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Condé Nast bigs
Up for Beckman, out for Hunsinger. And Ron G.?
Following one of the worst ad years in history, 2002 certainly offers the promise of recovery. But it also will serve up lots of turmoil, in the form of management shakeups and restructurings.
The turmoil, of course, will come first, it promises to be particularly ferocious, and it is already here.
Yesterday, Condé Nast promoted Vogue publisher Richard Beckman to chief marketing officer, replacing Peter Hunsinger, who had held the title only 10 months.
Vogue's new publisher is Tom Florio, recent publisher of GQ and brother of Condé Nast chief executive officer Steve Florio.
The management shift quite naturally refuels speculation that Ron Galotti, president of recently closed Talk magazine, will return to Condé Nast as GQ's publisher.
Whatever the bad blood following Galotti's jump to launch Talk in 1998, along with star editor Tina Brown, Galotti and the Florio brothers remained close personal friends, and there was even talk that the senior Florio had been pressing Galotti to return through much of his tenure at Talk.
The issue is whether Galotti would return to run GQ, which would be seen as a step down for the crack ad salesman, who was the founding publisher of Condé Nast Traveler and later Vogue's publisher.
Such an appointment would have to be positioned as an interim position pending a loftier corporate slot.
Officially, Condé Nast is saying nothing, other than that the GQ post will be filled within the coming days.
Similarly, Condé Nast is not springing forth with much information about the departure of Hunsinger, though every indication is that he was canned. According to some reports, he was offered the GQ publisher slot but declined the demotion, choosing instead to leave the company entirely.
Hunsinger was publisher of Vanity Fair when he was promoted to the top marketing slot last March. Previously he had served as publisher of Gourmet and Architectural Digest. He replaced Mitchell Fox, who had been named head of the new Golf Digest unit of Advance Publications, parent of Condé Nast.
Hunsinger is one of a handful of talented sales people put in the top marketing post with great expectations, only to face frustration.
By definition, the job is to coordinate sales for all the Condé Nast titles, but in fact the very culture of Condé Nast pits publication against publication, in the belief that competition within the company makes each publication a better competitor in the wider marketplace.
Beckman's challenge may be made somewhat easier with a recovery in the ad market, which is expected to set in sometime in the latter half of 2002. But it is unlikely he will do any better in attempting to change the competitive culture of Condé Nast.
Beckman won the slot on merit, for sure, as a top salesman at Vogue. But Beckman is far better known for antics outside of his role as a salesman, namely for an incident two years ago in which he shoved a Vogue ad saleswoman, causing serious injuries to her face.
Details of the incident remain cloudy but it brought much unwanted attention to Condé Nast and more stories of Beckman's various behavior quirks, which had earned him the nickname "Mad Dog" within the company.
Many, especially women, including those within Condé Nast, were hoping to see Beckman fired, but his punishment was considerably milder. Beckman was called upon to acknowledge his inappropriate behavior and to seek counseling.
The saleswoman was given an undisclosed sum and left the company.
January 29, 2002 © 2002 Media Life
