In a move not surprising to some in the industry, Jane Pratt stepped down from Jane magazine today. The 42-year-old blonde bombshell, who founded the eponymous Jane in 1997 after helming the cult teen magazine Sassy, leaves her post on September 30 of this year. Jane cites “wanderlust” and threatens to announce a new gig in her official closing statement.
Meanwhile, unofficial sources inside Fairchild tell The Daily that Jane is moving onto another project at a different publisher. The move may not be unrelated to Elizabeth, a magazine idea dreamed up by Fairchild in 2002 for women over 40, and titled after Jane’s middle name.
Sources also tell The Daily that Fairchild editorial director Patrick McCarthy has already narrowed down the list for a new editor-in-chief to two top-secret choices, with an announcement to be expected next month.
In the last few years, Jane, which began as a tremendous success, has experienced tremendous change, redesigning its pages, rebuilding its fashion department after losing several staffers, and lowering its cover price. Jane also lost publisher Eva Dillon to Cookie in March, and replaced her with Maxim’s Mark Oltarsh. Currently, Jane is 15% up in newsstand sales and 2.8% percent in ad sales in 2005.
Jane Pratt, who is universally adored by her staff, is considered one of the most dynamic women in publishing today, and her next act is sure to be formidable. “We’ll miss her,” says a Jane staffer, “she built a great magazine.”
