'Scientific American' Editor Out in Reorg

The recession has finally come to Scientific American. Editor in chief John Rennie and half a dozen or so of his underlings are leaving amid a major reorganization of the 164-year-old magazine's operations, according to sources. Rennie has held his job since 1994. [Update: More than 20 employees have been let go overall, including president Steven Yee; details below.]

Unlike most magazines, which are sensitive to fluctuations in the ad market, Scientific American has long enjoyed a degree of insulation from economic ups and downs as a relatively isolated piece of the book publishing giant Macmillan, itself a unit of Germany's Verlagsgruppe Georg von Holtzbrinck.

This week's reorganization may signal a shift in Macmillan's hands-off treatment. With ad pages in Scientific American down 18.1 percent in the first quarter, the magazine is consolidating some of its operations with the New York office of Nature, the London-based journal. I'm told executive editor Mariette DiChristina has been appointed acting editor in chief for the time being.

I contacted SciAm publisher Bruce Brandfon to ask about the changes; he told me he could address "non-editorial" questions and steered me to Rennie for the rest. I'm still waiting to hear from Rennie.

UPDATE, 4:35 p.m.: "Consolidating some of its operations" turns out to be an understatement. "Scientific American will be a wholly owned and operated separate entity within the Nature Publishing Group," says Brandfon. "What we're basically envisioning is the dominant science innovation media company."

The magazine will move into NPG's offices in June. The terminated editorial staffers mentioned above constitute only a fraction of the layoffs; Brandfon says the consolidation will create "certain redundancies that would be obvious" in departments such as human resources, technology and support staff. The total number of jobs eliminated will be 20-plus.

Brandfon confirms that Rennie is leaving, although he will continue to write for the magazine: "John has taken the opportunity on his 20th anniversary to decide to find other engaging things to do." Also finding other engaging things to do will be Sci Am's president, Steven Yee, who is "leaving to pursue a new entrepreneurial venture."

Update 2: Rennie says he doesn't have anything lined up yet. "Honestly, after having had my head wrapped so much around Scientific American for the pat 20 years, but especially over the past 15 years as editor in chief, I'm looking forward to having a nice stretch of time in which I try to get a different perspective on things that's not Scientific American-centered."

I also asked him about rumors that Macmillan is looking to reposition the magazine as a broader-reach vehicle for general interest, "news you can use" science stories. "I'm pretty confident there are no specific plans in place about any real changes coming on the edit side," he said.