DOWN MEMORY LANE
WE hear that some folks at McGraw-Hill are getting a little nervous about a new tome about former GE chief Jack Welch that’s being written by former Welch speech writer Bill Lane.
The book is said to be largely positive, praising Welch’s ability as a great communicator.
However, Lane doesn’t try to tone down the salty language that punctuated many of Welch’s behind-the-scenes moments – and he’s determined to keep his former boss from getting his hands on the manuscript in advance.
The complication is that the book, titled “Jacked Up: The Inside Story of How Jack Welch Talked GE Into Becoming the World’s Greatest Company,” is due out in January from the McGraw-Hill Professional Books imprint.
Welch also happens to be one of the prize columnists at BusinessWeek, McGraw-Hill’s flagship magazine.
“They are freaking out about it,” said one source.
Known as a micro-manager, Welch earned the nickname “Neutron Jack” by some detractors, and apparently could curse like a truck driver.
“It’s not a dark side, it’s a different side,” said Lane. “Jack, I’m sure on balance, is going to like it, but it’s a side of him we’ve never seen before.”
Welch is said to be aware that Lane is writing the book, but that’s about the extent of his involvement.
Welch’s office said it wasn’t even aware it had a title until Media Ink called about it.
Welch himself could not be reached for comment.
Lane doesn’t want to give his former boss even a small chance to get his hands on the manuscript, because, well, he knows how the man can be.
“He’ll edit anything you show him, and we’re not letting him,” said Lane.
The book is going through final revisions now and Lane says of his former boss, “I’m sure he’ll call.”
History Costs
As of today, The New York Times is abandoning its paid subscription service TimesSelect, forgoing the $10 million in annual subscription revenue that the service generated.
But one tiny element will remain behind the paid wall: archives from 1923 to 1986.
“That’s still a premium archive,” said a spokeswoman.
The ancient archive covering the period from the Times’ launch in 1851 to 1922 will remain free, as well as the archive that runs from 1986 to the present day.
TimesSelect, in which users were charged an annual fee of $49.95 for access to Times columnists and archived articles, was said to be a favorite of Chairman Arthur “Pinch” Sulzberger Jr., though many insiders argued against it almost from its inception two years ago.
“I certainly wouldn’t call it a mistake,” said Vivian Schiller, senior vice president and general manager of NYTimes.com, speaking of the original decision to go with a subscription model. “We exceeded the number of subscribers and we exceed the target revenue.”
American Express has signed on as a charter advertiser for the now-free services, but Schiller had no estimate on how much additional ad revenue the company expects to reap in the coming year.
Small slip
The October edition of Condé Nast’s Portfolio is slated to land on newsstands later this week with a nice healthy 117 ad pages.
That’s down by only five pages from the 122 ad pages that went into the September issue.
Originally, David Carey, the president and publisher of Condé Nast’s Business Information Group, was expecting to tally at least 121 ad pages, but at the last minute he said one advertiser couldn’t get its ad completed in time.
“A four-page insert was moved into December,” Carey said.
He said that the October issue has 20 new advertisers, including Ralph Lauren, which had skipped the previous issue but it is back in the current one. Other newcomers include Kendall Jackson wines, Seiko and Venetian Hotels.
The plan to have a 50-50 mix of business- and consumer-oriented advertisers is slightly tilting in favor of luxury and consumer advertisers, 58 percent to 42 percent.
The ratio may be one to watch in the future. A key reason Condé Nast Chairman S.I. Newhouse Jr. started the magazine was to tap into a whole new brand of business-oriented advertisers that don’t usually invest in Condé Nast magazines.
“Our goal is to run 50-50,” Carey said.
Carey is also predicting 100-plus ad pages in the November and December issues, which would make it one of the strongest four issues for any magazine launch in the corporation’s long and storied history.
That has to be good news for Editor-in-Chief Joanne Lipman, who has been battling chronic tales of staff unrest. Newhouse is unlikely to care about the unrest at the beginning, if the ad pages hold up.
Sister publication Women’s Wear Daily was the first to note that the new issue of the magazine does not contain an editor’s note from Lipman as the first two issues did.
“It’s not set in stone,” Lipman told Media Ink. She said the decision to skip it for October was “not remotely” tied to some of the recent editorial comings and goings, including the August departure of Deputy Editor Jim Impoco and others.
“Not every business magazine runs an editor’s note in every issue,” she said.
Makeover
Typically, when a new editor takes over a magazine, he says he’ll make changes over time.
In Touch Editor-in-Chief Richard Spencer, who on Monday was also tapped to take over sibling Life & Style, is plunging in with a makeover immediately.
“I’m doing it all this week,” he said. “It will be a totally new Life & Style on newsstands next week.”
Mark Pasetsky, a p.r. man only last November tapped to be the editor-in-chief of Life & Style, was given the heave-ho. He is said to be returning to his dormant public relations firm Mark Allen & Co.
His reign has been described as turbulent and when newsstand sales didn’t move very much, the company instituted some drastic downsizing that axed at least seven people from a small staff.