June
19
Hachette, Hearst Lose CEOs

Media empire shakeups: Hearst and Hachette Filipacchi Media have both lost their chief execs. The NYT posits that Hearst CEO Victor F. Ganzi may have lost his job because he was investing in newspapers, heaven forfend, instead of expanding online. Hachette, which has also been slow to see the online future, has kicked CEO Jack Kliger upstairs to chairman, importing Alain Lemarchand from France to replace him. I worked for Kliger when I was at Premiere. Which means I hold him responsible for the demise of that mag.
Am I alone in believing that Hollywood and movie fans miss it? Stars don't get their cover stories. Movies don't get their production stories. EW, Empire, Vanity Fair and the NYT and LAT Sunday sections are what's left. Nicole Kidman touts Australia in Vogue, but that's not the target demo that Premiere was.
If Hachette had published it properly and moved online when they should have--seen online for the subscription booster and marketing tool that would save the mag--hell, they could have used the Premiere brand name as a movie destination web portal if they had been willing to spend a few pennies. All that Premiere content, all those celebrity profiles--all the traffic they could have had, sitting collecting dust. You can't even link to any Premiere mag stuff online. It's a tragic waste.



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The demise of Premiere was indeed tragic. Whoever shot the gun should be ashamed of themselves. The set reports and interviews were top rate, i've never come acoss anything online to match them.
Thank god for my 20 year complete collection stored away in boxes in my room. Wonderful to browse through.
Posted by: Mark | June 20, 2008 at 02:50 AM