• by Erik Sass  @eriksass1, June 13, 2008

The Sliceman Cometh (Again)

Susan Lyne's departure from Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia was just the tip of the iceberg. Over the last two weeks, lots of regular folks got laid off, too, and a fledgling business title got the axe.

Meredith Corp. is cutting 60 positions, according to Folio--spread evenly across the company's divisions, with 20 cuts each at the magazine, book and broadcast operations. Meredith is also opting not to staff 60 vacant positions, for a total reduction of 120. That will more than offset the 100 new employees brought in with the acquisition of Big Content, which specializes in health-related marketing.

Last Tuesday, Reed Business Information cut 41 jobs, affecting Publishers Weekly, Variety.com and Broadcasting and Cable, including both editorial and sales positions. Then, last Thursday, Penton Media went Reed one better, literally--laying off 42 employees. Both publishers attributed the cutbacks to general economic woes, as well as secular pressure on magazines in particular.

Finally, BusinessWeek's regional magazine, BW Chicago, got the axe after eight issues. McGraw Hill shut the magazine down because of the tepid response from advertisers. The demise of BW Chicago also means the end of an ambitious plan to create city-focused regional magazines across the country; the plan apparently depended on the success of BW Chicago as a trial run.

Women's Health to Increase Rate Base

Women's Health will raise its rate base 250,000 to 1.35 million with its January/February issue--a 23% increase. The increase is the magazine's fifth since it debuted with a circulation of 400,000 in January 2006. After the scheduled increase at the beginning of next year, the rate base will have jumped about 235% in three years. The news of a rate base increase comes not long after the magazine's publisher, Rodale Inc., named Men's Health editor David Zinczenko editorial director of Women's Health as well.

Modern Luxury to Launch Manhattan

The only surprise here is that there isn't already a luxury magazine called Manhattan. Modern Luxury intends to rectify this oversight with a new luxury lifestyle magazine scheduled to launch in September. The magazine, edited by Richard Martin, will fill out Modern Luxury's portfolio of regional luxury magazines, giving the publisher truly national reach. It joins The Atlantan, CS Chicago Social, Modern Luxury Dallas, Modern Luxury Hawaii, Houston, Angeleno, Miami, Napa Sonoma, Riviera, San Francisco and DC.

Parenting.com Partners with Zag.com

Parenting.com, the Web portal for both Parenting and Baby Talk magazines, has partnered with Zag.com, an online auto-buying platform, to create an exclusive car-buying program for people registered at the Parenting.com Web site. Zag.com maintains a national network of car dealerships, allowing it to connect buyers with dealers who also offer discounts through the service.

With other partners like AAA, Overstock.com, and Capital One Auto Finance, Zag.com will allow Parenting.com users to research pricing, performance and safety data for hundreds of cars, then buy one at a price guaranteed to be lower than Kelley Blue Book, without haggling with a dealer in or visiting a car lot. Of course, women can also use it to conduct background research, without actually buying a car. According to Parenting.com, women influence over 85% of all car sales to U.S. households.

BusinessWeek.com Bows More User-Generated Content

The new features are coming fast and furious at business news Web sites. This week, BusinessWeek.com unveiled a new column, "My Take," that will be written entirely by readers of BusinessWeek.com. The counterpart to "Viewpoint" in the print magazine, BusinessWeek.com hopes it will spur reader engagement with the site, which has recently introduced a host of user-generated and community features. The site is also launching Business@Work, a discussion forum where questions about popular work-related topics are posed based on reader submissions. Visitors are then invited to comment on the topics with short essays (or less structured responses). The feature will run until August, when it will wrap up with a special issue of the magazine, a multimedia package of articles and videos, and broadcast segments on BusinessWeek TV.

Kiplinger.com Launches Small Business Center

BusinessWeek isn't the only business publication boosting its online offering. Kiplinger.com launched its new Small Business Center. Part of Kiplinger.com's existing Business Resource Center, the Small Business Center includes a resource library covering costs, expansion, employee health care, and human resources; new videos updated weekly; audio conferences with experts; and forecast, recommended readings and expert advice.

Jay Woodruff Named EIC of Maxim.com

Jay Woodruff has been appointed editor in chief of Maxim.com, where he will be responsible for directing daily coverage of entertainment, sports, technology, gear and lifestyle content. In this capacity, he will work closely with Maxim Editorial Director James Kaminsky to set editorial strategy and direction. The current EIC of Maxim.com, Gene Newman, will stay on until July 18 to help with the transition.