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The mysterious dismissal of Bauer publisher Bob Davidowitz – announced late yesterday and ruminated about today – has brought with it its series of rationalizations for his muted exit. But only one explanation for why Davidowitz’s subordinate and colleague are taking over his duties seems to stick.

A Bauer insider tattles that while Bob seemed to be upping the ad pages for In Touch, his progress at Life & Style wasn’t so spectacular. Our source says Bauer brass thinks “it should be just as easy to sell pages for Life & Style as it is for In Touch.” Then again, “if you can’t tell the difference between the quality between the two magazines, you’re blind.” While we haven’t picked up a copy of L&S in months, we’re told its ad pages per issue are hitting only single digits, while In Touch’s are hitting double digit numbers. And what’s Davidowitz hitting? Right about now, we’d guess the bottle.

With all the excitement exuded in the press release from Bauer announcing the new publishing team, a little morsel was left out: What’s happening with current publisher Bob Davidowitz?

Late yesterday came the official announcement: In Touch and Life & Style associate publisher Mark Oltarsh was being moved up to publisher of In Touch, while Bauer’s Teen Group publisher would take the reigns of L&S. Previously, the two tabloids shared a single publisher post. And that was Davidowitz, who’s now out the door.

The press release carries this single mention of Davidowitz, in the closing line: “Oltarsh and Goldstein will replace Bob Davidowitz, who had served as publisher for both titles.”

Even to the casual onlooker, Davidowitz’s sudden exit causes confusion. Wasn’t Davidowitz responsible for all the amazing growth at In Touch and L&S, helping along their huge circulation gains with huge ad page profits? Wasn’t he leading the team that grabbed a spot on AdAge‘s Top 10 A-list? And the press release itself is spilling over with his merits:

In Touch???s ad pages increased by 38 percent from January ??? September 2006 versus the same period in the previous year. In Touch???s readership has also jumped by 60 percent to 4.9 million readers ??? the largest growth of all consumer magazines, according to the MRI Spring 2006 Study.

Which begs the question: What gives? Nobody has a concise answer for us when it comes to explaining Davidowitz’s departure. But we have been told is wasn’t so much a voluntary exit as it was a “removal.” One L&S insider tattles: “Don’t believe the ‘He wanted to spend more time with his family’ line.” Perhaps you know more?

Full release after the jump.

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