Business

BIG $ FOR ELECTION BOOK

TWO magazine veterans, each on the campaign trail for nearly two decades, have snared a big-bucks deal from HarperCollins to write about the current presidential campaign pitting John McCain against Barack Obama.

John Heilemann at New York magazine and Mark Halperin at Time believe they first met back in 1996 covering the New Hampshire primaries.

Both have written extensively on political campaigns but it wasn’t until they were both covering a McCain rally in Annapolis, Md., in early April that they began seriously toying with the idea of writing a book together.

“We were both finding that we had a mind meld on what we thought was important,” recalled Heilemann.

The aim is not so much to write a political treatise describing every tic-tock of every primary contest as it is to grab the big picture with a colorful writing style, both authors said.

While the book is non-fiction, both admit to admiring Joe Klein’s “Primary Colors,” a thinly disguised novel based on a philandering candidate’s White House run.

The book was sold on a proposal that is believed to have fetched a mid- to high- six-figure sum. The manuscript isn’t due to be handed in until next spring, with a book due out in late 2009. (HarperCollins is owned by News Corp., which also owns The Post.)

“The arc of the story will be determined by what happens in the election,” said Heilemann.

Halperin, an ABC News analyst as well as editor-at-large and chief political analyst at Time, has covered six presidential campaigns. Heilemann has written for The New Yorker and The Economist.

Both have written books before: Heilemann wrote “Pride Before the Fall: The Trials of Bill Gates and the End of the Microsoft Era.” Halperin collaborated with politico.com Editor-in-Chief John F. Harris to write “The Way to Win: Taking The White House in 2008.”

Neither thinks collaborating will be too great a challenge.

“We see so much of what goes on in the same way, we won’t have any clashes,” said Halperin. “Like all great work assignments, if you love what you’re doing, it doesn’t feel like [work.] It might get intense, but it won’t be painful.”

Mort is less

Mort Zuckerman’s slumping US News & World Report finally tossed in all pretense of trying to stay in the newsmagazine business.

Of course, Media Ink back in September said a plan was afoot. At the time, Editor Brian Kelly acknowledged there was something to what we had heard, but also insisted, “We’re still in the news business.”

In a front-page story in this week’s Ad Age, the company announced that it was cutting its already reduced frequency from 36 times a year to every other week. The biweekly issues will begin showing up in 2009, and will cover topics such as health, money, education and public affairs.

Those changes come as the magazine announced Monday that it formed a new operating unit called US News Media Group, which will include several initiatives to bolster the struggling periodical.

Among them, the magazine’s “Bests” franchise, as we had predicted, will expand to include the best places to retire and other topics.

The mag is also adding rankingsan dreviews.com, essentially an online aggregator being billed as a “review of reviews.” Already launched last fall was a ranking of the best cars and trucks.

Meanwhile, USNews.com is adding new features such as the A to Z Drug Directory and the Heart Attack Risk Calculator.

Many of the new services are being outsourced, according to people familiar with the plans.

The mag is launching a book division to publish collectors’ editions, such as “Secrets of the Civil War.”

Publisher Bill Holiber declined to say how much money the magazine was losing in the past fiscal year. When asked how much the magazine expected to save through the latest moves, he said, “as much as possible.”

The magazine’s business side has been telling the editorial side for years that the only successful issues of the magazine were the “Best of” guides for everything from colleges to hospitals to graduate schools.

Through the June 4 issue, US News has hemorrhaged ad pages, dropping 35.3 percent compared with a lackluster 2007, when it lost several million dollars.

According to Media Industry Newsletter, Time is down 28 percent to 641 ad pages through its June 4 issue, while Newsweek is down 23.55 ad pages through the June 4 issue.

Most observers believe Zuckerman is hanging onto the money-losing print version of the magazine so that he can pontificate on the talk shows.

Zuckerman still carries the title of editor-in-chief of the magazine, even though it’s Kelly who actually does the editing.

Zuckerman was trying to put good spin on his dismal retreat.

“The creation of US News Media Group is simply a recognition of the successful digital evolution that we began more than a decade ago,” he said.

Four ID’d

Last week, we reported that four people were getting the ol’ heave-ho as part of the downsizing that Managing Editor Andy Serwer unveiled at Fortune.

This week, we can tell you the names of the four who sources say are exiting.

In addition to the already disclosed Cait Murphy, an assistant managing editor with more than a decade of service, the list includes Paul Sloan, originally one of the infamous nine who had been saved when Business 2.0 was folded by Time Inc. last September.

Sloan continued to work out of San Francisco and was technically given a generous package – once it became clear that he was on the hit list. Also said to be exiting is Matthew Boyle, a senior writer, and Senior Editor John Simons, who also technically “took a package” once he saw the handwriting on the wall.

Several others are also rumored to be heading for the exit, but those names have not been confirmed as being part of the company’s plan reduce its headcount by 15 by year-end.

Fortune declined to comment, citing confidentiality.

Beer-n-babes

Jay Woodruff, who was getting moved aside as the top man of Entertainment Weekly’s critically acclaimed Web site, has apparently turned down an offer from EW Managing Editor Rick Tetzeli to stay at the print version of the magazine as an executive editor.

Instead, Media Ink has learned that Woodruff is jumping ship to become the new editor-in- chief of Maxim.com, the Web site that goes with the beer and babes magazine sold by Felix Dennis to Kent Brown ridge and the Quadrangle Group last year.

“It was a successful raid,” said Brownridge, CEO of the company that with the sale changed its name from Dennis Publishing to Alpha Media.

He said Maxim.com generates about $15 million a year, or roughly 10 percent of Alpha’s revenue.

“It the other half of our brand,” said Brownridge. “It’s tremendously important to us.”

He said about 35 percent of the ad business on the Web is unique to the digital side.

“This is a determined, moving ahead, reach-for-the-sky Web site,” said Brownridge. “This is not a put-the-content-of-the-magazine on the Web site.”

He said the site attracts 5 million unique viewers a month. “That’s OK – but we want more.”

At EW, Woodruff was shunted aside in favor of Cyndi Stivers, an ex-Time Out New York boss and ex-Martha Stewart Living exec.

Woodruff said he started talking to Alpha before Stivers’ move was unveiled back on May 16.

Stivers was most well known as the launch editor- in-chief and then president of Time Out New York, but left to join Martha Stewart Living as vice president of strategic development.

The release announcing her arrival curiously failed to mention her most recent venture, which apparently ended rather unhappily as the CEO of Blue Egg.

She starts at ew.com on July 1.

keith.kelly@nypost.com