AMC Leftovers: Did Brett Favre Kill a Men's Mag?

I'm back in New York, but not done unloading all the news I picked up down at the American Magazine Conference, which wrapped up yesterday in Boca Raton. Some final tidbits:

-Trying to get a new magazine off the ground? Stay away from Brett Favre. Randall Lane, president of Doubledown Media (which is launching Corporate Leader next month) recalled interviewing and shooting the Green Bay Packers quarterback at his Mississippi home for a feature. During the photo shoot, Favre fell in love with an $8,000 Tag Heuer watch the stylist had called in. Lane attempted to explain that the watch was not his to give away, but to no avail. The tiny, cash-strapped P.O.V. was forced to eat the cost. It went out of business not long after. Coincidence?

-For a small magazine, Paste is making some big moves. The indie music title is close to securing a distribution deal with Starbucks that would make it the coffee chain's only magazine. President and publisher Tim Regan-Porter says Paste is in the midst of a trial in some 60-plus Starbucks stores in three markets. If the program goes nationwide, Paste could double its 180,000 circulation overnight. Regan-Porter said he expects to know by the end of November.

-Discover magazine has solidified its leadership in the wake of Bob Guccione Jr.'s removal from the top of the masthead. Henry Donohue, Discover's new CEO, tells me that Patti Adcroft, whom Guccione brought in as special projects editor, has agreed to stay on as editorial director. Adcroft is a former executive editor of Marie Claire. No word on what Guccione will do next, but he was in Dubai this week for the Knowledge Conference.

In other coverage, WWD says laid-off Time Inc. exec Eileen Naughton had the last laugh, returning to the conference as a speaker and reveling in her new employer's power and dynamism in the face of the magazine industry's struggles. Naughton works for Google now, by the way.

And the New York Post reports that attendance was up a hair from last year, but well down from the conferences of a decade ago. What if you threw a MAGABRAND REVOLUTION and no one came?