Ex-Esquire editor turns into agent, literally

Former

Esquire editor-in-chief David Granger, who was pushed out in January after 19 years, is embarking on a new career as a literary agent, sources tell Media Ink.

He will be working with David Kuhn, who started the Kuhn Projects in 2002. Like Granger, Kuhn grew up in the magazine world, working at The New Yorker, Vanity Fair and Brill’s Content before hanging out his own shingle in 2002.

Granger, who was known as a “writer’s editor,” stepped down after Hearst brass decided it wanted someone with more fashion focus who would carry the flag at red carpet events and develop more digital projects.

Granger could not be reached for comment, but he is already being listed on the Kuhn Web site as an “agent.”

ESPN score

A top Esquire writer who followed longtime editor David Granger out the door has landed at ESPN The Magazine.

Tom Junod, who won two National Magazine Awards while at Esquire, said in April that “Missing” would be his last story for Esquire.

Chad Millman, ESPN’s editorial director, said Junod’s decision to join the magazine will not be a big departure for the famed long-form journalist.

“He’ll be doing impactful, enterprising story-telling,” Millman said.

Terms of his contract were not disclosed. There was some dispute over how much he was paid during his years at Esquire.

When the late GQeditor Art Cooper heard that one of his prize writers was going to defect to Esquire, Cooper worked out a package of $300,000 to try to get him to stay in the 1990s. However, Junod had grown comfortable working with Granger as deputy editor at GQ.

“My contract with Esquire was al- ways misunderstood,” Junod told Media Ink. “Art Cooper offered me $300,000 a year to stay at GQ and to start writing for The New Yorker. Out of loyalty to David Granger, I went to Esquire for much, much less. Other than that, I’m not going to talk about money,” he said.

Spit out

The editor-in-chief of Aspen Peak magazine was fired Thursday after it was revealed that he plagiarized stories for his freelance food column in the Aspen Daily News.

The Aspen Daily News said it found at least 14 articles that Damien Williamson had ripped off from a staffer who had written for the paper years earlier.

He was subsequently fired from his day job at Aspen Peak, part of GreenGale Publishing.

“Mr. Williamson is no longer an employee of GreenGale Publishing,” a spokeswoman said.

The plagiarism came to light after former Aspen Daily News reporter Rob Seideman noticed that a column he published years earlier popped up again, with Williamson’s byline. Seideman found at least a dozen other instances and con- tacted Daily News Managing Editor Curtis Wackerle.

“It’s gut-wrenching for any news organization to report on itself under these circumstances, but we felt the right thing to do was be as open and transparent as possible with the story,” Wackerle said. “It’s very difficult because Damien has been a friend and a trusted colleague for 10 years. I love him and know he will bounce back.”

Williamson owned up in a statement to the Daily News.

“Regardless of the fact that this serious journalistic crime was limited to a bi-weekly food column, it was a betrayal to the readers, my editors, publisher, the Daily News owner, the writer whose work I so callously proffered as my own, and all journalists who work tirelessly in an increasingly competitive field,” he said.

Off the road

Time Inc. has shut down Fast Lane Daily, an auto enthusiast YouTube channel that it only acquired in February and was feeding into its new auto site, The Drive.

The channel host, Derek DeAngelis, teared up at times as he broke the news during his show on Wednesday.

“Without much warning at all, we were all told that Fast Lane Daily has been put on hiatus for the foreseeable future,” DeAngelis said.

“We were bought by Time Inc. about five months ago or so, and I thought, ‘Wow, this is a big deal. We’ll have a larger budget — we’ll be able to do a lot more.’ People were congratulating the crew and [me],” he continued.

Fast Lane was started in 2007, racking up 2,387 shows and making it one of the oldest channels on YouTube. DDeAngelis said his channel had more than 300,000 subscribers.

Matt Bean, the senior VP of editorial content who is in charge of The Drive, could not be reached for comment on the move, which was first reported by Jalopnik.com.

A Time Inc. spokeswoman said, “We’re evaluating our programming strategy.”

DeAngelis said that there was a possibility someone else could buy the channel.