Friday

Primedia whacks
up its trade titles

End of Media Central. Dozens out. On the block?

The blade has fallen yet again at Primedia, carving up what remained of Media Central, the company's umbrella group for media business trade magazines and newsletters.
   Some two dozen people lost their jobs in the reorganization, including Folio magazine editor in chief Cable Neuhaus and Darcy Miller, head of Prism, the integrated ad sales and marketing unit.
   The moves are arousing speculation that Primedia plans to dismantle its business-to-business unit altogether, selling off its various parts, in order to structure its business around a remaining core group of consumer enthusiast magazines.
   Media Central, created in the early '90s, was considerably built out in January 2001 when Primedia gathered all of its media-focused properties into one group and placed them in a joint venture with Brill Media Holdings.
   Steve Brill, who was named CEO of the joint operation, brought along two properties of his own, both now defunct: Brill's Content, a magazine for consumers interested in the media business, and Contentville.com, a combination content and commerce web site about books and magazines.
   Three months later, Brill Media Holdings acquired Powerful Media, parent of the entertainment and media news web site Inside.com. Founded by Kurt Andersen and Michael Hirschorn, Inside.com became the centerpiece of Media Central, but as the venture continued to burn money without attracting significant numbers of subscribers, it was eventually downgraded to little more than a portal for Primedia’s media trade publications.
   Yesterday's move will result in Primedia's business-to-business magazines being placed in the same unit as its shows and conferences division. David Evans, who was in charge of shows and conferences, is leaving the company.
   American Demographics editorial director John McManus will take over for Neuhaus at Folio, editing both magazines. Neuhaus, a veteran of Entertainment Weekly and People, was with Primedia for less than a year.
   The newsletter Media Markets Daily is being shut down, with editor Joe Mandese leaving the company.
Meanwhile, Kagan and Simba, which publish some 20 newsletters between them, will join Primedia's consumer publications unit.
   At the urging of its owner, the investment firm Kravis Kohlberg Roberts, Primedia has been selling off "non-core assets" over the past two years, but the dismantlement appears to have entered high gear following the ouster last month of CEO Tom Rogers.
   Two weeks after Rogers resigned, Primedia struck a deal to sell Seventeen, its flagship consumer title, to Hearst Corp. for $182 million. The following week, it fired Elizabeth Crow, who had been serving as editorial director for its consumer titles.
   Earlier this week, New York magazine publisher Alan Katz left Primedia to become publisher of Conde Nast’s shopping magazine for men, which is being developed for a 2004 launch.

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