The New York Post’s Keith Kelly, the top media writer in New York, says that American Media Inc. has a prospective suitor in its proposed sale of the National Enquirer and other supermarket tabloids.
Yesterday, Kelly spotlighted James Cohen, whose father built Hudson News, the massive newsstand and magazine distributor. Jimmy Cohen, as he is known, has tabloid ink running through his veins. His late sister was beloved gossip columnist Claudia Cohen. Jimmy, Kelly points out, is loaded after selling Hudson to to the duty-free shop pioneer Dufry. He remains on the board of Hudson.
Cohen’s only other publication is a very high end art magazine known to few wealthy and high-falutin’ types, called Galerie Magazine. It’s considered a vanity project for his wife, Lisa, who’s reportedly burned through staff and money like there’s no tomorrow. Their most recent editor who didn’t last was Margaret Russell, who came from Architectural Digest and Elle Decor, and is finishing up a six year term on the Kennedy Center board, appointed by President Barack Obama.
These are not people who flip through the National Enquirer. Or want to know about Jeff Bezos’ beeswax.
Then there’s Adam Sandow, the publisher and lifestyle guru from Miami whose company has been the real engine behind Galerie. His company, called Sandow, also publishes “Luxe,” one of those thick-with-ads for things no one can afford mags. He’s also involved in high-end beauty magazines, the kind with really thick, glossy pages. These people have never felt newsprint in their hands, except when it wraps fish. They do not know about Wendy Williams or her errant husband, or the 29 year old kid who sued his parents for throwing out his porn collection. They think Kardashian is a carpet store on lower Fifth Avenue.
So this should be interesting. The best thing David Pecker can do is get rid of the Enquirer, and fast. But Cohen and his associates may not be the right, er, fit.
