Peter Kaplan vs. Jared Kushner
Longtime New York Observer editor Peter Kaplan is leaving the paper to, okay, "spend more time with the family," but why did he really quit? Perhaps...he'd had enough of rich young NYO owner Jared Kushner?
The rumor is that Kaplan might move on to a gig at Conde Nast Traveler, but that doesn't appear to be the reason he quit the NYO, which he loved (and which loved him!). In WWD today, Jacob Bernstein runs through some of the tension between quintessential Manhattan journalism guy Kaplan and Kushner, a born-rich kid of a real estate felon who, honestly, doesn't know much about papers. Although he still has "ideas" about how the NYO should operate:
Last year, sources said, Kushner went on a yacht trip with his girlfriend (and now fiancée) Ivanka Trump and the media baron Rupert Murdoch and came back with what a few sources described as a "big head." It wasn't the cause of Kaplan's departure, but it was one more ripple in an already complicated relationship.
Toward the end of the year, with the economy in free fall, sources said Kushner began to pressure Kaplan to make budget cuts. Kaplan was upset by the situation.
Which is all Kushner's prerogative, of course, blah blah blah, but come on, the pay at the Observer is notoriously shitty already, and if Kushner was really that concerned about profit margins he never should have bought the paper in the first place. Duh.
Kushner also didn't show up at Kaplan's going-away drinking night. Come on, dude.
[WWD. Pic: NYP]