The field looks fairly light as the deadline for first-round “letters of interest” comes due today for Newsweek.
The weekly magazine lost $28.3 million last year, but cut red ink down to $2.3 million in the first quarter, according to filings by the Washington Post Company, which owns the mag.
Observers think the potential for strategic buyers — who could pick it up and plug it into existing operations is fairly limited. The most likely bidder is what one observer termed a “philanthropic buyer,” someone akin to the late Paul Newman, who helped underwrite the money-losing weekly The Nation for years.
As one media player who is taking a pass said, “You can’t pay bills by getting losses down.”
Allen & Co is handling the auction.
Two exit H-F
Two more top executives are exiting Hachette Filipacchi as the company readies for the move from Broadway into subleased space in the Time & Life Building this summer.
Anne Janas, who was senior vice president of corporate communications, said she was leaving the company on June 4, and will remain a consultant through the rest of 2010.
Tom Masterson, senior vice president in charge of consumer marketing — the executive in charge of circulation on newsstands and via subscriptions for publications such as Elle and Woman’s Day — is also exiting.
Both executives insisted last week that the departures are amicable, but neither announced a new destination.
And CEO Alain Lemarchand replaced both Janas and Masterson with execs who seem to be lower on the corporate totem pole.
The moves follow the April defection of Chief Brand Officer Carol Smith to publisher of Bon Appétit at Condé Nast.
The company is said to be headhunting to replace both that job and the job of Elle publisher, with Howard Sloan-Koller Group handling the search.
Kate Berg, who had been working for the company on a project-by-project basis, has been tapped to be the new vice president of communications.
Masterson’s position is being eliminated and his duties are being split among a number of lower-ranking vice presidents.
Ins and outs
It was a both a good day and a bad day for former publishers who once toiled for Condé Nast.
Steve DeLuca is joining Departures, owned by American Express Publishing, as its new publisher.
He’ll be charged with trying to reverse a huge ad page tumble for the 1,061,000-circulation magazine that goes to holders of American Express Platinum Cards and the ultra-cool, black Centurion Cards.
He’ll also oversee the quarterly Black Ink that is sent to Centurion card members.
He had been the publisher of Details but was “McKinsey-ed” in the October bloodbath that cost several hundred workers their jobs and the shuttering of Gourmet, Cookie and two bridal magazines.
Meanwhile, Brenda Saget Darling, was replaced as the publisher of More magazine at Meredith by Christine Guilfoyle.
Guilfoyle, also had a connection to Condé Nast as the publisher of Women’s Wear Daily, but was let go when Gina Sanders came to power as the new CEO.
Her biggest claim to fame is being the launch publisher of Everyday with Rachael Ray.
Touby update
The feather boa is back — at least part time.
Laurel Touby,the founder of Mediabistro who made in excess of $20 million when she sold the Web site in 2007 right before the air left the market, is going back to her old company on a part-time basis after globe-trotting for the past six months with her husband, ex-BusinessWeek media columnist Jon Fine.
In an e-mail that went out yesterday to staffers she said, “Hi everyone, I’m back (finally) from my sabbatical, refreshed and psyched to be seeing you more often. I am officially working 2 days a week, mostly in the office, but that may also mean out of the office doing public appearances, meetings outside the office, etc.”
Touby, who sold Mediabistro to Alan Meckler for $23 million, estimates she probably cleared about half of that after paying off her investors and paying taxes.
Touby, who bought a loft apartment for $3.9 million, explained why she’s heading back to Mediabistro. “I need to work, psychologically,” she said. “I love talking to people. I want to be part of the game and the game is media.”
Lane change
Jim Dunning, who is expected to figure prominently in a book excerpt in this month’s Vanity Fair based on Randall Lane‘s new book, “The Zeroes: My Misadventures in the Decade Wall Street Went Insane,” is now the chairman of the post- bankruptcy Freedom Communications, owner of 30 daily papers, including the Orange County Register and eight ABC- affiliated TV stations.
The company is owned by a consortium that in cludes JPMorgan Chase, Angelo Gordon, Alden Capital, Luxor Capital and the Royal Bank of Scotland.
“I’ll help put the board together and help them find a CEO,” said Dunning, who put up equity in the venture.