Thank you, Rosie

Folio: The Magazine for Magazine Management, Sept 1, 2002

Byline: CABLE NEUHAUS, EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

In my former life as a Los Angeles-based cheese at Entertainment Weekly, I frequently worked on stories involving money, power, sex, treachery, angry recriminations, and secret documents. It was not uncommon, especially in the waning days of a slow-news summer, to simultaneously juggle two stories of that description. Such was the good life in the California sun. And such remains the ongoing and endlessly fascinating psychodrama of the American entertainment industry.

As the editor of FOLIO:, I figured it was good-bye to all that. I did not expect to ever run across a story equally rich. The publishing industry is competitive and sometimes amoral, and it is populated by no shortage of egocentrics. But it's not exactly sex, drugs, and rock and roll. Hardly ever, that is.

So, call me lucky. I'm on the job barely a month, and suddenly manna appears in the guise of Rosie O'Donnell. Hers is a magazine-industry story the likes of which I may not see again for quite a while. (No surprise, it could not have happened were it not for Gruner Jahr USA's determination to leverage a magazine off the charisma of an entertainment personality. It's just that maybe they picked the wrong personality.)

In our cover story this month, staffers Jillian Ambroz and Geoff Van Dyke take a fresh look at how G J USA and O'Donnell came to blows, what it means for the players involved, and what outcomes are possible at this point. It is, alas, a story of money, power, sex, treachery, angry recriminations, and secret documents. In other words, a Hollywood-style tale all the way.

Another drama we tackle in this issue of FOLIO: involves the unbelievably swift demise of Yahoo! Internet Life, a magazine that, it seems only yesterday, was among the hottest in the land. Our storyteller is none other than that book's long-time editor, Barry Golson. Although Barry lost his job at YIL, he remains remarkably sober about his experience at the now-defunct Ziff title. He could have told this provocative tale elsewhere, and he was asked to. We're pleased his exclusive insider's account appears in FOLIO:.

Finally, you'll notice some changes in this issue of the magazine. In preparation for an October redesign, we've begun to rearrange some of the content (and, you'll see, we've added new features as well). Everything's still here, but not always where you were accustomed to finding it. For example, FOLIO: Plus is now called Real-World Solutions, which begins on the first page of our new Enterprise Zone section. Some of the newsier pieces, especially pertaining to the to-and-fro of capital, have been combined under the Magazine Marketplace umbrella. What was formerly Front of Book, a sort of miscellany, can now be found in another new section, Magz. Once you thumb through this issue, the new organization of content should be easy to figure out. I hope you like it.

And one more thing: Simon Dumenco, author of our popular Back Page column, is still in here. You'll find his latest contribution, in a column now named The Glossies, on page 9.

TO RESPOND, WRITE TO CABLE AT FOLIO:, 470 PARK AVENUE SOUTH, 8TH FLOOR, NEW YORK, NY 10016; PHONE: 212-545-3603; OR E-MAIL CNEUHAUS@MEDIACENTRAL.COM.