THE auction for an inspirational book by Jeffrey Zaslow based on the words and philosophy of Carnegie Mellon University Professor Randy Pausch has skyrocketed to a staggering $6.75 million range, industry sources tell Media Ink.
Most recently, Alan Greenspan’s book, “The Age of Turbulence,” fetched $8.5 million.
Hyperion, the book publishing arm of Walt Disney, is said to be the front-runner, but agent David Black got on the phone to say he wasn’t commenting on the negotiations.
The back story is this: Universities around the country have been staging events with noted professors in which they deliver a hypothetical final lecture and impart words of wisdom to their students.
For Pausch, a computer science professor at Carnegie-Mellon, it was a lot more poignant. The 46-year-old father of three young children has been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and expects to live only a few months.
For him, the last lecture was literally his last lecture. Given in September, Pausch talked about how as a kid he used to put mathematical formulas on the wall of his bedroom, something his parents indulged.
Zaslow, a columnist for The Wall Street Journal, wrote about what he described as the professor’s “riveting and rollicking journey through the lessons of his life.”
The lecture became an instant hit on the Internet, with people calling and e-mailing Zaslow to say how Pausch’s inspirational words had helped them deal with their own problems, made them appreciate their families more and encouraged them to let their kids be more creative.
“I’m dying and having fun,” Pausch said in the lecture which was quoted in Zaslow’s Sept. 20 column. “And I’m going to keep having fun every day because there is no other way to do it.”
After the column ran, the reaction from the media world was just as thunderous.
Diane Sawyer booked Pausch on ABC’s “Good Morning America” – twice. Katie Couric interviewed him for the “CBS Evening News” and Oprah Winfrey had him on her talk show. A special on “20/20” is being planned.
The book offers soon followed.
With the advance closing in on the $7 million range, one publisher estimated that the book would have to sell 350,000 in hardcover and another 400,000 in paperback.
If it turns into another mega-hit on the scale of “Tuesdays with Morrie: An Old Man, a Young Man, and Life’s Greatest Lesson,” the price tag could be worth it.
That book – in which author Mitch Albom retraces the bonding he did with former college professor Morrie Schwartz near the end of Schwartz’ life – is now the bestselling memoir of all time, with more than 12 million copies in print.
Black, coincidentally, is also Albom’s agent.
His excuse
When Denis Johnson won the National Book Award for fiction for “Tree of Smoke” Wednesday, it was his wife Cindy Lee Johnson who stepped onto the dais to accept the award, saying her husband “was on assignment in Iraq.”
Because the awards ceremony had dragged on for sooooo long, few bothered to find out who her husband was writing for.
We’re now happy to reveal it: he’s writing for Joanne Lipman’s Portfolio about Saudi Arabia and oil.
And wait! There’s more good news about Portfolio, which is just about to release its January issue with an article by Michael Lewis.
The February issue will have a big blowout story on U2 rocker Bono, not as a musician but as a partner with Roger McNamee in Elevation Partners. Some are betting the story lands on the cover.
In an odd and unusual twist, one of Elevation’s biggest investments to date is the estimated $300 million that it plunked down for a 40 percent stake in Forbes Media LLC., which publishes one of Portfolio’s main rivals, Forbes.
Ch-changes
It looks like our prediction that changes might be in the offing at InStyle is coming true.
In what can only be viewed as a shake-up that could be a prelude to an even bigger reorg, People Group Editorial Director Martha Nelson went to London to recruit Eilidh MacAskill, the former editor of British lifestyle mag Happy, to be InStyle’s new deputy managing editor.
Technically, Mac -Askill (whose first name is pronounced “AY-lee”) will be right below Managing Editor Charla Lawhon, who holds the top job.
But in an internal announcement that went out late Monday night, and caught many staffers by surprise, it sure looked like MacAskill had a lot of new power.
“As deputy managing editor, Eilidh will manage the day-to-day operation of the magazine and will oversee our coverage of beauty, fashion and lifestyle,” the memo said.
Some see MacAskill’s hiring as a bloodless coup at the top.
Lawhon, reached yesterday, insisted otherwise.
“I’m thrilled,” she said. She said MacAskill will “oversee the entire thing, instyle.com, specials, television, books and whatever else we get into.”
Lawhon insisted, “I’m not going anywhere.”
Still, MacAskill’s name will sit above all of Lawhon’s executive editors on the masthead.
The move comes only weeks after Rina “The Ax” Stone was moved from People to be InStyle’s new creative director.
She replaced John Korpics, who was sucked upstairs into a development role, but since little is being developed inside by any major publisher these days, there are some who wonder how much longer Korpics will be at Time Inc.
Korpics did not return a call or e-mail seeking comment.
Still red
David Pecker and company might have been able to boost American Media Inc.’s operating income for the quarter ended Sept. 30, but the magazine publisher’s mountain of debt pushed the company deeper into the red.
According to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, AMI’s operating income, which is defined as profit before tax or interest payments, climbed to $31.4 million from $22.2 million a year earlier.
However, when all of AMI’s costs of doing business are factored in, the company reported a widened net loss of $17.8 million, compared with year-earlier red ink of $4.3 million.
Revenue rose nearly 6 percent to $131.9 million.
The company, which publishes National Enquirer, Star, Shape and Men’s Fitness, blamed the wider loss on a non-cash charge tied to a $20 million payment the company made to bond holders after it failed to cut its debt enough to meet the terms of its loan agreements.
The new debt is payable in 2009 and 2011.
Currently, the company said it has $1.1 billion in debt, including $510 million owed to bankers under its 2006 credit agreement, and $550 million in junk bond notes.
Jack Craven, AMI’s chief financial officer, said that the “combination of increased revenue and lower operating costs significantly benefited the company’s bottom line.”
Meanwhile, AMI officials were mum about the talks of a merger with Ron Burkle’s Source Interlink Cos.
As Media Ink reported Tuesday, the tentative framework for a deal has been worked out, with Burkle’s firm ex pected to pay $1.2 billion, according to industry sources.
Banks, however, are pushing Burkle’s Yucaipa Cos., the investment firm through which the billionaire supermarket mogul controls the publicly traded Source Interlink, to put more equity into the deal.
Rove’s gig
President Bush’s brain just landed a new job.
Karl Rove has been tapped to be a regular contributor to Newsweek. Editor Jon Meacham unveiled the news yesterday.
Insiders at Newsweek said Rove is already at work on his first piece – a look at what the GOP’s strategy will be in a campaign against Hillary Clinton. He is expected to write a column every six weeks, though that could increase.
Meacham said he has been after Rove for months.
“I e-mailed him the day he announced his resignation. We had such a great experience with [former President Bill Clinton’s adviser] George Stephanopoulos when he left the White House that I think there is great value in having players who know what it’s like in the arena write on occasion.”
And Meacham said he wasn’t worried that Newsweek readers would mix up Rove with objective reporters.
“Readers know where partisans like Rove and Moulitsas are coming from,” said Meacham, who earlier this week hired Daily Kos founder Markos Moulitsas.
Sources estimate Rove is going to get around $50,000.
In that sense, he is a little shy of the amount that Bush critic and Vanity Fair Editor Graydon Carter is paying his new contributor, Kurt Andersen. Sources say the one-time Spy guy is getting $75,000 to write for VF.