Nice Time-ing: Ann the Ax-Wielder Honored

You have to hand it to the Magazine Publishers of America: For a trade group, it's got a pretty healthy sense of irony.

Every year, MPA selects a publishing executive upon whom to bestow its Henry Fisher Johnson lifetime achievement award. Last year it was Jack Kliger, whose main distinction over the past five years has been superintending the closings of Premiere, Elle Girl, Shock, For Me, et cetera.

And this year, in an exquisite bit of timing, it will be Ann Moore, the CEO who's currently presiding over the industry's bloodiest cull in the form of the 600-person purge now under way at Time Inc. (MPA also said Martha Stewart will get her own lifetime award, an induction into the magazine editors' hall of fame.)

At least Kliger's award came at a suitably valedictory moment, since he ended up stepping down as CEO a few months later. Moore, meanwhile, has recently made it known that she plans to re-up for another term after her current three-year contract expires in 2010.