HGTV Magazine, the first new magazine introduced by Hearst Magazines since David Carey took the reins as president in mid-2010, looks like it is a runaway hit right out of the gate.
The publisher is taking the unusual step of printing a second run of another 135,000 copies, Media Ink has learned.
In April, Hearst and Scripps Networks Interactive’s HGTV said they would release two test issues of the magazine in October and January based on the home-improvement channel’s programming.
The same pairing had already given rise to the successful launch of Food Network Magazine.
Hearst introduced HGTV Magazine last month, and so far it has sold 200,000 of the original 350,000 sent to retail outlets.
The publisher has received subscription orders for another 215,000 copies, even though Hearst and its partner Scripps have yet to greenlight the project beyond January.
“We’re very pleased with the initial response and look forward to publishing our second test issue in January,” Carey said. “We’ll have enough data in house by March to determine next steps.”
Carey said the magazine is on par with what the Food Network Magazine sold at its launch.
The company is also pricing it a little higher than its standard $1.99 price on tablets and putting it at $3.99 a month.
News layoffs
The bloodbath that started at the Daily News on Friday has spilled over into this week as a half-dozen additional staffers were shown the door.
The latest word inside is that the paper’s crack investigative team, headed by Greg Smith, will be busted up and put into openings across the paper.
Mort Zuckerman, the owner of the Daily News, is said to be looking to cut $2 million in costs from his money-losing tabloid.
Sources said the layoffs may already be at 17 with the ouster yesterday of features writer Jane Ridley and fashion photo editor Shawn O’Sullivan. That follows the Monday axing of several copy editors and about a dozen from across all sections of the paper on Friday. As one insider said, “The fear is they are not finished.”
While the ax has fallen on the print side, none of the newcomers on the lower-salaried Web staff has been touched as embattled Editor-in-Chief Kevin Convey pushes the mandate of a “platform-agnostic” paper.
The goal is to have copy move seamlessly between print and Web. Instead, the firings have only deepened the divide between the old guard dedicated to covering tabloid staples like politics and crime, and the younger, less experienced Web reporters who are eager to draw online eyeballs with national gossip and health stories.
“What was a rift has turned into a chasm,” said one source.
CEO blues
Time Inc.’s foot-dragging when it comes to finding a new CEO is giving rise to rumors about where the publisher stands in the corporate scheme of things — and when a replacement will be named.
Nine months after Time Warner CEO Jeff Bewkes gave Time Inc. CEO Jack Griffin the old heave-ho, there’s still no word on a replacement to head the nation’s largest publishing company.
During its earnings call last week to discuss an otherwise “terrific” third quarter, Time Warner blamed advertising and circulation woes in part for a 12 percent decline in operating income at the publishing division. Revenue dropped 1.3 percent to $889 million in the quarter.
Insiders at Time Inc. are worried that the vacancy at the top is holding up key long-term decisions, particularly as rivals invest in digital properties. They also worry it will become increasingly difficult to attract high- and mid-level executives, while making it easier for rivals to poach.
“Who is going to want to work for a company if it is not clear who your boss is or who your boss’s boss is going to be?” said one source.
Since February, the company has been run by a triumvirate consisting of Editor-in-Chief John Huey, Chief Financial Officer Howard Averill and the general counsel, Maurice Edelson.
Day to day, nobody is upset about the “interim” rulers of the kingdom, but most expected the time of indecision would have ended by now.
The rumor making the rounds is that one or more executives approached by the company had rebuffed its overtures.
A spokesman for Time Warner disputed that contention and insisted that the job has not been offered to someone who rejected it.
There is also a fresh rumor making the rounds that Time Inc. has someone lined up who is legally restricted from jumping at the moment but could free up in the not-too-distant future.
All along, the Time Warner line had been that it would name a replacement “in the fall.” Bewkes seems to be keeping Time Inc. deliberately in the dark about the process except to say early on that no members of the triumvirate are in the running.
A Time Warner spokesman said of the search process, “It’s moving right along, and we should have a decision soon.”