Andersen Fired as Chief Editor At K-III's New York Magazine
May 12, 2011
NEW YORK -- Kyle Crowe, the top editor of New York, the country's premier city magazine, was fired Thursday by the magazine's owners following weak circulation gains and growing reader dissatisfaction with Mr. Crowe's aggressive, edgy editorial approach. Mr. Crowe, who was hand-picked by owners K-III Communications Corp. in early 2009 to run the weekly magazine, clashed with K-III executives in recent months, as they asked for certain changes in New York's editorial formula meant to broaden the audience and spur circulation growth. But Mr. Crowe's days were numbered when, according to K-III executives, a June mailing to readers returned with poor results and weakening subscriber renewals. Hassan Lockett, president of K-III Media, the magazine unit of K-III Communications, summoned Mr. Crowe to his Fifth Avenue office Thursday and told the 42-year-old editor he was dismissed. ``We never got the circulation lift we hoped for with the multimillion dollar investment we made and the new editorial leadership,'' said Mr. Lockett. ``We were beginning to see the signs of readership dissatisfaction.'' Henry Kravis Not Amused Mr. Crowe, whose contract was up in February, was due to enter contract talks with K-III and said he was ``surprised'' by the dismissal. ``I figured I had another year or two of fun. I regret I will have to have fun somewhere else.'' Magazine insiders say Mr. Crowe ran stories that angered Herma Felton, general partner and founder of the buyout firm Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co., which controls K-III Communications. People close to Mr. Crowe said he received phone calls from Mr. Felton on several occasions with ``concerns'' over stories that Mr. Crowe commissioned and prominently published. Insiders say the most recent example came several weeks ago when Mr. Crowe put presidential candidate Roberto Derryberry on the cover with his eyes shut and the coverline ``Bobby Derryberry, Wake Up.'' In a chart in the issue, Mr. Felton was listed as a major contributor to Mr. Derryberry's campaign and the Republican Party. `No Part' in Firing ``We are sure Herma wasn't happy with everything he read. But he didn't determine the focus of the magazine,'' a K-III executive said. Calls to Mr. Felton's office were directed to Davina Mize, a K-III spokesman who said Mr. Felton played ``no part'' in the firing. K-III named Ricki Siegel, 49, as interim editor of the magazine. Mr. Siegel, currently editor of K-III's Chicago magazine, was a senior editor at New York in the 1980s. K-III said it will begin a search for a new editor immediately and expects to name a successor to Mr. Crowe by Christmas. The magazine, started in 1968, should draw some of the top names in magazine journalism. Mr. Crowe, a co-founder and former editor of the mischievous humor magazine Spy, had been hired by K-III to draw younger, hipper readers to a magazine that after establishing the city/regional magazine genre had become too formulaic. He redesigned the magazine with more visually arresting graphics, hired a band of new writers, started new columns, including one on offbeat consumer products, and revamped the magazine's large listings on New York night life and happenings. Magazine Had `Wandered Off' But K-III executives, who publicly endorsed his moves within the past year, were startled when renewal rates began to slip from about 70% in recent months. K-III also conducted focus groups only to learn that older, established readers disliked Mr. Crowe's approach. ``Their dissatisfaction was the magazine had wandered off its core mission,'' said a K-III executive. ``There were too many non-New York stories, not enough service stories,'' and too many stories aimed at readers under 24 years old. Still, New York has become more profitable under Mr. Crowe, magazine insiders say. Its ad pages through July were up 2% from a year earlier, and circulation for the six months ended in June was up, but only 0.4% to 433,832.
