Journal of Art New York 1990/1991
I worked in the Paris office of Jack Lieslveld, the Journal of Art New York representative there. My role was to set up a listings page – much as I had done in Art in America for Jack. The editor of Journal of Art New York was Barbara Rose, but the magazine was owned by Rizzoli. There was a dispute over finances and the magazine publication was suspended.
Attached are some of the covers & the interior colour section from 1990/1991.
New York Times December 13 1991
There seems to be a lot more activity in art publishing right now that in the art market itself.
The biggest news is Rizzoli's announcement that it has suspended publication of The Journal of Art. It was not a gradual slowdown: At 4 p.m. the day before Thanksgiving, the entire staff was dismissed with a week's severance pay. "They told us they didn't need to give us two weeks' pay we were entitled to because the journal had suspended publication, not folded", said the circulation manager Helen Ryan. "Then in the same breath, they told us to file for unemployment and to look for another job."
The editor Barabara Rose, a 30 percent shareholder in the journal and one of the co-publishers, Alexis Gregori, who owns 10 percent, are suing Rizzoli which owns 60 percent and decided to close the publication against their wishes. According to legal documents filed in the lawsuit, filed in State Supreme court in Manhattan on Nov 13, Ms Rose initially invested $100,000 to rescue the journal from bankruptcy in 1990. that month Rizzoli added $600,000 to the investment to take control of the publication. Since then the company has invested $1.5 million more, according to various art world sources who spoke only on condition of anonymity.
"The whole thing is a horror show", Ms Rose said in a telephone interview the other day. "They have bankrupted me, ruined me and made me sick". She said Rizzoli stopped paying her $100,000-a-year consulting fee in September and also not honoring her five-year contract as editor of The Journal of Art.
Gianfranco Monacelli, the president and chief executive of Rizzoli International Publications, says the company owes Ms Rose no money. "we have fulfilled our obligations and more than that," he said yesterday. "This was an unfortunate situation, but in today's economic climate we felt there was a limit to what the corporation could afford".
Trouble began, some former employees say, almost as soon as Rizzoli became the majority shareholder. Those running the publication - Mr Gregory, Ms Rose and Alfredo de Marzio, the other co-publisher, who is chairman of RCO, Rizzoli's American holding company - were constantly fighting. Mr Gregory and Ms Rose say in their law suit that Rizzoli charged disproportionate amount of its corporate overhead to the journal for offices within Rizzoli office space and that Rizzoli also disproportionately charged the publication for a computer system used by other Rizzoli publications.
Circulation kept rising, however; Ms rose said it nearly quadrupled since Rizzoli assumed control. At the time it stopped publishing The Journal of Art had 35,000 readers. More than 20,000 were paid subscriptions; the rest came from newsstand sales and free distribution and international art fairs. The publication was also averaging about 45 pages issue. "And the advertising was amazing, considering the recession', said the advertising director, Michael Benevento.
Now it is rumoured that Mr de Marzio, the co-publisher, has left Rizzoli. Although no official announcement has been made and the company is denying it, friends said he told them he was leaving on a long vacation in Europe and leaving the company and could not be reached for comment.
Meanwhile, Rizzoli is busy looking into a buyer so it can recoup its investment of more than $2 million. No purchase price has been made public, last week, Maureen and Marshall Cogan, owners of Art and Auction, a general audience magazine for collectors and art mavens, were reported to be serious contenders, but not any longer. Given the struggle all magazines are facing right now with dropping advertising, and the wide-spread rumor that Art and Auction is losing money, the Cogans have backed off.
"I decided to concentrate on the two magazines I have," said Mrs Cogan, referring to Art and Auction and International Design Magazine. Rizzoli is still hoping someone will come along to rescue The Journal of Art. Rumors have been circulating that Brant Publications, owners of Art in America, The Magazine Antiques and Interview, are looking into the purchase. Mrs Brant could not be reached for comment, but Ms Rose denied the rumors. Mr Monacelli sadi, "We've had a flood of interest but none of it serious". As for the lawsuit"' he said, "I cannot go into details".