Daily Mail axes 47 at Elite Daily before its sale

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Daily Mail & Trust cut 47 of the 94 staffers at its Elite Daily site just ahead of the April 17 sale of the millennial women’s destination to Bustle Digital Group, filings by the company with New York regulators reveal.

A Bustle spokesperson acknowledged that it was only taking about half the employees in the unit.

Elite Daily Editor-in-Chief Kaitlyn Cawley is among those spared. She will report to Bustle Editor-inChief Kate Ward.

The Daily Mail Online saw a 7 percent drop in its unique visitors and tumbled to third place among digital newspaper sites in the US — behind the New York Times and the Washington Post.

It’s likely to be even lower in the pecking order next month as it will lose the traffic from Elite Daily, which had fallen to only 11.2 million unique visitors in March, according to comScore, down from 28.8 million a year earlier.

DM&T bought Elite Daily from its founders, paying an estimated $26 million in 2015. But late last year, the UK publisher, citing lower revenue and continuing losses at Elite Daily, took a $31 million write-down against the asset.

Bustle Digital CEO Bryan Goldberg, who in an earlier incarnation was a co-founder of Bleacher Report, said he hopes it can offer the Elite Daily a better home with his other female-focused sites.

“Elite Daily’s audience and editorial strategy will remain largely intact,” said Goldberg, who says that, with Bustle and Romper, he now reaches 80 million women.

“The sales and business strategy will be entirely rebuilt from the ground up, with a focus on native advertising, creative service and leveraging Bustle’s existing client service infrastructure,” he said.

Time stands still

Meredith CEO Steve Lacy sidestepped any direct mention of Time Inc. in his Thursday talk to Wall Street analysts — but it did little to stop speculation that a deal could be near.

“As we have consistently stated, we continue to explore opportunities to add attractive print, broadcast and, of course, digital brands to our media portfolio,” he said.

“We have a consistent track record of being very disciplined acquirers, but like any public company, we will not comment on market rumors or speculation,” said Lacy, in a bid to try to avoid questions speculating about a potential deal for the publisher of People, Time and InStyle.

Meredith is believed to be a frontrunner in the drawn-out talks to buy Time for around $2 billion, plus assumption of debt. Still, others are in the hunt. Meredith recently picked up Atlanta’s WPCH-TV from Time Warner for $70 million.

One analyst on the earnings call Thursday tried a backdoor approach, asking, if a publishing deal “came to fruition,” what impact might that have on the company’s future M&A plans in broadcast?

“We are not a company that … bulks up for the sake of bulking up,” Lacy said, referring to potential broadcast deals. He made no similar disclaimer for publishing, however.

Meredith is still on target for a record year, Lacy said. Its shares gained 25 cents Thursday, to $64.85. Time’s stock fell 30 cents, to $18.30.

Running out

Rodale continues to experience turmoil among top executives. In the latest departure, David Willey, the longtime editor-in-chief of Runner’s World and a senior vice president, has crossed the finish line of his editorial run and announced his departure. No replacement was named.

The title’s chief revenue officer, Bart Yasso, is also out, sources said, as is Rob Novick, head of Rodale International.

Willey, whose departure was first reported in the Allentown Morning Call, became top editor of the nation’s top running magazine in 2003.

Burgi quits

Michael Burgi is calling it quits at Adweek — for the second time. He was most recently the director of editorial partnerships, rejoining in early 2013.

Burgi had earlier been editor of the since-folded Mediaweek before he left for the first time in 2010. He’s going PR again. “Guess it’s time I spill the beans: I’m departing Adweek this Friday, leaving my friends and colleagues ( Jim Cooper, Lisa Granatstein, Cindee Weiss, Ron Goodman, Alfred Maskeroni, et al.) to keep the brand going strong,” he wrote on Facebook.

He starts at DiGennaro Communications on May 8.

Whiskey, too

Marvin Shanken, the publishing entrepreneur behind Cigar Aficionado and Wine Spectator, said he is adding the editor-inchief and publisher title at the Whisky Advocate come April 30. M. Shanken Communications bought the Emmaus, Pa.-based title from the husband and wife team of John Hansell and Amy Westlake in 2010, when it was still known by its original name, the Malt Advocate.