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

  • Start-up beauty mag New You is blemished

    Chaos seems to have enveloped the new beauty magazine, New You, which debuted earlier this year to tremendous fanfare. It landed Courteney Cox on the cover of its premiere issue, and she showed it off when she appeared...   March 01, 2013

    From Business

  • Rodale refugee Zinczenko working out at AMI

    David Zinczenko, the former editor of Men’s Health who left after clashing with CEO Maria Rodale, is headed to arch rival American Media Inc., publisher of Men’s Fitness. The deal is technically a consulting gig through...   February 27, 2013

    From Business

  • Time Inc.’s Lang briefs staffers on Meredith talks

    Time Inc. CEO Laura Lang finally made the rounds of top editors, publishers and executives at the shell-shocked company this week to rally them amid merger talks with Meredith.  Time Warner is hard at work on a deal to...   February 22, 2013

    From Business

  • Condé vs. Hearst in battle for Latina readers

    It’s Jennifer Lopez versus Eva Longoria as Condé Nast and Hearst duke it out in the Hispanic market.  In one of the few announced launches from a major media company this year, Condé Nast will debut Glam Belleza Latina,...   February 20, 2013

    From Business

  • Time Inc. magazine deal may fetch a bit less

    Time Warner’s talks to spin off most of the Time Inc. titles into a new publicly traded company controlled by Meredith Corp. were quietly started last fall, sources said.  Now that they are out in the open, insiders...   February 15, 2013

    From Business

  • BuzzMedia in ad-sales pickle with AMI’s Pecker

    There are signs of stress at BuzzMedia. The company bills itself as one of the top 40 websites in the country in terms of traffic, but it seems to have a hard time getting most of its visitors to stay on its site for...   February 13, 2013

    From Business

  • Tight reins on deal keep Wenner in charge

    Wenner Media has sealed a deal that will allow founder Jann Wenner to keep control of the company and refinance about $200 million in long-term debt. But the banks are keeping a short leash on the free-spending mogul....   February 08, 2013

    From Business

  • Brown christens her creature 'News Beast'

    Tina Brown told staffers in a town hall meeting last week that the company name is changing from the rather clunky Newsweek Daily Beast to simply News Beast.  And what of the Newsweek subscribers whom Brown was hoping...   February 06, 2013

    From Business

  • Manhattan Media sells NYC weekly papers

    Manhattan Media, which is owned by Isis Venture Partners, has sold its Manhattan-based chain of weekly newspapers, including Our Town, Chelsea Clinton News, West Side Spirit, the Westsider and Our Town Downtown. The...   February 01, 2013

    From Business

  • Hearst’s road to Oz

    Dr. Mehmet Oz, the heart surgeon known as America’s Doctor, is said to be negotiating with Hearst about an eponymously named magazine that would launch in the second half of the year. No contract has been finalized, but...   January 30, 2013

    From Business

  • Tricky Times target

    The deadline for New York Times newsroom managers to take voluntary buyouts came and went yesterday — without reaching the target of 30 takers. Now, insiders are worried that involuntary cuts — layoffs — will start....   January 25, 2013

    From Business

  • Newsweek veteran Miller going Hollywood

    Mark Miller, who had two high-level stints at Newsweek, resigned Friday to become the new deputy editorial director of The Hollywood Reporter.  He will be No. 2 to editorial director Janice Min.  “He has significant...   January 23, 2013

    From Business

  • Philly paper unions come to bargaining table

    Philadelpia newspapers once again appear to have come back from the brink of the abyss. After first balking, the Newspaper Guild of Greater Philadelphia late yesterday agreed to come to the bargaining table with...   January 18, 2013

    From Business

  • Prometheus bound

    Guggenheim Partners has taken full control of Prometheus Global Media — the owner of the Hollywood Reporter, Billboard and Adweek — after buying out co-investor Jimmy Finkelstein.  As part of the deal, Prometheus...   January 16, 2013

    From Business

  • Time mobbed with criticism for Christie cover

    Time’s cover of New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie looking like a tough guy with the headline “The Boss” has riled some who saw it as another instance of mafia stereotyping of Italian Americans.  The image alone ignited the...   January 11, 2013

    From Business

  • Perl, p.r. woman to media stars, out at Condé

    An era has come to an end as Condé Nast’s Maurie Perl, one of the longest-serving public relations executives in the media world, has been downsized out of a job at the Newhouse-owned publishing company after 21 years. ...   January 09, 2013

    From Business

  • New Vibe in store for Uptown magazine

    Len Burnett, a co-founder of Uptown magazine, has bought back the upscale African-American magazine from Intermedia Vibe Holdings. Leo Hindery Jr.’s Intermedia Partners and Yucaipa Johnson Co., headed by basketball...   January 04, 2013

    From Business

  • Mag launches bounce back to ’08 levels

    Magazine launches in 2012 climbed back to their pre-recession 2008 levels.  But the market has changed dramatically with titles launched by small entrepreneurial companies dominating the annual list while publishing...   December 28, 2012

    From Business

  • Advertisers Recoil after editor’s misfire

    Recoil, the Source Interlink Media-owned magazine for gun enthusiasts, is still looking for an editor-in-chief after controversy this fall led to the ouster of founding editor Jerry Tsai.  His departure — before the...   December 21, 2012

    From Business

  • CEO Gersh packing her bags at Martha Stewart

    Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia CEO Lisa Gersh is expected to announce her resignation, possibly as early as this week, just five months after she was elevated to the top job.  The struggling company is said to be...   December 19, 2012

    From Business

  • Bloom is off the rose for Time Inc. CEO Lang

    The honeymoon appears to be over for Time Inc. CEO Laura Lang. As employees await a new round of cuts that seems all but certain to shake the nation’s largest publisher in mid-January, morale is plunging. The...   December 14, 2012

    From Business

  • Christmas crunch

    Wenner Media is trying to refinance nearly $200 million of debt the company has been carrying since it bought out Walt Disney Co.’s stake in a joint venture that owned Us Weekly in 2006.  Several sources said...   December 12, 2012

    From Business

  • Deck the publishing halls with pink slips

    Talks to sell Whole Living to OpenGate Capital and Jack Kliger collapsed at the 11th hour — pushing Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia to shutter the publication. Staffers were given the sad news yesterday afternoon.  As...   December 07, 2012

    From Business

  • Whole Living bid lives with OpenGate backing

    OpenGate Capital Partners is said to be providing the financial backing to former Hachette Filipacchi CEO Jack Kliger in his bid to buy Whole Living magazine from Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia.  Dealing with domestic...   December 05, 2012

    From Business

  • Hachette alums could keep Whole Living alive

    Martha Stewart may have finally found a buyer for Whole Living — one that will keep the magazine alive even as big publishers Hearst and Meredith stayed out of the bidding.  One source said the winning bid could come...   November 30, 2012

    From Business

  • McDonell moves from Time adviser to exit

    Terry McDonell — who handed off his Sports Illustrated duties in October with the idea of becoming an adviser to Time Inc. on digital projects — will exit altogether at year end.  He will follow his boss, Time Inc....   November 28, 2012

    From Business

  • Si and whispers at Condé’s holiday lunch

    As sure as the Christmas tree is about to rise in Rockefeller Center, the publishing industry’s own harbinger of the season, the Condé Nast annual holiday luncheon, took place at the Four Seasons Restaurant yesterday....   November 21, 2012

    From Business

  • Fashion mags steal the spotlight in ad sales

    The glossy monthly magazines continue to make noise about the trend to digital versions of their brands — but ad sales at their bread-and-butter print editions for the most part are still eroding.  While most sectors...   November 16, 2012

    From Business

  • Time to go for Huey

    John Huey, who was relaxing at the Time magazine Person of the Year luncheon yesterday, is expected to step down as editor-in-chief of the Time Inc. empire by the end of the year, Media Ink has learned.  Martha Nelson,...   November 14, 2012

    From Business

  • Post-election push as publishers rush to press

    The election is barely over, and while not quite as ground-breaking as the election of Barack Obama four years earlier, a flurry of books will be coming out on the inner workings of how he won — and on how Republican...   November 09, 2012

    From Business

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