"Jewish Publisher Hires Pope"

Fresh off taping an appearance on Charlie Rose, Peter W. Kaplan addressed the attendees at the Longchamp leather-goods store in New York's Soho last night and told them he never thought he'd see the headline "Jewish Publisher Hires Pope."

Kaplan, who edited the New York Observer for 15 years before stepping down to join Condé Nast Traveler in April, was referring to Kyle Pope, who had just been tapped by Observer owner Jared Kushner to be the next editor of his salmon-colored weekly newspaper, a fact the paper's own website had broken only an hour or so earlier.

Pope, who starts November 9, will replacing Tom McGeveran, a longtime Observer staffer, who announced last week that was leaving that paper after a stint as interim editor of the paper since June. (Disclosure: This reporter worked for Kaplan and McGeveran at the Observer until June.)

Pope had previously been a deputy editor of Condé Nast Portfolio, the magazine from which this website grew. Before that he was an editor at the Wall Street Journal and the defunct media site Inside.com. He has written for the New York Times and others.

The crowd was gathered at the handbag store to celebrate The Kingdom of New York, a retrospective of the New York Observer's 21 years in print, edited by Kaplan, Alexandra Jacobs, and Peter M. Stevenson.