Now Is Winter of Brill's Content : Founder Wrestles With Primedia
When Steve Brill swooped down last April and swept up the flashy,
struggling media-biz Web site Inside.com-with the assistance of Primedia, thepublisher of New York magazine-the
gesture looked gallant, improbable. Here was Mr. Brill, the demanding,explosive
journalismcrusader whoseeponymous magazine, Brill's
Content , portrayed itself as the growling watchdog of the media, seizing
control of a jazzy newsroom founded by culture seismologists Kurt Andersen and
Michael Hirschorn. And he was taking over with backing of the bottom-line
corporation that owned New York , and
also cranked out pasty trade titles like
Folio and Cable World .
Today, this strange marriage appears to be in deep trouble.
Barely six months into their relationship, Mr. Brill and Inside seem about as
compatible as Michael Jackson and Lisa-Marie Presley. Primedia is in the dumps:
The stock price is at $2.02, and still-optimistic company C.E.O. Tom Rogers is
under pressure to sell
assets. Now speculation rages as to whether Mr. Brill will seek to extricate
himself from his complicated deal with Primedia and assume full control
himself-
orwhetherPrimedia will buy Mr. Brill out and take over the mess themselves.
And it's a fine mess. Inside/Brill Media is an angry shop, full
of frustrated staffers who worry that their efforts are goingtowaste-and that
their jobs may soon follow. Every rumor about alleged discussions between Mr.
Brill and Mr. Rogers causes more panic. At the same time, Brill's Content editor in chief David Kuhn is at work closing an
issue that, because of the current upheaval, many staffers believe will never
see a newsstand. "None of us think the magazine's going to come out," said one
Inside/Brill source. "Editors are telling us, 'Don't spend too much time on the
magazine stuff, because there might not be one.'"
What makes the Inside/Brill Media situation especially bizarre is
that Inside.com reporters have been aggressively chronicling Primedia's and
Inside/Brill Media's own problems. It was Inside.com that reported that
according to unnamed bankers, Primedia had put its regional magazines, Chicago and New York , on the block. Last week, Inside.com broke the story of
Primedia's attempted sale of its gun titles. Inside's Mark Miller also wrote
about the capsizing of Mr. Brill's online venture, Contentville.
But despite their efforts to report on their own future-or
demise-staffers mostly feel lost, in the dark.
"I mean, everyone knows we're on the ropes," said one Brill
employee. "If someone-anyone-would just call a staff meeting and say something
like, 'It's a tough time, we're doing the best we can, we'll let you know what
the situation is as soon as we learn more,' I think everyone would be more
inclined to keep on going. Instead, you have the top brass treating everyone
like assholes, acting like there's nothing wrong. It's patronizing, and it
makes people work less."
Neither Mr. Brill nor Mr. Kuhn returned Off the Record's calls
for this story. Brill's Content editor Eric Effron declined to
comment. Primedia's Tom Rogers also
declined comment through a company spokesperson.
But Inside/Brill sources said that any break between Mr. Brill
and Primedia would be complicated because of the tangled nature of last
spring's deal. Primedia owns 49 percent of Brill Media Holdings, and Mr. Brill
is the managing partner of Media Central-the company's hodgepodge of media
trade magazines. At the time of the deal, it was reported that Mr. Brill would
receive a payment in cash, stock or both if he could boost the fortunes of
those properties.
According to sources, Mr. Brill and Mr. Rogers have been actively
conversing in meetings and on the telephone, trying to figure out a deal. On
Tuesday, Oct. 9, sources said, Mr. Brill met with partners from his own
company, Brill's Media Holdings. That evening, he was due to meet again with
Mr. Rogers.
As Mr. Brill met with his financial heavyweights, some of his
employees held out hope that the financially strapped Primedia would come up
with the cash to buy Mr. Brill out. If this happened, sources speculated, the
company would likely close Brill's
Content , while keeping Inside open as a way of further building the Media
Central brands.
Said one source: "Even from a common-sense standpoint, it's crazy
to think they'd sell him Media Central. It's a profitable component."
But others warned that Mr. Brill would have difficulty walking
away from another one of his media children.
"Brill seems to have an emotional stake in this," said another
source.
Then there's Primedia's own problems. The company has what one
analyst, speaking on the condition of anonymity
politely called a "liquidity issue," more specifically "the need to
borrow money in order to make its bills by the end of the year." Having spent
more than $1 billion for the About.com Web sites and the Emap magazine titles
combined, Primedia has pledged to cut $250 million in assets, and soon. On
Tuesday, the New York Post reported
that it had put the public-relations giant Bacon's Information unit up for
sale, hoping to get $125 million.
"The larger issue is Primedia's debt," said Reed Phillips, with
the media investment bank of DeSilva & Phillips. "They're in an awkward
position. The properties that will get the best price also have the highest
cash flow."
But given the company's need to raise money, sources said, it
might just be willing to sell its share of Brill Media Holdings, as well as
Media Central, to Mr. Brill.
"If I had to bet," said one Brill source, "I'd bet on Brill,
given his commitment to this and his backers. But I wouldn't bet that much."
More certain, it seems, is the fate of Brill's Content . Most sources agree that while Inside.com may make
it, Brill's Content will not. One
Brill source put it this way: "Whoever ends up with the entity is definitely
going to close the magazine. Even if it's him."
As one publishing executive who knows Mr. Brill put it: "He's
clearly stumbled very badly here. Very, very badly. But Steve Brill's never
finished."
Meanwhile, the troops soldier on at both Inside and beleaguered Brill's Content , in the face of what has
become a thoroughly confusing storm.
On Tuesday morning, a mass
e-mail was sent to employees of Media Central under the heading "News." When
people opened it up, they found an intro saying that it was meant to be the
"first" in a series of updates about the happenings at Media Central, Inside
and Brill's Content . What followed was a sunny birth announcement and news of a
Cable World employee attending his
10-year reunion. There was a note about Folio's redesign, but no news about
whether, in the next week, people would keep their jobs or not.
"This is getting really tiresome," said one staffer. "I'd just
like to know."
