YESTERDAY Nastia Liukin, the all-around Olympic women’s gymnastics champion, was given the news that she will grace the front of a Wheaties cereal box.
And next week, she’s expected to be the latest Olympic star to ink a lucrative book deal.
Liukin currently is said to be talking to two publishers about a two-book deal which industry sources estimate will be valued at less than the $1.6 million that eight-time Olympic gold medal swimmer Michael Phelps bagged for an inspirational memoir.
It might even be below the size of the deal snagged by 41-year old Olympic swimmer Dara Torres before the Games began earlier this month.
Most are expecting at most a mid-six figure payday for the package – which isn’t too shabby for an 18-year-old star in the gymnastics world.
The first book under discussion is an inspirational memoir, according to agent Evan Morgenstein of Premier Management Group, who also represented Torres.
He said two publishers are talking to the Moscow-born athlete, but he declined to name them.
“Nastia keeps a first-hand journal and has for years,” said Morgenstein. “She writes in it every single day.”
There are a number of proposals underway for a second book, including one for a self-help series that would use gymnastics as a backdrop on a range of subjects ranging from healthy eating and fitness to self image.
Morgenstein thinks his client will have the same staying power as the all-time greats.
“She already has as many Olympic medals as Mary Lou Retton, with five, and Nastia will still be competing in London in four more years,” he said. “I think it means that there is no question that she has longevity.”
Still, the non-fiction teen market is always a little trickier to navigate, and skeptics point out that while a few Olympians have staying power on the popular culture scene, the vast majority don’t.
“The question is whether the Olympic athlete book boom is starting to wind down,” said one publishing industry executive.
However, Darren Rovell, CNBC’s sports marketing com mentator, thinks Liukin’s fu ture could be bright.
Earlier this week, he called her the third most market able Olympic athlete behind Phelps and Jamaican sprinter Usain Bolt.
“I think she’s the most im pressive young, active Olym pian [who could serve] as a corporate spokesperson that I’ve ever seen,” said Rovell. “It really surprises me that someone that age has that level of communication skills.”
Change-up
Tina Johnson, the launch editor of Women’s Health, the successful spin-off of Rodale’s flagship Men’s Health, has resigned suddenly from the magazine she helped found in 2005.
Her departure comes only a month after Men’s Health editorial guru David Zinczenko was also made editorial director of Women’s Health and given domain over the female side of the brand.
It also comes as Women’s Health, while still in the investment stage, appears to be growing.
Ad pages through September were up 18 percent to 537, while total circulation jumped 45 percent to 1,140,000.
Single-copy sales, meanwhile, were up 11.5 percent to 306,864.
The changes now mean that the executive team that launched the magazine three years ago has turned over completely.
Publisher Kate Kelly Smith left first, jumping to House Beautiful as publisher to try to turn around that Hearst title.
Johnson could not be reached for comment, but through a statement released by Rodale, she said, “Four years ago, I took on a challenge that has proven successful beyond everyone’s best expectations. . . As much as I enjoyed the ride, I’ll be looking ahead to new challenges and opportunities in this rapidly changing marketplace.”
At least one Rodale observer thinks her departure was inevitably linked to a clash with Zinczenko, who is looking for even more aggressive growth.
The October issue, the first one in which Zinczenko had input, features the magazine’s first-ever celebrity cover – film and TV star Elizabeth Banks.
Said Zinczenko, “We’re upping the heat factor of an already hot magazine even more, and that’s reflected on every page, starting with the cover.”
New home
Brendan Vaughn finally has a permanent gig at Condé Nast.
Vaughn was part of the launch team that Joanne Lipman put together at Portfolio magazine, but got so fed up with the way things were going at the time that he quit for the uncertainty of a temporary consulting gig at Esquire.
While at that magazine, he helped put out the crazy 75th anniversary issue, which will have an electronic cover.
Yet with that issue ready to hit newsstands soon, Vaughn was out of work once again.
As it turns out, though, bolting from Portfolio’s launch team has not resulted in a lifetime of exile from Condé Nast’s headquarters at 4 Times Square.
Vaughn’s just been hired by GQ Editor Jim Nelson to be the magazine’s senior articles editor. He starts on Tuesday.
Nelson also made an intramural raid on in-house rival Dan Peres, editor of Details, by luring Deputy Editor Katherine Wheelock to be articles editor at GQ.
Vaughn replaces Lucy Kaylin, who went to Marie Claire, while Wheelock replaces Jason Gay, who jumped to Rolling Stone.
Raid
The Atlantic, owned by David Bradley, just raided Forbes to land Felix DiFilippo as associate publisher.
DiFilippo had been working at Forbes as the group ad director.
Meanwhile, Bill McGarry, who was most recently interactive sales director/digital strategist for CondéNet, the digital arm at Condé Nast, is now the new digital ad director for Atlantic.
Both McGarry and DiFilippo report to newly installed Publisher Jay Lauf.