Avenue Magazine has tapped “740 Park” author Michael Gross to be its new real-estate editor as part of a string of new hires.
“Real estate is the most popular sport in Manhattan. It is central to what Avenue does,” said Tom Allon, owner of Manhattan Media, the magazine’s parent company.
Avenue also plans to announce a new publisher and other editorial changes in the coming weeks, he said.
The hires come after the December departure of Avenue Publisher Julie Dannenberg, Editor-in-Chief Peter Davis and Creative Director Cricket Burns, who all left to form a lifestyle magazine backed by the New York Observer’s Jared Kushner.
“The goal of all of these new hires is to expand the magazine’s 37-year-old coverage,” said Allon, who is also a 2013 mayoral candidate. “We are starting with real estate. Avenue is the dominant player in the real estate community both in coverage and advertising.”
According to Allon, Avenue — the oldest regional luxury magazine in the US with a circulation of just 36,000 — has the wealthiest readership of any magazine in the country.
A recent Monroe Mendelsohn reader survey reported that the median income of an Avenue reader is $1.5 million, while the median net worth of an Avenue reader is $14.7 million.
Gross — who wrote “Unreal Estate” and is currently at work on his third real estate book — will also pen a monthly column for the magazine.
“My interest is in luxury residential, where Avenue’s readership lives, in history and the present, just like my books. It is a very alluring match for me,” Gross said.