The Two Publishing Giants Were Regularly Sour Rivals With Cond Titles Such As Vogue And Glamour Fighting It Out Against Hearst Titles Harper’s Bazaar And Sophisticated But They Had To Cooperate In A Nationwide Distribution Partnership.

Believe it or not, Canadian multimillionaire Jim Pattison has taken over CoMag, the nation’s mag distributor that was jointly owned by Cond Nast and Hearst.

Pattison, an 82-year old entrepreneur, built a single vehicle showroom in the 1960s into a far-flung conglomerate that today owns grocers chains, radio stations, amusement parks, paper pulp mills, Stories Group, one of the largest wholesale magazine distributors in North America, and the Ripley’s Believe It or Not franchise.

The CoMag alliance was always an odd one.

The 2 publishing giants were frequently sour rivals with Cond titles like Style and Glamour battling it out against Hearst titles Harper’s Bazaar and Cosmopolitan but they were forced to cooperate in a state distribution collaboration.

As well as the Hearst and Cond Nast titles, CoMag also handled outside clients like Television Guide and Reader’s Digest. Up until 2 years back, it also handled Us Weekly, but lost it to rival Time Warner Retail group owned by Time Inc.

The nation’s distributors would advance cash to publishers based mostly on how many copies were heading to wholesalers and outlets and then it might make adjustments based totally on how many copies were returned. They never really physically took possession of the copies that task was left to wholesalers who owned warehouses that received mags from printers and then shipped them to retailers around the country.

“The full distribution channel has been financially agitated for 15 years,” announced John Harrington, editor of the New Single Copy, which tracks the industry. “This deal has more potential to align finances in a good fashion than any development in recent years. It puts 2 levels of the industry under one umbrella.”

The most important shock to the magazine distribution world came in 2009 when one of its largest wholesalers, Anderson News, went out of business.

“Overnight 25 % of the retail market didn’t receive magazines for 2 weeks,” claimed Harrington. “Sales shrunk, and then it was followed with the general fall-off in the market because of the recession.”

CoMag is at present losing cash, sources claimed.

John Loughlin, an executive VP at Hearst asserted, “Our final objective is : How can we sell more mags more effectively.”

He claimed that both Cond Nast and Hearst agreed to 10-plus year relationship with the news Group.

While the CoMag deal was being hammered out, Cond brass huddled at the company’s yearly publishers’ meeting in bright Palm Beach, Fla.

One of the keynote speakers at the three-day event was Blackstone Group Vice President Byron Wien who unveiled his “Ten Surprises for 2012.” Among his predictions : unemployment will fall to eight p.c, the price of oil will plunge and the economy will grow at a very healthy 3 p.c rate.

MANAGING DIRECTOR Chuck Townsend also handed out the Publisher of the Year award to Vogue’s Susan Plagemann, whose mag nosed out Self-importance Fair and Wired to win notable business performer of the year.

In other respects, the business turnabout award went to Giulio Capua at Architectural Digest, the cooperative leadership award went to New Yorker Editor-in-Chief David Remnick and publisher Lisa Hughes. Gina Sanders, Managing Director of the Fairchild Group, was knighted with the executive of the year award.

Quick vote

More than 60 employees of El Diario / La Prensa who are part of the Newspaper Guild unit will turn a thumbs down or up on a new contract today barely 24 hours after they got their first look at it.

The suggested contract, worked out between the union and the parent corporation, Impremedia, with assistance from an outside mediator, is still calling for seventeen heads to be axed.

It will give as severance 2 and a half weeks pay for each year of service and bar further sackings for a year.

The deal comes as Impremedia continues negotiations to sell itself to the politically-connected Mitre family of Argentina, the powers behind La Nacion, the second largest newspaper in Argentina.

“Everybody is ticked off,” said one insider. “Nobody understands the contract and they are not giving us any time to review it.”

The vote is set for 4:30 pm today.

Impremedia owners include the Lozano family, the founders of La Opinion, the corporation’s Spanish language daily in L. A. , and private equity firms Clarity Partners, Acon Capital, Halyard Ventures and the Brenner Group.

Monica Lozano, a great grand-daughter of La Opinion’s founder and the daughter of previous envoy to Columbia, Ignacio Lozano, Jr, is the Manager while her brother, Jose, is the VP.

A spokeswoman for Impremedia remained silent on the pending contract and any sale talks, writes tagza.com.

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