Yachting Mogul Buys E&P, Sets Crew Adrift
Dirk Smillie, 01.15.10, 12:00 PM EST
''Editor & Publisher'' is saved by an Irvine, Calif., boat magazine publisher, but two key staffers will not remain.
http://www.forbes.com/2010/01/15/newspapers-editor-and-publisher-business-media-editorandpublisher.htmlThursday evening, after three hours of e-mails and Twitter feeds carrying rumors that the dying newspaper trade mag Editor & Publisher would be rescued by a mysterious publisher, the magazine's editor, Greg Mitchell, received a call at 6 p.m. On the line was Duncan McIntosh, the Irvine, Calif., publisher of Boating World and FishRap. Mitchell had met McIntosh a week earlier in New York to talk about a possible purchase of E&P. At that meeting, Mitchell says McIntosh told him there was "no question" he would stay on as editor.
Or so he said. Last night the call from McIntosh "was not a cordial conversation," said Mitchell. McIntosh informed him that, yes, he was buying the magazine, but that both Mitchell and E&P veteran editor Joe Strupp would have to go, leaving just four editorial staff in place. The move left E&P fans in shock. Mitchell and Strupp are the twin engines of some of E&P's best editorial work, notably its award-winning coverage of the Iraq war.
Mitchell says the motivation can't be purely financial--neither he nor Strupp draw enormous salaries. McIntosh is producer of the Newport Boat Show, where a 50-foot cruiser named the "Bad Debt" was on sale recently. E&P's liabilities aren't known, and terms of the deal haven't been disclosed.
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The devil sure was hiding in the details