Manhattan Inc. Will Merge With M Magazine
Manhattan Inc., a magazine that set New York abuzz but that has never turned a profit, will be bought by Capital Cities/ABC Inc. and merged with M magazine to create a male-oriented business and “lifestyle” monthly, the companies announced Thursday.
D. Herbert Lipson, founder and owner of Manhattan Inc., said the editorial staffs will be combined and the new magazine, M Inc., will debut in September. The purchase price of the magazine, which will be part of Capital Cities’ Fairchild Publications unit, was not disclosed.
Lipson said that by giving the magazine a national rather than regional scope and adding feature stories, the merger will attract new advertisers. “This will give us the reach we’ve never had,” he said. The new publication, he said, will be aimed at the “successful, well-heeled man.”
Lipson, whose Metrocorp also owns Boston Magazine and Philadelphia Magazine, will be president of the new venture and will hold some stock in it. He would not disclose the stake.
Jane F. Lane, who has been editor-in-chief of M, will be editor of the combined magazine, while Clay Felker, Manhattan Inc.’s editor, will hold the No. 2 position--editor-at-large.
After its launch in 1984, Manhattan Inc. was much discussed among New York’s elite because of profiles that penetrated the business and personal affairs of the city’s powerful.
The magazine scrutinized the lives of such ‘80s power wielders as entrepreneur Donald J. Trump and defense lawyer Roy Cohn. One talked-about article described the struggles that the wife of Salomon Inc. Chief Executive John Gutfreund went through to have a large Christmas tree moved into her co-op apartment.
But the magazine suffered a series of setbacks, including the resignation of its founding editor, Jane Amsterdam, who left in 1987 after quarreling with Lipson over editorial control. And the company never fully recovered from the effects of the October, 1987, stock market crash, which dried up its all-important financial advertising. The recent weakness in New York’s real estate market has also hurt, Lipson said.
He said the largest advertiser was Drexel Burnham Lambert, which helped fill the magazine with standard display ads and “tombstone” ads describing its role in major investment banking deals. The one-time junk bond powerhouse filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection last March.
Lipson said Manhattan Inc.’s losses over its six-year history were “closer to $10 million than $20 million.”
Manhattan Inc. has an editorial staff of about 25, while M employs about 13 writers and editors, Lipson said. He said the new magazine would have 25 employees, adding that it had not been decided which employees will remain. He declined to say which magazine would have more influence on the new product but said: “Manhattan Inc.’s imprimatur will be evident.”
But Peter W. Kaplan, senior editor at Manhattan Inc., suggested that the Manhattan Inc. staff may have reservations about the merging of the magazines. He said M’s focus has been on fashion stories and “anemic profiles of the kind of people we write about. You might call it ‘suits and empty suits.’ ”
M has had a circulation of about 160,000 and Manhattan Inc. about 115,000, a Capital Cities spokeswoman said. The company will offer advertisers a guaranteed rate base of 200,000, she said. During the past three years, Manhattan Inc.’s advertising page count has dropped nearly 28%, to 660 pages last year from a peak of 912 in 1986.
