NEW PRIMEDIA EXEC BOOTS FORMER TEEN QUEEN IVERSON
By KEITH J. KELLY , NY POST
Annemarie Iverson has been bounced as editor-in-chief of Seventeen, just short of her one-year anniversary on the job.
Elizabeth Crow, the new editorial director of Primedia, will oversee the teen title on an interim basis.
Iverson's No. 2, Executive Editor Douglas Perlman, was also given the boot yesterday. Both editors were escorted from the premises. Iverson and Perlman were lured from YM, at Gruner + Jahr USA, just days after the Sept. 11 attacks.
Although Iverson was a high-flying editor at YM, with strong newsstand and circulation gains, the numbers did not compute when she moved to rival Seventeen.
In the six months ending June 30, Seventeen's total paid circulation was up 2.6 percent to 2,431,943 - but they got a boost from the circulation list of the folded Teen title, which Primedia picked up in the Emap USA acquisition.
Seventeen's newsstand sales - the area for which editors are deemed to be most responsible for changes, due to their cover selections - dropped by 21.5 percent to 370,350.
Crow, who started at Primedia Aug. 21, landed the editorial director job in late July largely on the strength of what she would do to fix Seventeen. "It is critical that they turn it around and turn it around quickly," said one knowledgeable source.
Iverson's ouster sparked renewed talk that Primedia was thinking of selling the title to the Newhouse family's Conde Nast Publications, which is launching Teen Vogue next spring.
David Ferm, the CEO of Primedia's consumer media group, dismissed that speculation out of hand. "Absolutely not," said Ferm. He cited "management issues" for Iverson's ouster.