Last updated: 1:34 pm
September 26, 2008
Posted: 3:42 am
September 26, 2008
ANOTHER celebrity editor is packing it in.
Sarah Ivens, who has been running OK! since British billionaire Richard Desmond launched the American version three years ago, is leaving the mag by the end of the year.
"I'm leaving at Christmas," Ivens told Media Ink.
She's getting married to fellow Brit and software architect Russell Moffett, but she won't be moving to England after she's hitched. Instead, she's off to Lexington, Ky.
"The wedding will be next April in the Cotswolds, England," said Ivens over lunch at DB Bistro. "That month, I also have my first American book out, 'No Regrets,' published by Random House. It's a collection of essays from famous people on life decisions they've made.
Ivens insisted that she made the decision to resign in June, months before Kent Brownridge arrived on the scene as the magazine's new general manager, and she says she gave the company a six-month notice as required by her contract.
Ivens has had a dizzying ride, working in daily journalism and at British Marie Claire before landing at Desmond's profitable British version of OK! four years ago as its No. 2 editor.
She was a last-minute replacement to run the American version of OK! three years ago, and Brownridge played an inadvertent role in making that happen while he was still at Wenner Media, which owns Us Weekly.
Brownridge had raided Desmond's British OK! in 2004, taking then-Editor-In-Chief Nicola McCarthy to be second in command to Janice Min, who at the time was on maternity leave.
Now there's speculation that Brownridge might have his eye on her again, this time as editor of OK!.
There is also chatter that Brownridge would love to snag Bonnie Fuller, the out- of- work editrix who was most recently editorial director of the financially struggling American Media Inc.
However, that might be a long shot, given Fuller was pulling in $2.1 million a year at AMI - a price tag Desmond might be loath to pay. Ivens was said to have earned a mid-six-figure salary.
Not too surprisingly, Fuller insisted nothing was afoot. Via e-mail, she said, "I think Kent is terrific and I wish him all the best in his new position. I'm very happy working on my new venture, Bonnie Fuller Media."
Mom mags
Here it is the end of September, and the long drought in publishing mergers acquisitions has ended with Swedish publishing giant Bonnier snapping up Working Mother Media, owner of Working Mother and publisher of the list of the 100 best places for moms to work.
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