Hearst hires three high-profile editors; new life brought to Redbook, House Beautiful, Connoisseur - Ellen Levine, Louis Oliver Gropp, Gael Love

New life brought to Redbook, House Beautiful, Connoisseur.

NEW YORK CITY-IN a grand talent raid last month, largely at the expense of Hachette Magazines, Hearst Magazines lured Ellen Levine away from Woman's Day and gave her Redbook. Louis Oliver Gropp, formerly editor of Elle Decor, got House Beautiful to redecorate; and Gael Love, founding editor of the folded Fame, took over Connoisseur.

To add insult to the injury suffered by Hachette, rumors circulated that Love turned down the editorship of Elle to work at Hearst. Hachette chairman and CEO Daniel Filipacchi vehemently denied this.

The clever architect of the foray seems to be Hearst president D. Claeys Bahrenburg, who downplays the significance of the moves and denies that there was any covert plan. "It is very simple," he says. "These are all very healthy franchises and these three, in my view, are very accomplished editors that became available.

"There will be no more sweeping changes, and this is not a company shakeout," he maintains.

The former Hearst editors Annette Capone (Redbook), JoAnn Barwick (House Beautiful) and Thomas Hoving (Connoisseur) have all been offered consultants' posts with the company but will not be involved in the operations of their former books.

This spells more bad news for Hachette, which was still reeling from the departure of Elle publisher Anne Sutherland Fuchs for rival Vogue when Levine announced her resignation. "This was not a bailout," Levine asserts, "it was a career move. I had been there nearly 10 years. It was time to move on." She adds, "I feel bad about leaving. Woman's Day is over-delivering by 200,000 and things are really looking up."

It was widely known that Levine had been unhappy since Hachette attempted to sell Woman's Day last year. It had been reported that she had expressed interest in Helen Gurley Brown's chair should the Cosmo Girl consider retiring. Bahrenburg denies ever having talked to her about the position and Levine would not comment on this other than to note that she had enjoyed her years at Cosmopolitan, where she was an editor prior to leaving for Woman's Day in 1982. "When I went back over there I realized that Hearst was family. I knew the doorman. And he remembered me!"

Levine wants to build up the journalistic side of the magazine. Despite her recent identification with service magazines, good reporting and writing interest her. "Women are better educated than ever," she says. "Redbook has a great intellectual base upon which to build. That's a wonderful advantage."

The appointment of Lou Gropp was perhaps the biggest surprise, even to Hachette. Shelter book editors had been saying that much of Gropp's talent was ignored in the year he was at Elle Decor. The imperious French formula of publication director Regis Pagniez and his art director freres dictated lots of lush pictures but little else. Declining to comment on the past, Gropp says: "I'm happy to be going to a magazine where the editor has the final authority and his opinions are valued."

While much respected in the design field (he was editor of House & Garden before the disastrous but short-lived reign of Anna "HG" Wintour), his attitude is upscale whereas House Beautiful is decidedly more middle brow. it will be june before readers sense a change in the magazine's direction under Gropp, but "I think you are right in assuming that the direction will be up," he says.

The most controversial appointment is Love's. Prior to the Hearst offer, she was actively seeking funding to revive Fame. A religion major at Barnard College who began hanging out at Andy Warhol's Factory while still in school and eventually became editor of Interview, Love was not exactly welcomed by the Connoisseur staff. One former editor there who still keeps in touch said that the staff was in a state of shock. "Gael Love doesn't have any kind of a background for this kind of a magazine, and it's obvious that Hearst wants to turn it into a celebrity rag."

Love counters: "I spent one-third of my career with the most famous pop artist of the 20th century. My husband's family are big art collectors, and it's been a passion of mine since I was 12."

Despite the skepticism about Love, Bahrenburg says "her impeccable taste and eye for quality" are well known. As is her penchant for the glamorous and trendy.

"Woken up" is how Love characterizes her effect on the magazine's design and editorial in the next few months. The same can be said for what Hearst did to the magazine industry last month.

John Masterton was a contributor to this report.

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