The Day The Talk Died Out

By James Poniewozik

Few events captured the willful hubris of the late '90s like the summer 1999 launch of Talk magazine. The hype-driven, bicoastal venture of Hearst Magazines and Miramax Films began life with a celebrity editor, Tina Brown; with the requisite '90s whiff of "synergy" (articles becoming books becoming movies becoming magazine covers!); and with a party, complete with fireworks and paparazzi, at the feet of the Statue of Liberty. It ended life last week with a whimper, as Brown tearfully broke the news of its closing to her staff, followed by a subdued dinner.

Talk is the latest casualty of an atrocious period for magazines. The tech-focused Industry Standard, which led all magazines in ad pages in 2000, closed in 2001, as did Brill's Content, Mademoiselle and Working Woman, to name a few. (TIME's parent company, Time Inc., axed several magazines last fall.) Total magazine ad pages dropped 11.7%, from 2000 to 2001. Leland Westerfield, a media analyst with UBS Warburg, terms the ad climate "the toughest since prior to World War II."

But if all magazines are canaries in the economic coal mine, Talk sang louder and in a cage more gilded than your average hunting-and-fishing monthly. Brown, a British expatriate with an outsize personality, had revitalized the moribund Vanity Fair and given the tweedy weekly New Yorker a pop-culture makeover. But doubt swirled around Talk from early on. In the era of niche media, many doubted whether readers wanted another major general-interest magazine, particularly one whose mix of Hollywood froth and high-minded reportage largely resembled Vanity Fair's. Its editorial vision--vaguely alluded to as starting a national "conversation"--seemed unfocused. "Tina never really talked in terms of who her audience was," said a senior staffer. "She believed that the readers would find her, rather than that she would have to go out and find readers." After a few high-profile early articles, Talk became the worst thing a Tina Brown publication could possibly be: not talked about.

There were money problems as well. Despite weak advertising, Brown was a notorious big spender ("I did not go over budget [at Talk]," she insisted to TIME), and in just 2 1/2 years, Talk's losses swelled to an estimated $50 million. There was friction between Brown and her backers, Hearst executives and Harvey Weinstein, the hard-charging Miramax co-chairman. While Talk actually increased its ad pages and revenue in 2001, the post-Sept. 11 economic slump appeared to deliver the coup de grace. Said Talk Media president Ron Galotti, "It became fairly bleak for someone...not part of a big corporate conglomerate."

Late last week Hearst and Miramax told Brown time had run out, and she flew from the Golden Globe parties in Los Angeles to shutter the offices. Outside, photographers showed up to capture the end, as they did the beginning, ashes to ashes, buzz to bust.

--By James Poniewozik. Reported by Andrea Sachs and Heather Won Tesoriero/New York

With reporting by Andrea Sachs and Heather Won Tesoriero/New York