Jason Binn, the CEO of Niche Media, has shaken up the masthead at the flagship of his celebrity-friendly magazine empire, Gotham magazine, and at its summertime sidekick, Hamptons Magazine.
He’s also mulling plans to launch new editions in Atlantic City and Chicago.
Jason Oliver Nixon, who has edited Gotham for the past four years, will become the lifestyle editor for the five magazines the company currently produces. He’ll focus on design, home and travel.
Kei Jaminor, who has been Gotham’s managing editor for the past year, is taking the top editorial slot at the title.
Hamptons, which in the past relied heavily on the Gotham staff, is getting its own top editor, Cindi Cook, who had been working on other projects at Niche. In the past, Nixon had supervised that magazine from New York.
Niche also publishes LA Confidential, Boston Commons and Capital File.
Its titles have a combined circulation of over 400,000 a month, many distributed for free to high end users. The revenue of the privately held company is estimated to be over $50 million a year.
Minority shareholders in Niche include John Howard, a Bear Stearns bigwig, and Harvey Weinstein, the movie mogul now running the Weinstein Co. with his brother, Bob.
Binn, who told staff members of the switches late last week, could not be reached at press time. Sources said that Nixon was chafing at all the desk work and felt his strong suit was always design.
Whatever anyone says about the rather fluffy profiles in the magazine, they have always been very well laid out.
This summer, Binn plans to add a sixth magazine, Boardwalk, in Atlantic City, which follows last September’s launch of the Boston and Washington books.
Binn is eyeing an edition in Chicago and recently added a floor of space to his spacious New York headquarters on Park Ave. South.
The fluffy formula frequently leans on advertisers to sponsor parties or dress the stars on the cover in exchange for nice coverage.
“We don’t trash people, we celebrate them,” Binn told Forbes magazine last year.