IN TOUCH OUT OF IT

IN TOUCH OUT OF IT
By KEITH J. KELLY
http://www.nypost.com/seven/04252007/business/in_t ouch_out_of_it_business_keith_j__kelly.htm

IN Touch's gamble to jettison celebrities for its cover story and go with real-life news tied to last week's Virginia Tech massacre turned out to be a newsstand bust. "It was one of our lowest issues of the year," conceded In Touch Editor-in-Chief Richard Spencer.

The issue hit newsstands last Wednesday in New York and Thursday or Friday for the rest of the country.

The estimates available after the weekend, projected the magazine to have single-copy sales in the low 900,000 range, compared with an average week when the magazine sells about 1.2 million newsstand copies.

Some rivals think the final tally will come in below 900,000, making it the lowest-selling issue in two years.

"I still think it was worth doing," said Spencer. "We tried something different." Still, he says he probably would not stray so far afield in the future.

For the People magazine franchise, which has a tradition of covering real-life events, the Virginia Tech shooting issue didn't move the newsstand needle much either.

"It was an average seller," said one source with knowledge of the numbers. In the first half last year, People was selling over 1.5 million copies on newsstands.

One rival said Virginia Tech was on the "low-average" range for them, while coverage of the slaying at the Amish school house last year was on the high- average side - so In Touch may have drained off some potential readers.

The biggest winner of the week was OK! with its exclusive photos of Larry Birkhead and Dannielynn, the daughter he had with Anna Nicole Smith.

Publisher Tom Morrisey said it was the magazine's highest-selling issue ever, aside from its 25-cent promotional issues.

Sales in the 600,000 level were nearly double year- ago sales of 334,506 a week.

Meanwhile, sources say that rumblings of an Angelina Jolie/Brad Pitt bust-up did well for Life & Style and Star - even if the stories were nothing beyond speculation.

Life & Style cranked out its top-selling issue of the year, selling nearly 900,000 - a whopping 200,000 more than its year-ago average.
Star was selling close to 800,000. Though that's only up modestly from its year-ago average of 752,000, it's on the rebound from late last year when it had trouble passing the 550,000 mark.

Meanwhile, Us Weekly ran with a cover of Prince William and his longtime girlfriend Kate Middleton calling it quits and it was mildly disappointing, selling somewhere near 900,000. A year ago, Us Weekly was selling around 1 million copies a week.

New price

Hubert Boehle, CEO of Bauer Publications, will push the envelope again this week when In Touch and Life & Style, which had been selling at $1.99 - cornering the low- priced end of the market - will test a new cover price of $2.19 on about half the issues, according to newsstand sources.

A company spokeswoman would not confirm the test.

Tout Swede

An item in Page Six yesterday about Icelandic billionaire Jon Asgeir Johannesson purchasing a $10 million Gramercy Park condo has stirred up more than just the real estate world.

It also heightened rumors that Johannesson would soon be eyeing the New York market for the introduction of yet another free daily paper to compete with Metro New York and the Tribune-owned amNew York.

His company, Baugur Group, has a controlling stake in Dagsbrun, which has formed 365 Media and last week launched Boston Now, a new free weekly. The 365 Media CEO is Russell Pergament, who earlier launched and then sold amNew York to Tribune.

The company has said it wants to roll out free dailies in 10 U.S. cities in the next three years. But with Johannesson setting up home here, the speculation is that New York could be his next launch market in the near future.

Pruned

Jann Wenner has renewed the contract for Us Weekly Publisher Vicky Rose, but sources say Wenner has taken a big bite out of her compensation package by lowering the commission payments.

"I am here, I am committed and I have renewed my contract," confirmed Rose, but she would not divulge details.

One internal rumbling said the new payments will be about 20 percent lower than a year ago as Wenner slashes compensation for many of his longtime sales executives.

Rose started as publisher in September 2000. At the time, it was still questionable whether the magazine would succeed.

Since then, the magazine has turned into a trend- setting weekly that last year sold 1,931 ad pages, up 7 percent from a year earlier, according to Media Industry Newsletter. It's also been on the Ad Age A-List four years in a row.

That's why tightening the screws now is so baffling.

Rose wouldn't comment but did offer, "The magazine is at a mature place now. I think his commitment to the magazine is strong and my commitment is strong."

Another rumor making the rounds is that Wenner might be getting ready to sell Us Weekly and that's why he is trying to get rid of some high-priced executives while also securing others with long term contracts.

Among those who have left are longtime general manager Kent Brownridge, who departed a year ago. Janice Min, the editor of Us Weekly magazine, still doesn't have a new contract, even though her current one expires at the end of June.

A Wenner Media spokesman insisted that "Us Weekly is not for sale."

Meanwhile, Wenner, after a long search has landed a new art director for Rolling Stone.

Joe Hutchinson, one of the more critically acclaimed art directors in the newspaper world, is finally jumping ship from the Los Angeles Times.

He had been with John Carroll at the Baltimore Sun and stayed with him when he jumped to the Times.

Hutchinson stayed on under Dean Baquet, who quit last year after he clashed with the owners at Chicago- based Tribune, who were pushing for additional newsroom cuts.

The company has agreed to be bought by Chicago real estate mogul Sam Zell, and that, plus a new editor at the L.A. Times, was enough to convince Hutchinson to hit the road.

Wenner had earlier been rebuffed in his efforts to sign Hutchinson, but apparently talks never completely broke off. Early this week he signed what is said to be a nice mid- six-figure deal.

However, it remains to be seen how much leeway Wenner will give to the new art director and how soon before the owner starts driving him crazy.