A Familiar Voice for Esquire

And nowhere to go but up

"We used to call Clay Felker our drinking editor, not because he had a more agile elbow than any of the rest of us, but simply because he . . . managed to get to more parties in a week than anybody else in a month."

Thus did Esquire Founding Editor Arnold Gingrich (1903-76) once describe a certain garrulous subeditor who worked on the magazine during the highest of its haute-smartass days nearly two decades ago. Young Felker left Esquire in 1962, but became even more conspicuous in publishing and partying circles by founding New York in 1968, losing it this year in a bitter fight with Australian Sleaze-paper Publisher Rupert Murdoch (TIME, Jan. 17), and then scouring the globe for some new publishing adventure. Last week he found an old one: Esquire.

For an estimated $5 million, the prodigal--along with his former New York designer Milton Glaser and Publisher Vere Harmsworth's Associated Newspapers Group Ltd. (London's Daily Mail, Evening News and 42 smaller British papers) --will buy the 44-year-old monthly from its highly diversified parent, Esquire Inc. Glaser will become design director, Felker editor in chief as well as the chief executive of the magazine company; Harmsworth will be chairman.

The acquisition is richer in history than profit. Founded as a high-class men's magazine by Gingrich and two partners, Esquire has been a clever and richly wrought showcase for most major writers of the century, from Thomas Wolfe to Tom Wolfe. But with the rise of raunchier men's books (Hugh Hefner dreamed up Playboy after leaving a $60 a week Esquire promotion-writing job in 1952), and uncertainty about what Esquire's voice should be (the monthly has had four editors in as many years), advertising and circulation have dwindled. Over the past two fiscal years, Esquire lost more than $2 million.

The magazine has recovered somewhat this year; first-quarter ad pages were ahead 30% and newsstand sales were up 10%, though total circulation is down a bit, to 1 million. The new management hopes to extend that rally--and make Esquire more timely--by shortening its Rip Van Winklesque lead time (the January issue is now in preparation) and doubling the magazine's frequency. Felker, 51, is tight-lipped about what else may mark his reign, but emphatic about what will not. Still smarting from his takeover by Murdoch, he has worked out an agreement with Harmsworth, whose firm is putting up most of the purchase price, that he will not be removed while Esquire is successful. Vows he: "What happened with New York will never happen again."

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