettling as the ongoing feud between Zuckerman and Cablevision Chief Jim Dolan.
Earlier this week, Dolan accused Zuckerman of orchestrating negative press as part of an “extortion” plot to force a merger between his tabloid and Dolan’s Newsday. Asked by Media Ink about the accusations, Zuckerman acknowledged he had talked about combining some operations to “save money.” He would not confirm estimates that the News is losing $20 million to $30 million a year, but conceded it was in the red.