Bonnie Fuller

In today's New York Post, Keith Kelly reports that Jann Wenner may be trying to sell US Weekly to Condé Nast for $750 million.

That's a lot of scratch for pictures of Katherine Heigl getting Starbucks, but according to Kelly, the magazine is not only "lucrative" (he uses the term twice), but profitable as well:

With weekly paid circulation of more than 1.8 million—and the lucrative newsstand accounting for 1 million of that total—Us Weekly is highly profitable, with an operating profit last year estimated to be around $75 million.

"Us Weekly is one of the more remarkable success stories in recent publishing history," Mr. Kelly writes.  read more »

Leighton Meester goes on Conan O'Brian and totally doesn't act like Blair. [Daily Intel]

The newest pseudo-intern at the Vogue mothership is New York Ranger, Sean Avery, who like most Conde interns might travel to the European couture shows with Anna. [WWD]  read more »

From the department of News You May Have Expected From an Unexpected Source, Perez Hilton has posted a press release announcing that Bonnie Fuller, AMI's Executive Vice President, Chief Editorial Director is stepping down from her management role as of May 14 and will become "editor-at-large" of AMI's Star magazine.  read more »

Freelance Fizzle!  read more »

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In the next five years in Graydon Carter’s world, you’ll walk onto a plane, or a subway, or a soon-to-be-invented mode of transport, and you’ll tuck a little electronic book under your arm. Inside that little book, which will be very expensive at first but soon will cost $150, there’ll be a series of mylar “pages,” and there will be small buttons off to the side, and once you hit one of them, whoooosh, words and photos from Vanity Fair will suddenly appear.  read more »

Because the gossip weeklies closed their issues this week before Heath Ledger’s death (except for People, which features the late actor on their latest cover), they apparently had to find new ways to keep the rapt public’s attention focused in their direction. Star thought of one particularly unique way of doing this, WWD reports today. The whisper magazine’s editorial director, Bonnie Fuller, guest-blogged about the death over at the Huffington Post, where she would then link back to Star’s Web site for, as she put it, “more coverage of Heath’s life and tragic death.”

But she didn’t stop there. She also turned up the heat by speculating that Mr. Ledger had taken his own life, before an autopsy had even begun. Wrote Mr. Fuller of the actor: “None of his gifts, neither talent nor family, appears to have been enough to combat the demons that apparently led Heath to take the pills that could have ended his young life.”

The autopsy yesterday was inconclusive, so authorities refuse to conclusively confirm or deny that theory. Asked about her suicide conclusion, Ms. Fuller told WWD: “The way I wrote it, I didn't mean to say definitively that it was suicide at all. I felt like I left it open.”  read more »

Us Weekly editor Janice Min and Wenner Media agree on what she should be paid: $1.2 million per year, according to a source familiar with Min's contract negotiations. But they don't agree about what she can serve for lunch.

Owing to an impasse over staff perks--including catered meals--Min's contract expired last week before a new one could be signed. Though the New York Post reported last month that the two sides had settled on a deal, Min is now a free agent.

So if your publication needs punchier cover lines, try meeting Min's price--and bringing some cold cuts. On July 4, Whole Foods delivered lunchtime sandwiches to Us staffers who were spending the nation's birthday at the office. The workers also got catered breakfast and dinner. According to a source familiar with the negotiations, Min wants make such holiday meals a permanent perk at the magazine. She also wants to fill three currently vacant staff positions and to allow staffers to expense cab rides home after 9 p.m.

This is Min's first contract negotiation since she moved atop the masthead in 2003, after Bonnie Fuller decamped to American Media. Circulation is up nearly 13 percent under Min, and revenue shot up by 59 percent last year.

Min declined to comment. Wenner Media, though declining to discuss terms of Min's contract, said they have offered their award-winning editor a generous package.

"More than anyone," said Kent Brownridge, Wenner's general manager, "we believe Janice is one of the best and most valuable editors in the world. And we very much want to keep her. We have done everything necessary to keep her interested in staying at Wenner for a really long time."  read more »

--Gabriel Sherman

On May 15, Newsweek editor Mark Whitaker opened up the Web page of The New York Times and read the f  read more »

On Dec.  read more »

It wasn't long ago that David Pecker, the 51-year-old who was catapulted to national attention when  read more »

During Jann Wenner's boozy Nov.  read more »

Wednesday 20th Literature's big night: If you've ever seen members of the self-consciously rumpl  read more »

Ten years ago, a red-hot Tina Brown left Vanity Fair   to become the editor of The New Yorker .One  read more »

People were surprised a couple weeks back when word trickled out that former Glamour editor Bonnie F  read more »

Wednesday 28thMy Bonnie lies over the ocean .  read more »