Submitted For Your Approval: Jane Magazine

The Reaper is bored: it's all reruns, the All-Star Game was won by the American League. I was just chiseling my nails when something caught my glassy eyes: Jane magazine.

How do you solve a problem like Jane? You let the Reaper come by and knock on its new Conde Nast-furnished doors, and take everybody on a long subterranean boat ride.

The Reaper thinks this is a no-brainer candidate:

1. Namesake Jane Pratt, one marriage and one baby later, has a hasty questionable departure from her magazine.
2. Fairchild (aka Conde Nast) brings in new editor Brandon Holley, proclaiming that they don't need Jane Pratt because Jane magazine "is not a person but a state of mind."
3. Holley does the rounds of trade magazines, saying that they are going to freshen things up and reach out for a new audience: "millenials."
4. Advertisers don't understand how a magazine called Jane can still be the same without an editor named Jane (Pratt). They are probably wondering what this "millennial" business is too.
5. In the first half of 2006, Jane magazine loses 41% of its ad pages from the same period a year ago. The Reaper hasn't seen those kinds of numbers since I was ready to snatch the Industry Standard from the green earth.
6. Fairchild and Conde Nast are learning a tough, tough lesson about naming a magazine after a strong personality and that personality leaves.
7. Hearst executives start wondering the same thing about "O" if Oprah decides she wants to devote more time to weight loss, spanking plagiarists or sharing pearls of wisdom on her new satellite radio staion.

ODDS OF SURVIVAL: 20%

Comments

[Heather Smith]

Looks like your prediction came true today...