Hearst’s Levine exit gets Tower treatment

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Levine, the editorial director of Hearst Magazines since 2006, is stepping down at year end, capping 32 years at the company.

The move appears to be yet more belt-tightening at Hearst. But in a long tradition accorded to respected top executives, Levine will get to keep an office in the Hearst Tower and remain a consultant.

Hearst Magazines President David Carey announced Levine’s consulting gig in a memo shortly after Levine took the lead by putting out her own internal memo to staffers.

The Tower office tradition extends to former magazine president Gil Maurer, who is still there, and was afforded the late, legendary Cosmopolitan boss Helen Gurley Brown as well as the late John Mack Carter, the longtime head of development.

But not everyone gets the Tower treatment. Claeys Bahrenburg, a magazine president who was canned in the mid-1990s, did not. Neither did his successor, Cathie Black, who left Hearst to become Mike Bloomberg’s disastrous education chancellor in 2010.

Also denied was Victor Ganzi, who was unceremoniously booted as chief executive when Frank Bennack — who kept an eye on things from his own Tower office — stepped back into an active role. (Bennack’s back in the Tower since he tapped Steve Swartz to succeed him as the CEO.)

Levine worked with Brown at Cosmo. She left to edit Woman’s Day, only to return to Hearst eight years later as the editor of Redbook. In 1994, she became editor of Good Housekeeping, the first woman to hold the job.

One of her biggest coups came when she teamed up with Black to convince Oprah Winfrey to partner with Hearst in a joint venture that led to O, the Oprah Magazine.

The title, which launched in 2000, zoomed to profitability in 18 months and displaced GH as the secondmost profitable magazine at the company at the time.

“I titled this letter, ‘change is good’ because the end of my story sparks a new beginning,” Levine wrote in her memo, adding that she will be working across all Hearst divisions.

“My next role starts in January as a Hearst adviser and a consultant with an office in the Tower working on different projects with various Hearst divisions.”

Blue Bonnier

The Islands are no longer in the stream.

Bonnier, the US publishing arm of the Stockholm-based family-owned media empire, is shutting down the print version of Islands magazine, along with smaller travel titles Destination Weddings & Honeymoons and Caribbean Travel & Life. The latter survived the past several years as a biannual supplement to Islands.

The last issues will appear in November and December. The company said it will relaunch a digital version of Islands in January.

The magazines were being run on a shoestring budget under Editorial Director Shawn Bean — who heads all the outdoor magazines that operate out of Bonnier’s Winter Park, Fla., base — and the corporate brand manager, Matt Hickman.

They undertook a major redesign of the magazines earlier this year, but it was not enough to lure back advertisers in the hard-hit travel category.

Although Bean and Hickman will keep their jobs, about a half dozen staffers are being shown the door.

“The brands were profitable but in decline,” Bonnier USA CEO Eric Zinczenko said. “This move will ensure the path to sustained profitability.”

Time to flee

Time Inc.’s senior vice president of brands, Daniel Kile, said he is resigning and plans to travel the world.

Kile has been overseeing public relations for most of the magazines, ranging from InStyle to Fortune, and worked closely with Evelyn Webster, the executive vice president whose job was eliminated in the restructuring announced earlier in the summer.

Rich Battista, the executive vice president who was running People, Entertainment Weekly and Sports Illustrated, took over as president of brands. He elevated his p.r. person, Susan Parkes, to senior vice president of marketing and communications — essentially making her Kile’s new boss.

Kile, 38, said the move was voluntary.

“This is a dream I’ve had for many years — to travel the world, write, surf and learn howto play tennis,” he said.

Cosper out

Entrepreneur magazine Editor-inChief Amy Cosper appears to be following her own advice and exiting the title for parts unknown. “The journey of a thousand miles begins with one step,” she tweeted on Aug. 29. “I am leaving my post as EIC of Entrepreneur. Keep being epic, my friends. “Time to leave and do new things. Writing books, speaking, documentaries and a motorcycle adventure in my future,” she added. No replacement has been named. Entrepreneur Editorial Director Dan Bova did not return calls.