• by Erik Sass  @eriksass1, June 7, 2011

The magazine world seems to be undergoing yet another strategic realignment. Hearst Corp. completed its acquisition of Hachette Filipacchi's consumer magazines, while several major publishers were buying marketing and advertising agencies. Now another big title may be changing hands: Time Inc. has made an offer for Northern & Shell's troubled OK! Weekly.

Sky News first reported the offer, which it pegged at $30 million to $35 million. Subsequently, the news was confirmed by Ad Age, which said the bid is actually somewhat lower, citing unnamed sources -- without providing firm figures.

While it has established a highly visible presence on the newsstand, OK! has been dogged by rumors of financial woes, which were seemingly confirmed by a high rate of turnover in top editorial and publishing positions.

The revolving door at OK! has seen the entry and exit (among others) of Kent Brownridge, formerly of Alpha Media, publisher of Maxim, who served from September 2008-January 2009; editor in chief Susan Toepfer, who lasted from October 2008-January 2009; creative director Jason Oliver Nixon, who led the all-important cover design for less than a month in May-June 2010; publisher Lori Burgess, who lasted from September 2008 to April 2010; and publisher Stephen Gregory Barr, who served from May 2010 to February 2011.

On the financial front, in 2009 the New York Post reported that OK! lost an average $450,000 a week in 2008, citing figures from the British government's agency for tracking corporate performance.

The government organization, Companies House, said Northern + Shell's U.S. operations -- which consist solely of OK!, a weekly celebrity glossy, lost a total $23.4 million in 2008. More recently, former publisher Barr dismissed rumors that the magazine was losing $700,000 per issue.

However, the general impression of the magazine in the industry is still one of an ad publication struggling to find its feet. That impression has remained unchanged ever since it first launched in 2005.

OK! fared poorly in the latest round of ad page figures from the Publishers Information Bureau, covering the first quarter of 2011, as total ad pages fell 5.6% to 240. That compares to a 21.5% gain at Entertainment Weekly, a 23.7% gain at In Touch Weekly, a 36.6% gain at Life & Style Weekly, a 13.1% gain at Star, and a 26.4% gain at US Weekly.