U.S News & World Report holds a special place for media people as the little newsmagazine that could, and if things always seem to be in turmoil there--compare it to a soap opera whose team of writers changes every week--it continues to hold people's attention for its promise. In the most recent round of changes, announced earlier this week, group publisher Ira Ellenthal returns to the top sales position at the New York Daily News, another Zuckerman property, and longtime Ellenthal protege Bill Holiber becomes U.S. News publisher.  Jeffrey Ahl, recently named co-publisher with Holiber, assumes the lesser title of associate publisher. As a backdrop to these changes, owner Mort Zuckerman (See News Story No. 3) has been squabbling with longtime business partner Fred Drasner, amid reports that the two will soon part ways, Drasner to assume control of the News, Zuckerman to run U.S. News and Fast Company.
     Media Life called on some of the nation's top media buyers to get their reactions to these events. Here's what they have to say.

Carol Karpa, president, KDM

    I was surprised by the way they made the announcement. I thought they’d handle it a little more diplomatically. I adore Ira [Ellenthal] and Bill [Holiber] both. They’re both great guys.
    U.S. News is very political. In that respect it’s no different from any other newsweekly. They’re very competitive with each other, and very competitive internally. People are always jockeying for position. There isn’t a lot of turnover with the top spots.
    I’m not sure that this decision wasn’t more about politics than it was about business. With two strong people there at the top, eventually one had to fall. When you have two incredibly talented people like that, they can’t both be king of the forest.
    Those two guys [Zuckerman and Drasner] are joined at the hip. I’d be very surprised if there were a complete parting of the ways.

Peter Gardiner, media director Bozell Worldwide

     I think change is good at U.S. News. They’ve lost a lot of key people in the last couple years, and the loss of senior management has taken its toll. It’s been difficult for them to overcome that. 
   They’re trying to fight a very tough battle in a very tough category with two formidable competitors. With this move I think they’re trying to get some clear leadership at last.

Steven Lerch, manager of print media at Campbell, Mithun, Esty in Minneapolis.

    Mr. Zuckerman is in charge at U.S. News. They’ve been cleaning house, so his recent actions aren’t so surprising. It’s too early to say yet how it’s going to impact the advertising community.
     I like U.S. News for what they do better, how they differentiate themselves. Time and Newsweek are becoming more pop-culture oriented, more like People. U.S. News has tried to separate themselves from this. They’ve been more issue-oriented, more news-focused. It’s very difficult to beat Time and Newsweek, but U.S. News doesn’t try to compete head to head. They get different advertisers too, especially finance advertisers. When I make a buy I keep in mind what product it’s for because the magazines have different audiences.
   They [Zuckerman and Drasner]  have a financial history of smart investments in media properties. I don’t know what kind of effect Zuckerman parting ways with the Daily News will have on it editorially, but it doesn’t affect my day to day life much.

Roberta Garfinkel, senior vice president and director of print media at McCann-Erickson

    You usually have group publishers where there are synergies, and I don’t see any real synergies between U.S. News and Fast Company. I think they’ll be better served by having one person who concentrates on each title. I’m not a big fan of the group publisher slot unless you have a really strong number two person.

Ellen Oppenheim, senior vice president and director of media at Foote, Cone, Belding.

    We’re at a point where people understand that the economy is as good as it’s going to get, and they’re deciding where they want to go from here. 
   U.S. News’ challenge has always been that they’re the smallest, and they’ve taken the task upon themselves of getting rear traction with special issues such as the college issue. Things like that have raised eyebrows in some circles, where people question whether that’s real journalism.
    Now we’re in a place where people do look at categories. When making a cross-category buy, people try to sort the titles out to achieve the most reach. It’s tough if you’re not one of the top one or two titles in a category.
    What’s most surprising to me is that they brought someone over [Jeffrey Ahl] and then so quickly changed the nature of his job--that they made the decision to elevate someone, and then to eliminate his job.

Bob Rose, media director at Western Initiative in New York.

     U.S. News is a great brand name, and their product is still very strong. I think anyone who looks at the magazine will see that it’s very good. It’s my favorite newsweekly.
     We’ve had some complicated deals with Bill Holiber, and I think he’s a good guy, a smart guy, and very qualified. I think we’re seeing some internal politics at play here. There are issues between Mort Zuckerman and Fred Drasner at the heart of this. It’s not about Bill Holiber or Jeffrey Ahl. But I’m optimistic that the organization will evolve well and continue to be strong.

Dan Binder, media director, magazine group, Starcom, Chicago.

    They’re in a very competitive marketplace, going up against two books that do have their act together. Relative to those two, yes, I think they [U.S. News] have their act together, at least from outside appearances. 
   What they’ve done in the last five years, with the redesign and the "News you can use" theme--you would think they would take that deeper into the marketplace and try to present themselves as the everyday man’s newsweekly.
    Have they had success in selling to the advertising community? Have they been competitive? Yes, I would say they have. But a lot of other factors have changed how [Ira Ellenthal] was viewed in the organization.
    Mort Zuckerman is a real strong personality. When you get a couple of strong personalities like that together, sparks will fly.


Paul Benjou, vice president-director of media planning at Draft Worldwide, New York.

    I don’t know why there’s such a big brouhaha over all this. This is a business issue, not an editorial issue. 
     U.S. News is a viable product with a viable audience. There’s no concern about it falling through the cracks. 
    So Mort Zuckerman has decided to involve himself more closely and make it work. What signaled concern was that the magazine was down about 40 or 50 percent in ad pages for the first couple issues of the year. That’s not drastic, but he’s concerned internally, so he’s doing something about it.
     This is not a knee-jerk reaction. I think he’s been weighing this for a while, and the straw that broke the camel’s back was what’s going on in this first quarter. They were off to a very bad, slow start, and he had to make a correction. He decided to install himself at U.S. News for a while. 
   That’s not unusual. If a ship’s captain sees the ship veering off course, he runs to the helm and takes over for a while. And if he notices that some of the crew is not doing what he expected them or wanted them to do, he has the right to make changes. 
    Are these changes that he’s making enough to cause a further backslide? No. I would never say to a client, don’t advertise with them, there’s too much turmoil there. They have a circulation base of over 2 million. That’s not small change.
   Should the owners part ways, will the magazine differ at all? 
    I don’t see why it should. If we were talking about a major editorial shift, that would give us something to think about. But a change in the sales force or the business unit--that doesn’t affect me very much.

-Jeffrey Bercovici is a staff writer for Media Life.