Editors of magazines about direct marketing are wont to say to their reporters, “Can you find out what kind of response the mailing got?” (And the reporter is wont to say, “They won’t tell me.”) It seems that for a big-name New York editor of a magazine that happens to be named New York, failing to get the right mailing response may have had a role in his firing.
That editor would be Kurt Andersen. A recent issue of the Village Voice speculated that disappointing direct mail prospecting and renewal rates were among the reasons Andersen got the ax in August.
Not so, says David Adler, a spokesperson for KIII, which owns New York. Adler tells DIRECT that differences in editorial direction were what caused Andersen’s masthead beheading.
That would confirm the industry speculation alluding to Andersen’s unfavorable coverage of K-III’s allies.
Unfavorable coverage from a co-founder of Spy magazine? We’re shocked.
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