Magazines: Money Changes Hands

New Editor Will Report To 'Fortune' M.E. In A First For Time Inc.
Last week's reordering of the financial titles at Time Inc.-including the creation of a structure in which one managing editor reports to another, rather than to corporate editor-in-chief Norman Pearlstine-is a first for the company. Fortune managing editor John Huey, to whom new 33-year-old Money m.e. Robert Safian will report, will now also oversee Money, as m.e. of eight years Frank Lalli moves to the new corporate post of senior executive editor. But Huey, a protegƒ of Pearlstine, downplays the change.
"Bob Safian is the best personal-finance editor around," said Huey. "But Rik Kirkland [Fortune deputy m.e., who will also have oversight of Money] and I are more experienced bureaucrats. We know how to get stuff done in a corporate setting. It's just a practical solution."
Huey wouldn't comment on specific plans for Money. A Fortune insider said a major redesign of Money is in the works; Huey recently completed a successful redesign of Fortune.
Another source close to Huey said that Lalli's approach was considered outdated. Lalli, a former Los Angeles Herald Examiner metro editor and New York Daily News associate editor, is seen at Time Inc. as a strong, old-school consumer advocate whose subject matter just happened to be money.
"I think Money got trapped in the '80s," said Pam McNeely, media director of Dailey & Associates in L.A. "With so much new competition out there, they have to be sharp." Said the publisher of one of those competitors: "We're out here with very sophisticated stuff, more computerized information and better graphics, and [Money] is running Joe-Sixpack finance stories. They look retro."
Money is by far the leader in the personal-finance category, with 1.9 million in circ for the first half, down 6.7 percent. In recent years, as Money's circ has slipped slightly, a handful of young competitors have added a combined 1.5 million in circ. Money's ad pages were up 7.7 percent, to 906 pages, through September. Huey said Money is more profitable than ever.
"The world's changing a lot," said Huey, "and we want to keep up with what our readers want." As far as editorial synergies, Huey said he anticipates the "rotation of people [from one book to the other] for interims of time," as well as "joint brainstorming," and sharing statistical information.
Lalli, who will continue as m.e. through December and will in his new role coordinate international expansion of the Money franchise, said: "I brought a high sense of advocacy to the magazine. I represented the American middle class." n