From the NY Post
Fashion icon Ralph Lauren is once again shopping for a publisher to back him in the launch of Polo, an upscale lifestyle magazine.
Now the mag is getting a serious look at the top of Time Inc. - from Isolde Motley, a corporate editor with a dotted line to Time Inc. editor-in-chief Norman Pearlstine.
Sources say that American Express Publishing and Conde Nast are also looking it over.
It's not the first time that Lauren has looked seriously for a publisher. In fact, Lauren was hot and heavy with Hearst Corp. more than decade ago, but the project never made it off the drawing boards.
Aside from the advertising slump that is still afflicting magazine publishers, there is growing concern about magazines linked to celebrity brands.
Hearst Corp. had looked anew at the project but the talks recently broke off. The real driving force behind it now is Ralph Lauren's son, David, who is the chief creative and marketing officer of Ralph Lauren Media. David Lauren had launched his own magazine called Swing, aimed at Generation X, but it folded more than three years ago after a five-year run.
In the latest effort, expected to hit newsstands sometime next year, David Lauren is teaming up with the former group publisher of Men's Health, Jeff Morgan, who joined Ralph Lauren a few years agoto help develop the company's Web site. Morgan is now the president of Ralph Lauren Media.
Time Inc. has pushed the idea of developing Polo as a custom-published title - where the client essentially OKs the finished product and the publisher collects a set fee for the printing and distribution.
But both Laurens have grander plans for it - envisioning more of an aspirational lifestyle fashion magazine - and are looking to land a joint venture deal. In that kind of deal, the publisher and the fashion house would both assume the financial risk.
Talks are still preliminary. "We're probably a few months away from a deal right now," said a source with knowledge of the talks.