The New York Post’s gossip column has chronicled the Wenners’ marital strife for weeks. The tabloid reported the couple had canceled their annual New Year’s bash, an event whose guest list normally reads like a who’s who of New York society. Both Jann and Jane have declined to comment on the reports or to say whether they are planning to divorce. Says the company’s spokeswoman. Linn Tanzman: “The bottom line is that it’s a trial separation. Anything beyond that is a private matter.” Wenner can’t even go out to dinner without ending up in the newspaper. Last week the Post’s gossip brigade noted that he dined with a Calvin Klein executive in the same popular Manhattan restaurant as media mogul Barry Diller and painter Ross Bleckner.
What effect would a divorce have on Wenner Media? A permanent split might ,force a division of the private company’s assets, estimated at around $300 million. And for the 48-year-old publishing titan, it could mean a loss of control of the legendary and still successful Rolling Stone. “The implications are enormous and ominous,” says Robert Draper, author of “Rolling Stone Magazine, the Uncensored History.” “Should there be a split, control over Wenner Media becomes a free-for-all.”
At issue is the closely held company that Jann and Jane built, partly with money from Jane’s parents. In Rolling Stone’s gogo San Francisco years, Jane championed friends like star photographer Annie Leibovitz and wielded artistic influence by helping choose design directors. Friends say she now spends most of her time raising her children, socializing and fund raising for gun-control legislation – philanthropy close to both Wenners’ hearts since the death of John Lennon in 1980. But it’s Jann’s passions that are reflected in the glossy pages of his magazines. He founded Rolling Stone, a publication that once gave away roach clips as premiums, as a music loving hippie. He bought celebrity magazine US about the same time that he became a quasi-celebrity himself, started Men’s Journal when he became fascinated with the men’s movement, and birthed Family Life (for “the generation that once raised hell [and] is now raising kids”) after his three children arrived.
Wenner has been known in the past to shop the magazines around to divine their worth. Although ad pages and revenue were up for all four of the magazines last year, only Rolling Stone is financially robust. US has gone through a redesign and switched from a bi-weekly to a monthly. Men’s journal and Family Life are still too new to turn a profit. investment bankers say.
Now, some industry observers say, Wenner may have additional motives for shopping the magazines. He may be looking to devalue them; if the marriage ends, Jane could seek half of the company’s assets, and jann could be forced to parcel out parts of the empire or find investors if she asks too much. But company lawyer Ben Needell denies that any publications are being shopped or that Jann will be forced to sell. Instead, Needell says, Wenner is simply looking for investors to shore up the latest venture, Family Life. “The company is so successful, so free of debt, that Jann’s not going to have a problem buying [Jane] out, if that’s what she wants.” Exactly what either Wenner wants is still unclear. But it’s unlikely that Jann Wenner, the entrepreneur who has personified the restlessness of the rock-and-roll generation, is ready to start gathering moss.
Jann Wenner’s magazines range from rock music to Hollywood gossip.
The legendary rock-and-roll flagship, now with 1.2 million readers.
A younger, more female-friendly People. Circulation: 1.1 million.
An up-and-coming bidder for the male reader. Circulation: 226,000
New mag for parents with kids between 3 to 12. Circulation: 167,000.
