That’s it, Hearst Publications is now completely gone-so.
Jay Fielden, the high profile editor who took over three years ago from David Granger, has left the building. The word is he was pushed out by the two people Hearst promoted to run the company, only to slowly kill it. Fielden is leaving on top, with a great cover about Quentin Tarantino’s new movie.
Here’s Fielden’s exit statement on Instagram:
“Today—after a lot of long and careful thinking—I have decided it is time to depart as Esquire’s editor in chief, three and a half years after I arrived. The issue we unveiled earlier this week—with Leonardo DiCaprio, Brad Pitt, and Quentin Tarantino on the cover—will be, it’s not easy to say, my last. As a magazine editor and writer, I’ve long revered the magical intersection of words and images as they come together on the page and online. Ever since I graduated from college, in fact, I’ve been working for a big magazine—The New Yorker, Vogue—or editing one—Men’s Vogue, Town & Country, Esquire. In the decade that Hearst Magazines has been my creative home, I’ve also collaborated with some of the best writers, photographers, designers, and fellow editors in the business, and it’s been a genuine privilege for which I’m deeply grateful. There is no greater joy—or honor—than the camaraderie of a close and deeply talented staff, and the thing I will miss most (in addition to the great muse that is Esquire itself) is the conversation and debate, the collaboration, the shared life of revisions and deadlines and filling the monthly void. Simply put—their daily company. I have, however, felt the lure of new possibilities—all the more so now, as the means of production for a new media venture is basically my laptop (which also has the first few chapters of a book on it). For me, the time has simply come to press on in a new direction, perhaps more than one, before I get struck by male pattern baldness. When I settle for certain on what’s next, you will be among the first to know. Until then, I hope to practice my piano, play a little more tennis than usual, and make my kids breakfast while my wife gets to sleep late. I might even get to take all these bags on a long summer trip . . . or two.”
Hearst is now being run by a guy named Troy Young, who has no business overseeing a fabled print enterprise. He and his co-hort Kate Lewis, have alienated and forced out a number of talented veterans from the company.
