SUSAN Toepfer, the former editor of Rosie magazine – who became ensnared in a now-infamous feud with comedian Rosie O’Donnell – is now peddling a novel about a fictionalized magazine and a major magazine publisher.
The lengthy manuscript and book proposal, whose working title is “Getting Personal,” already has publishers buzzing; the auction is expected to get under way today.
Suddenly, roman à clefs set in the publishing world are sizzling. Lauren Weisberger, the former assistant to Vogue editrix Anna Wintour, set off the trend this summer when she snagged an estimated $250,000 from Doubleday for “The Devil Wore Prada.” She’s sold movie rights to Fox Searchlight for more than $600,000.
Then Plum Sykes, a Vogue writer and half of the famous – or infamous – British Sykes sisters, snagged $650,000 from Miramax Books for her own take on the genre, “Bergdorf Blondes.”
Toepfer’s agent, Janis Donnaud, expects to get at least $250,000 – and possibly much more. Representatives from Viking Penguin, Simon & Schuster, Random House and Miramax Books, among others, are getting a first look this week.
Toepfer is not billing the novel as a revenge play against O’Donnell, according to sources who have seen it, and Gruner + Jahr CEO Dan Brewster is said to have been appraised of the work. In her countersuit against G + J, O’Donnell claims she faced disrespect from Toepfer, who frequently rolled her eyes while O’Donnell was talking about ideas for the magazine.
The book may actually draw more heavily on Toepfer’s experiences as a top editor at People, the most profitable magazine in the world.
So it may have some people in the Time & Life building sweating – especially because the novel is said to have a “sting-like” surprise ending.
Toepfer spent 14 years inside Time Inc. and People, rising to the No. 2 spot at the weekly before leaving this spring when she did not get the No. 1 job. She landed as the editor-in-chief of Rosie in July and almost immediately found herself locking horns with O’Donnell over the magazine’s direction.
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Ann Moore – the CEO of the $5 billion Time Inc. magazine empire, not the hat designer – appeared with her posse in Birmingham, Ala., where the Time Inc. subsidiary Southern Progress Corp. is based, earlier this week.
Normally, the appearance of Moore and the brass in force would cause brave men to tremble. Moore is the onetime start-up queen who launched In Style, Real Simple and others when she was running the People group.
Since her promotion to the top job as Time Inc. CEO, Moore has turned to tightening budgets: She shut down two magazines (Mutual Funds and Sports Illustrated Women) in a recent two-week period, and canceled all Christmas parties companywide.
But the meeting in Birmingham – which drew Time Inc. Editor-in-Chief Norman Pearlstine, Editorial Director John Huey and the all the top executives, including Executive Vice President Michael Klingensmith – produced no magazine closures.
A spokesman said that the meeting in Birmingham was not significant, but just one of the periodical top executive meetings. “Earlier this year, they all met in London,” he said.
About the only real news to emerge from the gathering: The attempt to introduce an American version of Loaded appears to be shelved.
Mark Golin, the former editor of Maxim and Details who has been looking at a new men’s magazine, also presented some of his findings to the assembled top brass. But so far, it doesn’t look like he’s about to get a green light. “It’s nowhere close to that,” said a source.
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Dead magazines came to life for one brief, shining moment Monday night at Mediabistro’s party for failed and folded zines.
“People were not bouncing off the walls,” said Laurel Touby, the founder of mediabistro.com and reigning cyberhostess.
The party at Go, on Eighth Avenue, attracted 150 people from some of the most spectacular crash-and-burn acts of the last few years – Talk, the Industry Standard, Brill’s Content, Mademoiselle, Inside.com and Lingua Franca – all gathered together under one roof.
“The vibe was not negative at all; it was kind of like a high school reunion,” said Touby. “There were not a lot of tears – there were a lot of hugs and kisses.”
Everyone wore colored dots to identify the folded magazine where they had once worked. One woman had dots from George, Inside.com and Talk.
Tina Brown of Talk and Steve Brill of Brill’s Content gave the party a pass, even though they were invited. But Frank Lalli, now at Reader’s Digest and the shut-down editor of George, made the scene. So did the former chief editor of Mademoiselle, Elizabeth Crow, now the editorial director of Primedia.
David Talbot, the editor in chief of Salon was there too.
“Salon is still going, so it was kind of odd for him to be there,” said one attendee.
Said Touby, “I think he was just there to commiserate.