Business

Forbes staff shuffle

It’s musical chairs time once again at beleaguered Forbes magazine.

A little more than a year after moving from the company’s flagship building at 60 Fifth Ave. to 90 Fifth Ave, the magazine’s staff will move back, Forbes Media COO Timothy Forbes is expected to announce today.

Just days ago, Forbes Media sold 60 Fifth to New York University for $65 million. But as part of the deal Forbes is allowed to remain in the building for five years.

The return represents a humbling change of course for Forbes, its chairman Steve Forbes and Elevation Partners, the private equity firm including U2 frontman Bono, which bought a minority stake in the company for a reported $250 million to $300 million in 2006.

Steve put the building on the block the next year, in anticipation of building a new headquarters for Forbes Media. At the time, he said the company had “outgrown our space.”

Since then, however, a weak advertising market has taken its toll on Forbes, and the magazine has not only axed one-third of its staff but also cut its frequency from 26 issues a year to 22.

When the magazine’s editorial staff joined the then-thriving Forbes.com at 90 Fifth in 2008, it was seen as a victory for the separately run dot-com business.

Forbes Media President Jim Berrien had left, seemingly out-maneuvered by his rival, Forbes.com President Jim Spanfeller. But Spanfeller departed as the dot-com faltered and it stopped offsetting the declines in print.

Meanwhile, the slide in ad pages at Forbes — they fell more than 30 percent last year — is prompting a change in the way the magazine is bound together. Instead of being glued to gether in a binding method known as “perfect bound,” the pages will be stapled.

It is a tacit ac knowledgement that the magazine will remain slim mer for a longer period of time.

Tim Forbes will hold an “all hands on” editorial meeting this morning. The company wouldn’t comment on the gathering.

On the cheap

Bauer Publishing is said to have hired Lynn Palmer to hunt down a new editor-in-chief for In Touch, following the surprise defection of founding EIC Richard Spencer earlier this month. Resumés are said to be pouring in from US weeklies, as well as from journalists from overseas.

But it appears the German-based parent company is trying to save some coin. The pay, according to one source who has been in contact with the recruiter, is in the $300,000 range — far less than Spencer was reportedly pulling down.

Spencer, a 26-year veteran who at one time was running both In Touch and sister title Life & Style, was said to have a package of around $750,000.

It included a hefty bonus and use of a Ford SUV, which he abandoned in the company parking lot in Englewood Cliffs, NJ, on the day he walked away from the job.

The split ended weeks of acrimony with CEO Hubert Boehle over his compensation.

Executive Editor Michelle Lee stepped into the breach after Spencer’s departure. Boehle is said to still be considering her for the top job.

Spencer, meanwhile, is said to have dashed off to Playa de America in Mexico, where he is awaiting the expiration of a nine-month non-compete agreement. He could not be reached for comment.

Bunny hop

Rumors are swirling that Playboy Enterprises Inc. is contem plating another money-saving shake-up — re locating its edit orial offices from Chicago to Los Angeles.

The move comes as Na tional Enquirer owner American Media begins servicing Play boy’s distribution and back-shop op erations, in a bid to boost sagging newsstand sales.

Editorial staffers had been bracing for a move to the West Coast after Hugh Hefner‘s publicly traded Playboy Enterprises cut a $300 million deal to sell out to Iconix Brand Group. But when the deal fell apart last year, the plans stalled.

But now word is that the relocation is back on the table.

The staff is still getting over the shocks of early 2009, when the New York office was shut down, everyone was shipped out to Chicago, and Chris Napolitano was replaced as editor by ex-Maxim man Jimmy Jellinek.

Since making the move to Chicago, Jellinek has been a road warrior, constantly shuttling to Los Angeles, where paja ma-clad Hefner still con trols editorial operations from the Playboy Man sion.

A Playboy spokes woman insisted there is no move afoot.

“We are not moving the editorial offices to Los Angeles,” she said.

keith.kelly@nypost.com