keith j kelly

Keith J. Kelly

Keith J. Kelly has been writing the Media Ink column for the NY Post since July 1998. He consistently breaks stories on the inner workings of the major companies in the magazine, book, and newspaper publishing businesses. Kelly was once termed "New York's most influential media columnist" by New York magazine.

He jumped to the Post from the Daily News, where he had been hired by Pete Hamill in March 1997 as that paper's first media columnist in Hamill's short reign as editor-in-chief.

Prior to that Kelly was a senior editor at Advertising Age, Crain Communications from 1993 to 1997. He was the launch editor of Folio: First Day and an editor-at-large of Folio magazine. Earlier, he was the editorial director of Magazine Week and a senior vice president in its parent company, Lighthouse Communications.

He freelanced from Belfast, Northern Ireland in 1980 where he is credited as breaking the story of the IRA's pending hunger strike, and served as a New York correspondent for the now defunct Dublin daily, The Irish Press. He worked at McGraw-Hill Publications on a variety of trade publications in the late 1970s and early 1980s.

Kelly started his career as a general assignment reporter on the Smithtown News on Long Island in 1977.

The Brooklyn-born Kelly also worked as a bartender, a paint salesman for Sears, a laborer for a masonry contractor and a security guard.

Latest Columns

  • Dr. Oz might be the Rx for mag publisher

    Publishers looking for promising ideas are said to have approached talk show host Dr. Mehmet Oz about doing an eponymous magazine. According to the industry grapevine, Rodale, Hearst and Time Inc. are the most likely...   October 24, 2012

    From Business

  • Fichtenbaum new QB of Sports Illustrated

    Time Inc. tapped Paul Fichtenbaum to be the new editor of the publishing giant’s sports group, replacing Terry McDonell, who has been running Sports Illustrated since early 2002.  The legendary McDonell, 68, will now...   October 19, 2012

    From Business

  • Capitalist content

    SAN FRANCISCO — The wall between editorial and advertising collapsed here yesterday when a controversy erupted over a Forbes program that allows advertisers to pay outright for stories.  The debate pitted Bloomberg...   October 17, 2012

    From Business

  • NYC catwalk fight

    Carine Roitfeld, the style icon who once ran French Vogue, has landed at Harper’s Bazaar, amping up the rivalry with Condé Nast and Vogue. But don’t look for the cutting edge “Erotica Chic” that gave her a small but...   October 12, 2012

    From Business

  • Penske will tear down Variety’s pay wall: sources

    Variety’s pay wall is going to come tumbling down, informed sources say, now that the 107-year-old Hollywood trade title has been acquired by Deadline.com owner Jay Penske.  Penske, who is believed to have paid Reed...   October 10, 2012

    From Business

  • Condé budget cuts of 5% on 2013 agenda

    Condé Nast, home to The New Yorker, Vogue and Vanity Fair, is poring over preliminary budgets for next year — and it doesn’t look pretty. While not every mag is finished going over the books with President Bob Sauerberg...   October 05, 2012

    From Business

  • C’est fini for mag

    Shape France is folding.  In the process, Sue Yein Butcher, one of the longest- serving executives at parent American Media, is exiting the company.  Butcher was seen as a close friend and ally of CEO David Pecker,...   October 03, 2012

    From Business

  • Time Inc.’s Lang raises Caine, takes Bain advice

    Time Inc. CEO Laura Lang unveiled a major restructuring at the nation’s largest magazine publisher yesterday — reflecting many of the changes management consulting firm Bain & Co. had suggested. While insiders are still...   September 28, 2012

    From Business

  • Lifestyle mag for Sandra Lee

    Sandra Lee, an Emmy Award-winning celebrity chef on the Food Network — and First Girlfriend of Gov. Andrew Cuomo — is making a comeback on the mag scene with Sandra Lee, the Magazine.  Lee, who will be editor-in-chief,...   September 26, 2012

    From Business

  • Move over, GQ and Details: M mag is back

    Conde Nast, which has been largely absent from the world of launching magazines since its $100 million flop with Portfolio, is returning to the start-up game next week. M magazine, from Condé Nast’s Fairchild division,...   September 21, 2012

    From Business

  • Velvet underground

    There are signs of more nipping and tucking inside the mini-media empire of New York Observer owner Jared Kushner. The website velvetroper.com, which tracks the trendy party scene, is being shut down. Its last posting...   September 19, 2012

    From Business

  • USA Today gets a face-lift for 30th birthday

    USA Today is unveiling its most extensive redesign since its launch 30 years ago, effective with today’s paper. The paper that revolutionized newspapers three decades ago with splashy color photos and info graphics is...   September 14, 2012

    From Business

  • Salembier says so long to Town & Country

    Longtime Hearst publisher Valerie Salembier, currently senior vice president, publisher and chief revenue officer of Town & Country, is stepping down on Dec. 31, she told Media Ink.  “At the end of the year, I’ll be...   September 12, 2012

    From Business

  • Dr.’s slam dunk story

    Julius Erving, one of the greatest players in the history of professional basketball, who became known as Dr. J for the way he operated above the rim, has signed to write his autobiography. It is believed to be a $1...   September 07, 2012

    From Business

  • Coles has a Cosmo

    Kate White is stepping down as the editor-in-chief of Cosmopolitan and will be replaced by another editor in the Hearst empire, Joanna Coles. Coles is the editor-in-chief of Marie Claire. As part of the shake-up, Anne...   September 05, 2012

    From Business

  • Popstar!’s porn kin

    Popstar!, a popular magazine for teen girls that Planet Hollywood International founder Robert Earl sold in May, was bought by a New Jersey publisher alleged to have ties to the hard-core adult magazine empire headed by...   August 31, 2012

    From Business

  • Newhouse empire shrinking

    The Newhouse family is moving to chop the frequency of its Syracuse Post-Standard daily to three days a week, and insiders say it is now inevitable that the same move will eventually befall its other Northeast...   August 29, 2012

    From Business

  • Time is of the essence for digital overhaul

    After operating profit tumbled more than 40 percent in the most recent quarter, there’s a new sense of urgency surrounding Time Inc. and its push to capture digital dollars.  Following a three-month study by management...   August 24, 2012

    From Business

  • Modern Luxury to hit Hamptons

    The summer season may be winding down in the East End, but Modern Luxury is plotting to invade the turf long dominated by rival Niche Media with a new magazine. Cristina Greeven Cuomo, who recently came on board to edit...   August 22, 2012

    From Business

  • Luxe startup Du Jour

    Du Jour, the digital and print media company headed by Jason Binn, will debut its luxury magazine this month with 110 ad pages and an estimated $4 million in booked advertising right out of the gate. The quarterly...   August 10, 2012

    From Business

  • Newsstand nightmare

    Magazine circulation figures for the first half of 2012 confirmed the anticipated growth of digital subscriptions — up more than 70 percent — despite continued erosion in newsstand sales. Celebrity titles and some women...   August 08, 2012

    From Business

  • Observer editor out

    The New York Observer jolted its staff yesterday with the news that Elizabeth Spiers was exiting as editor-in-chief — only 18 months after she was handed the job by Jared Kushner, the real-estate scion who has owned the...   August 03, 2012

    From Business

  • SI dream investigative team

    Sports Illustrated is beefing up its investigative team after cutting its staff by 8 percent just two weeks ago.  Peter Thamel, a college sports reporter for the New York Times, and Thayer Evans, who has been with Fox...   August 01, 2012

    From Business

  • Times reports Q2 loss, nears CEO choice

    The New York Times Co. Chairman Arthur “Pinch” Sulzberger, Jr. told Wall Street that the search for a new CEO is still at least three months away from its conclusion — and signalled clearly that they are looking for a...   July 27, 2012

    From Business

  • More masthead mayhem at Daily News

    There’s more turmoil at the Mort Zuckerman-owned Daily News, with staffers fretting that the paper may be heading downmarket as the Web gets an increasing amount of attention at the expense of print.  So far, the...   July 25, 2012

    From Business

  • Big chill sets in between Gray Lady and Guild

    Labor relations between Arthur Sulzberger, Jr., chairman of the New York Times Co., and the Newspaper Guild — which appeared to be edging toward less hostility a few weeks ago — took a turn for the worse this week. The...   July 20, 2012

    From Business

  • Ebooks pass print in adult fiction for first time

    Last year sales of books on Kindles, Nooks, iPads and smartphones passed printed book sales in the closely watched adult fiction category. While ebooks have not yet surpassed print in total adult trade book sales, they...   July 18, 2012

    From Business

  • TomKat breakup a boon for celebrity mags

    The dissolved marriage of Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes has been a celebrity magazine bonanza — at least judging by newsstand sales in the first post-split week. People was the biggest winner, with its newsstand sales...   July 13, 2012

    From Business

  • Martha signs for 5 yrs. as chief creative officer

    Martha Stewart announced she has inked a new pact to stick around for five more years at the helm of her namesake company — but reading the fine print reveals there’s a one-year out clause. Under the deal terms, she is...   July 11, 2012

    From Business

  • On second thought...

    With all the publicity Rielle Hunter has netted in recent weeks, longtime GQ contributor Lisa DePaulo, who scored the first interview with the woman at the heart of the John Edwards love-child scandal, seemed well...   July 06, 2012

    From Business

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