NO LONGER FREE LANCE: David Pecker seems to have a thing for collecting out-of-work magazine executives. First the American Media chairman took in ousted Primedia chief Tom Rogers, then Gruner + Jahr’s Dan Rubin. Now he has hired longtime Dennis Publishing bigwig Lance Ford to be AMI’s president of advertising and publishing, a new position. Ford described his duties as “advertising and marketing, promotion, branding — if you like, enhancing the industry profile that AMI has. I’m pretty well known out there, and I’ve got a lot of very good relationships with some advertisers who have not advertised with AMI titles in the past, and possibly will look to it more seriously now.” His top priority, he said, will be Star, which so far has failed to reap the ad bonanza Pecker expected when he hired Bonnie Fuller to relaunch it as a glossy. He’ll also be focusing on new titles such as Celebrity Living, set to debut later this month. “There are people who can launch magazines, and there are people who can’t, in my opinion, and if you can and you enjoy it, you want to do more of it,” he said.
Meanwhile, there will soon be one more out-of-work executive floating around: Carolyn Bekkedahl has resigned as president of AMI’s Active Lifestyles & Entertainment group, which includes Star, Shape and Men’s Fitness. Sources close to Bekkedahl said it was entirely her decision.