Defeat of Clay

Felker loses Esquire

"What happened with New York will never happen again," vowed Editor Clay Felker after his humiliating loss of that magazine in 1976 to Australian Publisher Rupert Murdoch. Never can be a very short time in the publishing business. This week Felker will lose another magazine, Esquire (circ. 650,000), which he bought in 1977 with money from British Publisher Vere Harmsworth's Associated Newspapers. Associated is selling most of its interest in Esquire to 13-30 Corp. of Knoxville, Tenn., a small but fast-growing publisher of specialized magazines (New Marriage, Nutshell, Graduate) aimed at readers aged 13 to 30. The firm is half-owned by the Bonnier Group, Sweden's largest publisher. "The backers [Associated] have decided to shift their resources," said a weary Felker last week. "It's all very complicated."

On the surface, it appeared quite simple. Felker has spent lavishly to turn the sophisticated men's monthly into a more macho twice-monthly, with expanded coverage of law, business, sports and gadgets of the good life. Yet advertisers remained cool to the venture, losses mounted, and Felker had to give Harmsworth most of his own stock in Esquire in return for more working capital. "The foundation for a successful publication had been made, and I could definitely see the time two years from now when we would be in the black," Felker insisted. "We were putting out a magazine that was working, a magazine that we were proud of."

The born-again Esquire will likely be run by the co-presidents of 13-30 Corp., Phillip Moffitt, 32, and H. Christopher Whittle, 31. "I've never heard of these people," says Esquire National Editor Richard Reeves. "They could have landed from Mars." Felker plans to remain in New York City after their landing, but earlier this year he bought an all-advertising throwaway newspaper in California and signed a lucrative deal with 20th Century Fox to develop movie ideas. "In the end I'm going to do something else in journalism," says he. "I'm a journalist."

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