New York mag for sale

Publication's value to be between $25 mil to $75 mil

By NICOLE LAPORTE

After months of speculation and spin, New York magazine is officially on the block. Decision was made by the mag's publisher Primedia on Wednesday, a few hours after the company confirmed it had hired Allen & Co. to "explore strategic options."

Announcement caps a drama fueled by the press, which has been writing about the magazine's hypothetical sale almost as though it were fact, and by potential buyers who, as recently as last weekend, predicted Primedia would delay the sale until the mag's performance picked up -- and until Primedia selected a successor to Tom Rogers, who stepped down as CEO in April.

Primedia prexy Charles McCurdy has been serving as interim CEO.

Estimates of New York's worth price the magazine anywhere from $25 million to $75 million, depending on how heavily the cachet factor is weighed.

Possible bidders include media and real estate mogul Mortimer Zuckerman, Emmis Communications, Rolling Stone founder Jann Wenner and Michael Wolff, a New York media reporter who has lined up investors.

Glamour offsets the mag's barely profitable performance. Although the current New York is more of a service-oriented guidebook, in headier days its stable of writers included Norman Mailer and Gail Sheehy. Even today it is a must-read, or at least must-buy, among sophisticated Gothamites.

The sale of New York would be the latest in a slew of selloffs by Primedia as the company restructures in the face of billion-dollar debt.