In addition to (some of) Playboy, AMI has the National Enquirer, Star, and zombie RadarOnline. And then a bunch of muscle magazines! Perfectly capturing America's true, vapid obsessions with unattainable celebrity, unattainable sex, and unattainable bodies, all under one roof. As for Playboy, they say that the money they'll save with this deal will let them bring a touch of class back to the ol' cover page:

Though Mr. Jellinek said buzz-generating covers need not be costly, citing a recent cover with "Simpsons" cartoon star Marge, Mr. Flanders said freeing up cash for celebrity pictorials is a chief aim of the deal. Actress Tara Reid will pose nude for the first time in the combined January/February issue.

A bargain at any price.

You may recall that AMI has been battling bankruptcy rumors for months, after taking on too much debt. Clearly, AMI couldn't afford to pay back what they owe. So now they've come to a resolution: handing 95% of the company over to creditors! Which means that David Pecker and the other investors who bought the company nine years ago have been left a stake that's worth next to nothing. This is, uh, "avoiding" bankruptcy:

The agreement, which reduces the company’s debt by $227.2 million, transfers ownership of 95 percent of AMI’s common stock to bondholders, the company said Sunday evening. CEO David Pecker... and Evercore Partners bought American Media in 1999 for $850 million.

Essentially, AMI's owners just recognized they couldn't pay back their debts and handed the entire company over to its lenders. Do not call this bankruptcy. No word on what the bondholders plan to do yet, but it would be a terrible time to try to sell off the company in pieces. Or as a whole, for that matter. [Folio]

American Media is sweating yet another creditor-imposed deadline, Keith Kelly reports in the Post. CEO David Pecker has until Friday to come up with a deal with bondholders after his company default on $436 million in debt.

"It's only a matter of time before the bondholders take over," one source told Kelly.

This is apparently driving the AMI layoffs we heard about last week. Kelly heard as many as 75 were let go Friday; AMI says only eight or nine. That's quite a range

Kelly reported Country Weekly Publisher Marie Wolpert Men's Fitness' ad director Jeff Kimmel are out.

We heard the following additional people were laid off from AMI titles:

• Star Senior Reporter Cristina Everett
• Star Photo Editor Jessica Athanasiou
• Star Copywriter Catherine Adcock
• David Yama in the Star art department
• Russ Smith in the photo department at Men's Fitness
• Gina Pinna in the photo department at Men's Fitness
• Vivian Torres in production at Men's Fitness
• The online editor at Shape

Have any more names? Email us

Elsewhere in the celebrity-industrial complex, over at OK! veteran staffers are supposedly being fired to make way for laid off workers from Time Inc.'s relatively classy People.

Think about it: RadarOnline is run by the Enquirer staff. It is the Enquirer. That's how it got its scoops on the death of Travolta's son in the first place—the rescue worker's story, the friend's story, etc. This is their groove. Their stories are everywhere! But now, a news outlet can credit Radar rather than the National Enquirer, lending the reporting a somewhat more respectable air. RadarOnline's only real purpose now is to whitewash scoops for the Enquirer. This is what Alex Balk & co. were fired for. Psht.

They "regret to inform" us that "due to market conditions, Radar magazine has stopped publishing." The other side informs that you can choose one of AMI's other magazines as a replacement: either Star, Men's Fitness, or Shape. Ominously, if you do not reply by January 12th, "your remaining subscription will be replaced by Star magazine." (How about "none of the above"?)

AMI CEO David Pecker will, it sounds like, reach some sort of agreement with his lenders. But the debt is obviously a serious long-term problem:

American Media has always been cash-flow positive, but has had trouble servicing the debt it took on as CEO David Pecker cobbled together the company.

Crazy Twitterer Bonnie Fuller was axed as the AMI editorial chief this past summer and still walked out the door with $2.4 million this year. That's not money management we can trust. [NYP]

Staffers were, of course, a bit disgruntled that they had just two hours to clear out their things, but the HR official made a little speech about how he had just lost his mother and learned in the process that stuff didn't matter nearly as much as the memories.
Of course, employees looking to copy their email address books and collect their things may have disagreed. Said one unnamed ex-Radar staffer: "I'm not even sure he had a mother."

But with the number of pink slips flying these days, we're sure there are worse layoff horror stories out there. Please send yours to tips@gawker.com.

American Media Inc. and Integrity Multimedia Company form joint venture to launch a new and enhanced RadarOnline web site

(October 24, 2008, New York, New York) – American Media Inc. (AMI) today announced they are partnering with Integrity Multimedia Company in creating a new company, Radar Online LLC. Integrity Multimedia will make a multi-million dollar investment in RadarOnline.com to launch it as the ultimate destination for breaking celebrity news and cutting edge pop culture.

RadarOnline.com will be supported by the AMI news organization and its network of hundreds of newsgatherers and thousands of sources. In addition, the Radar Online site will also have its own staff of editors, reporters, photographers and videographers .

In the first of many announcements to be forthcoming, American Media Inc. Chairman and CEO David Pecker said that David Perel, Executive Vice President of AMI News, will leave that position to become managing editor of RadarOnline. At AMI, Mr. Perel was responsible for breaking many of the biggest celebrity stories of the past two decades.

Mr. Pecker commented, "The AMI newsgathering team that David Perel has at his disposal for the new site is unmatched in the celebrity market, as is the access we have to past, present and future pop culture milestones. Our message is simple - if it's on your radar, it's on Radar Online, and if it's not on your radar, we'll put it there."

Integrity Multimedia Company Chairman Yusef Jackson added "By teaming with AMI, we will build on what we have already established with Radar while at the same time accelerating the potential for our return on investment. It is a win/win for both partners."

Plans call for RadarOnline.com to launch a redesigned site in the early part of 2009.

Although AMI squandered millions needlessly on things like, you know, the services of Bonnie Fuller, the Enquirer's upsurge from the John Edwards scoop may be just the thing to push them back towards profitability. If they can figure out how to sell some extra ads on it, that is. AMI's ad sales were down slightly in the first half, though not as much as the rest of the industry. So chin up. Remember, down is the new flat!

[WSJ]

From a 2004 profile of Fuller in Vanity Fair:

"Do you know the Make-a-Wish story?" asks one former editor who worked closely with Bonnie for years. "This is the most unbelievable story about entitlement. I say this as someone who really likes her, but there are things about her you can't fathom." Right before Bonnie quit Us, she had planned a family trip to Hawaii. The Make-a-Wish Foundation, an organization that arranges for the dreams of critically ill children to come true, was sending all six members of her family there owing to Fuller's ill daughter. What startled the editor was not so much the trip but the conversation that ensued right before Fuller left. She was overheard in the office shouting at one of the Make-a-Wish officers: "I just can't believe I'm going coach! How am I going to make that flight in coach?" Fuller says she did bump her family's fares up to business class, at her own expense. "Clearly," she says, "whoever [said that] doesn't know what it is to travel with four kids."

"I feel for her, I do," says the editor. "She's tortured by this money stuff. But she has these compulsions."

[WWD]

The Company is party to an employment agreement with Ms. Fuller. The term of Ms. Fuller's agreement commenced on July 7, 2003 and was amended as of April 1, 2006 to extend the term of the agreement through March 31, 2009 and to make certain other changes. Under her employment agreement, as amended, Ms. Fuller is to receive: (i) annual base salary in the amount of $1,500,000; (ii) an annual incentive payment of at least $500,000 with a target of $1,000,000, based on certain performance criteria; (iii) health and welfare benefit plan coverage; (iv) a grant of 1,350 Class B Units upon execution of the original agreement and an additional 450 Class B Units upon execution of the amendment; (v) an allotment of $80,000 per year for car services; (vi) reimbursement of health club-related expenses up to $18,000 per year; (vii) payment or reimbursement of hair and make-up charges of up to $20,000 per year for business-related appearances; (viii) payment of certain dues of related professional organizations; and (ix) reimbursement of certain expenses.

Form 10-K: American Media Operations, Inc. [SEC, via Footnoted]

The desks haven't been cleaned in a year. There's like an inch of dust on everything. There are mousetraps under each desk and rat poison out in the open. The bathrooms have roaches.

• Don Imus' contract with CBS said: "Services to be rendered are of a unique, extraordinary, irreverent, intellectual, topical, controversial, and personal character." Legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin thinks that makes Imus's $40 million lawsuit against CBS a bit more plausible. [CNN]
  
• Grocery store magnate/alleged Radar investor Ron Burkle in talks to merge with American Media Inc. (Star, National Enquirer, etc.). [NYP]
  
• Former Maxim EIC Keith Blanchard has left Wenner Media, where he's been since October. [WWD]
  
• Time Warner's cable business is carrying the can for its sorry publishing component. [NYP]
  
• Details douchebag Dan Peres rises a bit in our estimation. His take on Mark Whitaker's branding Adam Moss "the new David Remnick": "Remnick is beloved, as you know. It would have been much funnier if it had been about someone we all can't stand." [WWD]