No, it's not for sale and, no, Fred's not out

By Jeff Bercovici
 
   There’s been a lot of speculation in recent days, in these pages and elsewhere, about the intentions of Mort Zuckerman and the fate of his media empire. 
     Despite denials from spokespersons, rumors persist that U.S. News & World Report is set to go on the auction block, and that Zuckerman’s longstanding partnership with Fred Drasner is on the rocks.
     Finally, Zuckerman decided it was time to set the record straight, so he called Media Life to do just that, somewhat angrily in fact.
    In no uncertain terms he says that there are no plans to sell any of his publications, which include U.S. News, Fast Company, and the New York Daily News.
   Likewise, he says, talk of an imminent parting of the ways for him and Drasner is simply unfounded. He explains, "Recently, [Drasner] has been more involved in AGT [Applied Graphics Technologies, a printing company]."
     More recently still, he says, Drasner’s been devoting much of his time and effort to his involvement with the Washington Redskins, which he owns in part. Zuckerman sold his own interest in the franchise last month.
   "The better part of a year ago, Fred started pulling back from the day-to-day operation of the magazines," says Zuckerman. "Now as he is spending more time with his other businesses, he has been pulling back from the operation of the Daily News as well."
     But Zuckerman stresses that Drasner will continue in his capacity as co-owner for the foreseeable future. "If he finds another football team, we’re in trouble," he quips.
    Drasner’s pullback from active management of the Daily News required that someone fill the vacuum he left; hence Les Goodstein’s promotion to president and chief operating officer of the newspaper.  He explains that Goodstein had already been running the executive commission in his capacity as executive vice president and associate publisher, so it was just a matter of finding someone to take over for him.
    The obvious choice, says Zuckerman, was Ira Ellenthal, who had held the job before becoming group publisher for U.S. News and Fast Company. Fast Company had become self sustaining and no longer needed a group publisher’s supervision, says Zuckerman.
   As for U.S. News, "Ira brought along with him somebody who could take over for him, as he always does," says Zuckerman. That somebody was Bill Holiber, who was co-publisher of U.S. News along with Jeffrey Ahl. Holiber got the nod as publisher while Ahl got bumped down to associate publisher simply because, says Zuckerman, "Bill Holiber was the better man for the job."
      He explains that part of Ellenthal’s mandate as group publisher had been to create separate sales forces for U.S. News and Fast Company. Some have noted that such a division between the two magazines would make it easier to sell them off separately when the time comes.
    Zuckerman says that had nothing to do with it. 
     "First of all, the division is only in advertising. They’re still unified in terms of business departments, financial departments, accounting, circulation, and so on," says Zuckerman.
    "It makes sense not to divert the U.S. News sales staff to work on Fast Company," which, he says, is an easier sell as of late.
   He points out that Time Inc. experimented with centralized sales for all its titles several years ago, with poor results.
     Another aspect of the reorganization is that it allows Zuckerman to engage himself more fully in the management of his magazines, even as his partner decreases his presence. Without a group publisher, the publishers of U.S. News and Fast Company will report directly to Zuckerman.
    He denies that the decision to oversee matters personally had anything to do with U.S. News’ flagging sales in the first quarter.
    "Publishing is what I like to do. I like the whole process. Getting out of the Redskins was a decision I made because I didn’t happen to like it. But I like publishing, and I’ve done reasonably well for myself at it, thank you very much."

-Jeff Bercovici is a staff writer for Media Life.