BOB Guccione Jr. is out as the chief executive officer of Discover Media, after what one source described as a falling-out over philosophical differences with his financial backers about how to run the company.
Guccione took over the magazine for less than $20 million in October 2005, with backing from Sandler Capital Management and Waller Sutton.
The plan at the time, aside from turning around the flagship magazine - which was launched in the mid-1980s by Time Inc. - was to grow the company through acquisitions.
However, since Guccione came on the scene, that growth hasnât materialized, and thanks to tighter credit markets, things arenât likely to improve anytime soon.
Differences between Discoverâs financial backers and Guccione began to surface six week ago, an insider said.
âIt became apparent that they werenât happy with him and he wasnât happy with them,â said one source.
One possible source of contention was the companyâs Internet strategy.
While most print companies are desperately trying to become multi-platform companies, Discover Media sold off its discover.com Web address to Discover Card for about $5 million.
