• New York Post, Friday, November 28, 2008 10:15 AM

Celebrity magazines can't seem to catch a break. Bauer Publications is making drastic cuts to its ailing Life & Style in the hopes it can save the patient. Publisher Maria Padova and the mag's entire six-person advertising and marketing staff have been let go in the latest shake-up. In October, Donna Armstrong departed as the magazine's editor.

In Touch publisher Mark Oltarsh will become publisher of both titles, which will now be part of a newly named Bauer Entertainment Group. "When the celebrity weekly category heated up, we decided to sell the magazine brands individually, with separate staffs. Now, it makes more sense strategically to sell the weeklies together," says a Bauer rep.

Both magazines apparently have had problems delivering on the circulation promises they made to advertisers. For the second January in a row, both magazines are lowering their rates bases. Life & Style is reducing its base 27% to 400,000, while In Touch will trim circ 20% to 800,000.

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