Laura Lang, Time Inc.’s relatively new CEO, made her own news yesterday with the exit of two prominent execs and the formation of a new office of the chief executive.
She also hired consulting firm Bain & Co., which spun off private-equity firm Bain Capital, once headed by Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney.
“When I hear the word consultant, I think one thing — fire,” said a worried insider.
But another insider said that there were no rumors of imminent layoffs and that the consultants will be tasked with figuring out how to use digital tech to transform the print giant.
Time Inc., whose titles include People, Time, Sports Illustrated, Fortune and InStyle, has been seen as something of a financial drag on parent Time Warner.
Lang was the chief of digital ad firm Digitas with no experience in journalism when she was named to replace short-timer CEO Jack Griffin in November. She has only been on the job two months.
The two execs getting the heave-ho are Steve Sachs, executive vice president of consumer marketing, and Stephanie George, a former InStyle leader who rose to the executive suite when Ann Moore was CEO but who was widely perceived to be on the way out when Griffin arrived.
When Griffin was ousted a year ago, he was replaced by the interim troika of Editor-in-Chief John Huey (who recently agreed to stay in the job beyond year-end), Chief Financial Officer Howard Averill and Chief Legal Counsel Maurice Edelson.
The three will be recast in the office of the chief executive, which will also includes Paul Caine, chief revenue officer.
Sachs was the executive responsible for getting people to subscribe to the company’s magazines, but that was expected to be a big area of change under Lang, and his departure was not seen as a surprise.
“He was seen as very old school, not innovative,” said one source.
George is going to stay on board until June.
Dykstra bio
Financial journalist Chris Frankie, a former editor for Lenny Dykstra, has landed a book deal with Running Press, a unit of Perseus books, to write about the troubled career of the one-time star of the World Champion New York Mets and Philadelphia Phillies.
Dykstra, who went by the nickname “Nails” because of his hard-charging style, was sentenced to three years in federal prison for a scam in which he leased luxury automobiles from dealers using false information and bogus credit through phony businesses.
He also faces pending charges for bankruptcy fraud and indecent exposure.
The book’s working title is, “Nailed: The Improbable Rise and Spectacular Fall of Lenny Dykstra.” It is due out in spring of next year.
Dykstra, 49, pleaded no contest in October to three counts of grand theft auto and one count of filing a false financial statement but had sought to withdraw the plea.
Frankie, who worked on a stock-picking newsletter “Nailed by the Numbers” and later Dykstra’s ill-fated Players Club magazine, said, “I think Dykstra’s fall is very sad on many levels. He was a real success story since his retirement — not just a baseball success story.”
He added: It’s not all a negative book. I try to get the full arc.”
elektro
Harris Publications, the publisher of hip-hop magazine XXL, thinks the time is ripe for a new magazine aimed at digital music fans.
On Tuesday, it plans to launch a new digital-music magazine, elektro, as a quarterly with a circulation of 125,000.
Executive Publisher Zev Norotsky calls electronic dance music “the fastest-growing and arguably the most influential genre in music today.”
Kelly Gang
The Kelly Gang’s eighth annual St. Patrick’s Day Benefit is set for Wednesday, March 14, from 6:30 to 9:30 p.m. at Michael’s Restaurant.
NYPD Commissioner Ray Kelly is expected to attend the fundraiser, which will this year benefit City Harvest and the Evan B. Donaldson Adoption Institute.
“You don’t have to be a Kelly or even Irish to support these worthy causes,” said Ed Kelly, CEO of American Express Publishing and the current Kelly Gang Inc. president.
(Full disclosure: Media Ink’s Keith Kelly is one of the fundraiser’s founders.)
Tickets are available for $125 in advance and $150 at the door. Visit the http://www.cvent.com/d/dcqlwh or contact Olympia.Portale@aexp.com or 646-822-0133. Donations are tax-deductible.