Pressure is mounting to find a new editor-in-chief of Newsweek, as the staff defections continue in the wake of the sale two weeks ago to stereo mogul Sidney Harman.
Jon Meacham, the current editor-in-chief, is telling staffers he hopes to pack it in by Labor Day.
And the short list of candidates to replace him is growing shorter by the day.
The most logical inside candidate, Fareed Zakaria, is said to have told Harman he is not interested in the job. Speculation is rampant that he may be the next big name to jump ship.
Walter Isaacson, current CEO of the Aspen Institute think tank, a former editor of Time and one-time head of CNN, is also showing no interest, despite his friendship with Harman, an Aspen Institute board member.
“I’ve already run a weekly magazine,” Isaacson said. “I have no interest in it.”
Some insiders have been actively pushing for Tina Brown, currently head of The Daily Beast Web site.
It’s a long shot, but Newsweek CEO Tom Ascheim, who is staying on board as president under Harman, is said to be listening.
Newsweek Assistant Managing Editor Evan Thomas, book author and prolific writer of dozens of cover stories during his 24 years at the magazine, yesterday became the latest staffer to defect in what is becoming a serious brain drain.
Thomas, author most recently of “The War Lovers: Roosevelt, Lodge, Hearst, and the Rush to Empire, 1898,” from Little, Brown earlier this year, is going to teach at Princeton and work on writing his next book for Little, a bio of President Dwight D. Eisenhower.
Said one insider of Brown: “She’s the best magazine editor out there without a magazine and she’d bring a lot of attention to Newsweek.”
Barry Diller, boss of IAC, which is bankrolling Brown and The Daily Beast, is on the board of the Washington Post Co., so he would be familiar with the pluses and minuses of the magazine. Wash Post said that in the first half of 2010 the magazine lost $8.5 million.
Diller could not be reached for comment.
And Brown, who has edited Tatler, Vanity Fair, The New Yorker, and the late Talk magazine, said she’s not interested. “I very much admire Sidney Harman’s willingness to take on a great news magazine that needs reinvention,” she said. “But I’ve never been happier than in my partnership with Barry Diller creating The Daily Beast.”
LA bound
Wenner Media boss Jann Wenner is finding out the hard way it is not a good idea to freeze pay three years in a row.
Three more Us Weekly staffers, including the talented design director Shanti Marlar — a one-time New York Post staffer — are quitting to join their former Us boss Janice Min, now the editorial director of The Hollywood Reporter.
Marlar is heading to Los Angeles, where she will be the new creative director of THR, sources said. Lindsay Powers, who was part of Min’s relaunch team on UsMagazine.com three years ago and is currently a senior online editor there, will head online operations in New York City as deputy Web editor.
Also moving west to become a staff writer is Lauren Schutte, who was Min’s assistant several years ago, but has since moved up the ranks to become a staff writer at Us Weekly.
That brings to at least five the number of ex-Us Weekly staffers who are now working at THR. The daily is gearing up for a big revamp as it attempts to broaden its appeal as a consumer magazine with a bigger circulation base without losing its loyal trade following.
On track
Jack Griffin, the ex- Meredith national media head who was confirmed as the new CEO of Time Inc. on Monday, made a point of dining with the outgoing CEO Ann Moore in the Time Inc. cafe teria the same day. He also made the rounds to say hello to key man aging editors. Griffin scored high marks in the digital realm for launching the Meredith Integrated Marketing group and the acquisition of the digital hot shop Hyperfactory earlier this year.
In past career jumps, he has not raided his previous employer to staff up a new job. But most expect him to be a change agent for the nation’s biggest magazine publisher.
“He’s a highly disciplined thinker and very innovative,” said Peter Kreisky, an industry consultant. “He’s a total re-inventor. He’s quiet but profound.”