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And now for the rubber boots … (this is starting to feel like the day American Media exploded) …

How tactful. Hachette Filipacchi closing up magazines on a Thursday afternoon when they think nobody will notice. Ha! Right, like they could slip something like this past magazine-folding-chronicler Nat Ives.

Along with the Village Voice (and the rest of the magazine world) For Me, the unsexy Women’s Day spin-off, was axed.

For Me was conceived to compete for the 25- to 35-year-old crowd, where it was believed there was a room in the market for a mass-appeal title. But its newsstand-centric business model proved its undoing. Company President-CEO Jack Kliger told staff today that newsstand sales, which have been off since February, were too soft to continue the publication. Its October issue will be its last.

It doesn’t seem like HFMUS had much faith in their little mag, anyways, considering it’s not listed with all their other titles, or even under Women’s Dayspecial interest publications.”

We fear this late-in-the-day shuttering will only feed fuel to the fiery rumors that similar mags of this supermarket mom genre (ahem, Hearst’s Quick & Simple) may not have the power to wrestle with the pretty home and shelter pubs like Blueprint and Real Simple.

Then again, all suburban and Park Slope moms are reading Cosmo and High Times these days.

Hachette Closes ‘For Me,’ Citing Sluggish Newsstand [Nat Ives, Ad Age]

Aug 31, 2006 · Link · Respond

After today’s news that Hearst is shuttering both Shop Etc. and Weekend, we feared for upstart Quick & Simple, which never moved into the new Hearst tower like the rest of its bretheren. And since neither Shop nor Weekend made the move either, we had to ponder: Is Quick & Simple’s death certificate was just around the corner.

But that’s not so, claim multiple insiders. The reason Q&S didn’t move along with the other magazines is true to Hearst’s public explanation: When the plans for the new tower was drawn up, the magazine didn’t exist, so no room for it was made in the initial drafts. Meanwhile, our sources say Hearst is thus far pleased with editor Susan Toepfer’s numbers — so much so that Cathie Black & Co. will make room for it among the Seventeens and Marie Claires on West 57th this fall. But, says one of our insiders, “if that doesn’t happen, I’d take it as a sign that it’s folding, but as of now, the move is still a go.”

The pressure is on, Cath! Announce the move-in date – and the team captain – and ease staffer fears.

Update: Says one Hearst insider: There are no plans to move the magazine to the new Hearst tower, as allued to above. Rather, they’ll be moved from their shanty digs to some, ahem, newly vacant space at 1790 Broadway.

Earlier: Closing Up SHOP for the Weekend Update: Hearst Never Made Room at the New Tower
Earlier: Breaking: Hearst Closes Up SHOP Just in Time for the Weekend
Related: All Hearst coverage

Aug 25, 2006 · Link · Respond

This is not exactly confirmed, but Jossip hears from a good source that Shop Etc. and Weekend staffers may not be wandering the halls, ready to accept your superficial hugs, air kisses, and faux words of consolation. (You know you’re just thinking “more Christmas bonus for me!”)

When it was time to make the big move to the new tower, it seems as though Shop and Weekend never received a team captain — or any moving instructions to pack up and relocate to the new tower.

The September Shop Etc. masthead still lists the old 1790 Broadway address, which begs the question: Were Shop and Weekend staffers never even welcomed to the new glass castle? And, connecting the dots, was the decision to kill ‘em off made quite some time ago?

Update: A March 24 item from Women’s Wear Daily’s Memo Pad made mention of the fact that Shop Etc. and Weekend weren’t a planned part of the move. A Hearst spokeswoman is quoted as saying: “”It’s literally a function of space. … When we made plans for the tower in 2001, the new launches weren’t even a glimmer in our eye. The units and the magazines that won’t be in the tower will still be very close, and will have access to all the amenities.” Meanwhile, a third new magazine that wasn’t part of the move is Quick & Simple. We’re just gonna say it: Could they be next on the chopping block?

Earlier: Hearst Closes Up SHOP Just in Time for the Weekend

Aug 25, 2006 · Link · Respond

Surely you’re excited as we to watch struggling-to-be-sexy Hearst get into the land of service. Cathy Black is clicking her heels three times hoping her new weekly, Quick & Simple, will debut to the enormous fanfare she’s not used to.

And what an invigorating concept for the 60-page oversized launch, which hits newsstands August 2. The mag’s pages will

dole out easy recipes as well as beauty, fashion and home tips using vibrant-colored sidebars and graphics. The magazine targets mass-market, mid-30s single women and mothers. Stories in the premiere issue include two-minute hairstyles and diet-friendly fast-food menus.

No muted pastels for this title. No way, Jose, we’ve got “vibrant-colored” items here. And if that weren’t enough to set Quick & Simple apart from, say, Real Simple, All You, First For Women, O or Martha Stewart Living, get this:

Editor Susan Toepfer, who headed up G+J USA Publisher????????s Rosie before joining Hearst, pointed out another advantage. She said that by publishing weekly ???????we have a better shot at keeping [the information] fresh and current??????? than its biweekly and monthly competitors.

Ohhh, so that’s how this publishing schedule thing works. Competing editors are just going to die when they hear about this new trick.

Jul 25, 2005 · Link · Respond