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If you follow teenybopper magazines, the hottest accessory to have this winter is a new…publisher. Gruner & Jahr’s YM has appointed Laura McEwan to the post, replacing Kristine Schreiber, who has left the company. This soon after category leader Seventeen, which is published by Primedia, named Linda Platzner to replace publisher Lori Burgess, who fled to Conde Nast in November. McEwan was previously publisher of New Woman, which was folded by parent company Rodale Press last month under curious circumstances. The company had dumped tens of millions of dollars into an extensive redesign only four months before, and advertisers were showing considerable support for the repositioned title. McEwan brings several other New Woman refugees with her to YM, but the company has declined to name them as of yet.
ABC and NAACP to announce diversity pact
With NBC already firmly in its grasp, the
National Association for the Advancement of Colored People is expected to hold a joint
press conference today with ABC to announce a similar racial diversity plan. ABC
president Patricia Fili-Krushel met recently in Baltimore with NAACP chief Kweisi Mfume
for several hours to discuss what she planned to do to bring her network into compliance
with demands put forth by Mfume to get more faces of color behind the cameras in writing
and producing roles. Fox and CBS are expected to follow ABC and NBC with similar
plans. The deal with NBC, announced earlier this week, calls for the network to hire
more minority directors, to staff each second-year show with an additional writer, with
minority writers given preference, and to double spending on products and services bought
from minority firms to $10 million a year over the coming year and a half.
The familiar sound of footsteps can be heard at Talk magazine, both leaving and arriving. Tina Brown has snagged Charles Gandee from Vogue, where he was Anna Wintour's associate editor. Gandee will take the title features editor at Talk. Talk’s previous features editor was Lisa Chase, who left in a huff when Brown vetoed her article on the Unabomber. Also new at Talk is Sarah Min, who comes from Vibe to fill in for Howard Lalli as managing editor. Lalli shipped off to Atlanta magazine. Also out the door is art director Lesley Vinson. Word has it she was at odds with new creative director Oliveri Toscani, and further that she caught the blame for Talk’s unpopular stark European look, which has since been softened.