JANE EDITORS JUMP SHIP By KEITH J. KELLY September 28, 2005
ALL is not well at Fairchild Publications' Jane magazine.
There is tension on the staff that founder Jane Pratt left behind, and in recent days editors have been dashing for the exits.
Although an ad campaign in Women's Wear Daily praises Editor in Chief Brandon Holley — who landed from Elle Girl — for being "so Jane," Pratt the editor has been in the office only once since the sudden announcement that she was exiting.
I picked up the October issue of Jane at Barnes & Noble to pass time between classes. The first thing I noticed? It was very, very thin. The second thing I noticed? Jane Pratt, founder and EIC, abruptly left the company.
In her last Editor’s Letter she didn’t give a reason for her sudden departure. Does Jane have a responsibility to her readers to explain why she’s leaving the magazine she founded and named after herself? I think so.
Jane Pratt built up loyal readers starting with pre-teen Sassy Magazine and then brought those readers to twenty-something Jane Magazine. She was EIC for Jane for 9 years.
It’s apparent to readers that if Jane Pratt really cared about the future of Jane Magazine she wouldn’t have kept it such a secret and made sure the transition to the new EIC wasn’t such a surprise. I wonder if her editors and writers knew she was leaving. From the few blogs and this NY Post article, I don’t think they did.
Perhaps I’m naïve and this is how the magazine business works. I’m not an avid Jane reader – I don’t even subscribe – but I felt like she gave her loyal fans a raw deal.
Josh (not verified) @ October 23, 2005 - 6:11pm
I found this post from Gawker dating back to July, so this wasn't too much of a surprise, I suppose. Here's a statement from Pratt:
Since Fairchild is part of a privately held company, its internal happenings are largely secret, so we will likely never know if someone thought the magazine was stagnating or something. But even without a couple of months' notice, the sudden disappearance of a magazine editor is not overly surprising in the industry.
Disclosure: I work for Syracuse.com, a division of Advance Internet, whose parent corporation also owns Fairchild Publications (to which Jane belongs).
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