THE Atlantic Monthly already had cut back to a publishing frequency of 10 times a year, but only now is the magazine getting around to dropping the word “monthly” from its corporate identity and officially changing its name to The Atlantic.
The change comes as the magazine gets ready to uproot its sales and marketing staff in Washington, DC, and relocate 15 positions to New York.
It also comes as the magazine searches for a new publisher to replace Elizabeth Baker Keffer, who is stepping down to run Atlantic Live, which produces about 100 sponsored events a year, including the Aspen Ideas Festival.
“My mandate is to bring it into the black and aggressively grow ad revenue in print and online,” said Justin Smith, the president of Atlantic Media who was hired in September from The Week.
Smith said he is not sure how many layoffs there will be in Washington because he is not certain how many people will choose to move to New York. Eventually, he expects to be running a 20-person department.
David Bradley, who plunked down $10 million to acquire the title from Daily News Publisher Mort Zuckerman in 1999, is trying to stem losses and boost revenues. However, sources estimate the magazine is still losing up to $5 million a year.
Bradley will be involved in the search for a replacement for Keffer.
“We hope to name a new publisher in a couple of months,” said Smith.
And when will the magazine finally make a profit again?
“We just completed a five-year plan and we hope to be profitable before the end of it,” said Smith.
Ad slide
There appears to be a simple reason behind this week’s slashing and burning at BusinessWeek, during which the editorial staff was reorganized and 12 editors were fired.
One well-regarded industry source said the magazine is expected to lose another $20 million in 2007 after having lost money in 2006.
The magazine, which is down 17 percent in ad pages this year, is part of McGraw-Hill Cos., and is usually seen as the company’s flagship property.
However, that is something of a misnomer, based more on tradition than reality. In truth, the company derives most of its income from data and financial services, which include Standard & Poor’s.
Rove’s tale
Simon & Schuster’s Threshold imprint, which is headed by Mary Matalin, the Republican operative who’s married to Democratic campaign adviser James Carville, is believed to be the lead candidate to land Karl Rove‘s memoir.
Hachette Book Group USA – which just plunked down $8 million-plus for the memoir of Sen. Ted Kennedy (D.-Mass.) – was believed to have taken a serious look, as did the Random House imprint of Random House Inc.
In a move that some publishing sources considered surprising, Harper Collins, the book publishing arm of News Corp., which also owns The Post, is said to be out of the running for Rove’s book.
The auction is being handled by Washington, DC, attorney Robert Barnett, who was en route to Iowa late yesterday and could not be reached for comment.
Bill talks
Former President Bill Clinton popped into the Hearst Tower yesterday for an interview by Esquire Editor- in-Chief David Granger.
Clinton was there allegedly to stump for his new book, “Giving: How Each of Us Can Change the World.”
But, of course, Granger peppered Clinton with political questions. According to sources, Granger tiptoed around the rather delicate issue of how Bill perceived Oprah Winfrey stumping for Barack Obama instead of his wife, New York Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton.
(For those who didn’t know, O, the Oprah Magazine is a joint venture between Hearst Corp. and Winfrey’s Harpo Print LLC.)
At least in public, Clinton was pretty conciliatory.
“We all see the world through the prism of our own experience,” the former president said. “They [Obama and Oprah] are both from Illinois. It doesn’t bother me that Oprah stuck up for Obama. They’re friends.”
Of course, he forgot to mention that Hillary is also from Illinois.
“I love Oprah. I think she’s a good person,” Clinton said.
But he said he hoped more people would agree with him on a choice of political candidates than with Oprah.