No Times for Us

A fortnightly finds a home

The unwanted child of the New York Times Co., Us magazine, finally found a foster home last week. The Macfadden Group, publisher of True Confessions, Secrets and Cheri ("The All True Sex News Magazine"), acquired the fortnightly personality magazine after Tunes executives had spent months trying to peddle it--to CBS and the National Enquirer, among others. Macfadden will assume Us's existing subscription liabilities, estimated at about $4 million. It will also pay the Tunes Co. more than $5 million out of the magazine's future profits, if there are any; the Times Co. sank $10 million into Us, but it remained a perennial money loser. All but a handful of the 35-member editorial staff will be dismissed. Says Peter J. Callahan, president and owner of Macfadden: "We will keep the same basic editorial thrust for the time being."

The Times Co. launched Us in April 1977, hoping to follow PEOPLE magazine's fast rise to popularity and profits. Us guaranteed advertisers an initial circulation of 750,000, but had to fall back to 500,000 (it is now 900,000). William Davis, president of the Times Magazine Group, meddled incessantly with the editorial product, and other Times Co. executives cringed in embarrassment. Ironically, Us had two of its hottest selling issues ever (both topped 1.1 million) in the past two months, and seemed close to carving out an identity as a more youth-directed version of PEOPLE (circ. 2.3 million). "I still don't understand why the Times Co. is so hell-bent on getting out," says Callahan. Explains Times Co. Vice Chairman Sydney Gruson: "It was not what we did best."

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