Why Carol Smith's Leaving "Elle" May Now Force Legarde to Sell Off the Magazines it has in the US - Steve Blacker - MediaBizBloggers

1. Elle is the most profitable magazine in Hachette's US operation; supposedly pre-taxing close to 20 million dollars a year.

2. When Carol Smith was made Publisher of Elle in 2002, the magazine was in freefall and barely making a profit. Back then Woman's Day supported the corporate overhead. Currently, Woman's Day throws off just a shadow of its former profits. JumpStart is rumored to be losing fifteen million dollars a year.

3. Smith is very well liked in the marketplace and was named Ad Age's Publisher of the Year because she is such a brilliant strategist and inspirational leader. Somehow, with many fewer people and resources than her major competitors she was able to carry more ad pages then even Vogue in many an issue. Her sales staff and key executive group loved her. She was the counter balance in keeping up morale as Alain Lemarchand did everything in his power to bring it down.

4. Look for key competitors to pluck away ad schedules with Smith now gone. Lemarchand will have great difficulty attracting any real talent to become Elle's new Publisher as he is reluctant to pay normal salaries and bonuses.. If anything he might look upon Smith's leaving as an opportunity to save money and promote from within.

5. Elle could lose well over five million dollars in ad schedules in the next 12 months due to Smith's leaving.

PREDICTION: Legarde will be forced to shut down their US operation. The current corporate overhead, while lean will still make Hachette unprofitable in the near term future. Hearst will pick up Elle and Elle Decor, Meredith will be the future owners of Woman's Day. Bonnie will purchase Car and Driver and Road & Track.

Steve's new book You Can't Fall Off The Floor - The Insiders' Guide to Re-Inventing Yourself and Your Career chronicles his 50 year career working for over 25 different companies with 189 lessons learned and insider tips from Gayle King, Cathie Black, Chuck Townsend and 28 others; Blacker is still going strong today as a partner in Frankfurt & Blacker Solutions, LLC. His web site is blacker-reinventions.com and e-mail address is blackersolutions@aol.com

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