Digital time capsule
Sat. Evening Post archive bonanza
THE Saturday Evening Post for the first time in its nearly 200year existence has its storied history available digitally.
The publication, which started calling itself the Saturday Evening Post in 1821, was earlier known as the Pennsylvania Gazette and owned by Benjamin Franklin.
“We’ve been scanning the editorial since 2009,” said Joan SerVaas, the president and CEO of the current publisher, the not-forprofit Saturday Evening Post Society.
“Up until now, you would have had to come to our offices in Indianapolis to gain access to our archives,” said SerVaas. Her father, Beurt SerVaas, purchased the publication from the remnants of the Curtis Publishing Company in 1970.
In its heyday, the magazine was one of the biggest-selling weeklies in the country and featured the first serialization of what became Jack London’s classic “The Call of the Wild” as well as novels from Ray Bradbury, Kurt Vonnegut and Joan Didion. Such illustrators as Norman Rockwell and Americana painter John Philip Falter graced its covers in the years before it turned to photos.
To gain access past the paywall requires a $15-a-year membership to the society. The 280,000 members get a subscription to the sixtimes-a-year magazine, access to the treasure trove in the archives that includes editorial as well as vintage ads — such as one featuring baseball manager Leo Durocher puffing on a Chesterfield — and various perks like discounts on insurance. Adds SerVaas, “We’re always looking for more members.”
Picardi’s out
Phillip Picardi will spend his last day at Condé Nast on Friday and jump straight into his new job as editor-in-chief of Pride Media’s Out on Nov. 1 — a little earlier than first planned.
“In a lot of ways, I’m sad to leave Condé Nast and Anna Wintour’s mentorship,” said Picardi, the 27year-old rising star at Condé who jolted the publishing world in August when he announced he was leaving as chief content officer of Teen Vogue and the LGBT-themed Them for a new job at Out.
Picardi had to wait until Condé raided new Teen Vogue EIC Lindsay Peoples Wagner from New York magazine before he could exit. “I’m excited to be able to build something new,” he said.
Of course, his first order of business will be to calm a ship that has been rocked by a fair degree of turmoil recently.
“I expect to be hiring 10 to 11 peo- ple shortly after I start,” said Picardi, who is building up a new full-time staff.
Pride Media bought Out from previous owner Here Media in mid-2017. At the time, it was paying close to $1 million a year to outsource the entire editorial operation to Brooklyn-based Grand Editorial
Grand owner Aaron Hicklin had sold the company to Evanly Schindler’s firm, McCarthy Media, in mid-2017.
Somewhere along the way, freelancers ended up getting stiffed. Nathan Coyle, the CEO of Pride Media since May, insisted Grand was getting paid, but not paying its freelancers.
Schindler, who owns BlackBook, points the finger back at Pride, which he says slowed down payments and stopped paying him entirely in August, with a $280,000 tab.
Coyle concedes that the company, which owns The Advocate and several other publications aimed at the LGBT set, is looking to raise capital next year. One of the proposals under study might be an initial public offering using the same Regulation A+ financing that High Times has been using, to limited success. High Times and Pride Media are both owned by private equity firm Oreva Capital, headed by Adam Levin.
“We’re definitely on a plan to raise more money next year,” said Coyle. “We’re still looking at the best way to do it.” But he calls Picardi “the perfect face of the new Out.” And Picardi, who hopes to add video and international editions next year, says, “I’m confident with the budgets I’ve been given.”