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TED Turner's life story sold for $4.5 million to Hachette Books, publishing sources told Media Ink, one of the first big non-fiction deals for the French giant that took over the Time Warner Publishing Group earlier this year.
Initially, Turner's literary agent Mort Janklow had been hoping to fetch up to $7 million.
The deal is still a good payday, but was probably dented because the Mouth of the South has never been shy about sharing his opinion.
And while CNN is a worldwide brand, Turner may not be as marketable overseas.
But several publishers had pushed the bidding quickly into the mid-seven figure range for Turner - the man who started CNN, married and divorced Jane Fonda and used his personal fortune to become one of the largest landholders in the United States.
He was famous for feuding with other media titans, and even his son was not immune to Turner's caustic barbs.
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New York Times media columnist David Carr has sold his memoirs of drug addiction and redemption to Simon & Schuster.
"David is doing a book about the nature of memory and storytelling told through his own personal history," said Philippa "Flip" Brophy, his agent at Sterling Lord.
One industry source said that the heated auction had fetched a price north of $300,000.
"We're thrilled to have a chance to publish a book from one of the finest non-fiction journalists of our time," David Rosenthal, publisher of industry giant Simon & Schuster said.
Carr was the editor of Washington City Paper, worked at the defunct Powerful Media and was a contributor to Atlantic Monthly when he was hired by Howell Raines as a media reporter at the New York Times.
But Rosenthal said the book was not expected to delve into his days at the Gray Lady.
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W magazine's first-ever art issue is slated to hit newsstands in October, and will cover major artists, auction houses and dealers.
Some may chalk this one up to a simmering rivalry between James Truman, the ex-editorial director of Conde Nast, and Patrick McCarthy, the editorial director of stablemate W.
Truman is now the CEO of LTB Media, a company that has as its flagship Art & Auction. He's also introducing his newest magazine, Art & Culture, in September, but is said to be struggling to find ads.
McCarthy denies any rivalry with Truman. "It has nothing to do with that. We've had this on the drawing board for nine months," McCarthy said of W's art number.
Still, he concedes, it is a first for W. And while he'll be covering the art world, he said he'll be going to the same high-end fashion advertisers.
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Manhattan Media owner Tom Allon isn't finished with downtown saturation.
Next Monday, he plans to introduce a glossy monthly called City Hall, aimed at the government workers who toil under Mayor Michael Bloomberg.
City Hall will be wrapped in all the newspapers that Manhattan Media publishes, including Our Town, West Side Spirit, Chelsea Clinton News and The Westsider, as well as its newest launch, a 20,000-circulation free paper called Our Town Downtown.
After City Hall's debut, Allon said he only plans to distribute it inside Our Town Downtown, which aims to reach the burgeoning population of families in Manhattan from 28th Street to the Battery.
It's an area of the city that once prided itself as the home of hippies, punk rockers, squatters and artists.
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A deal is near between Robert DeNiro and associates at the TriBeCa Film Festival and Arthur Carter over the sale of Carter's New York Observer.
"It's as close to a done deal as it's been since Conrad Black," said one source.
In the late 1990s, Carter had reached a tentative deal to sell the paper and convert it into a five-day a week paper. That deal exploded at the 11th hour.
Current negotiations involve DeNiro and his TriBeCa partners, Jane Rosenthal and her husband, real estate financier Craig Hatkoff. They reportedly have no problem with Carter continuing to write editorials.
Carter did not return a call and a TriBeCa spokesman declined to comment.
keith.kelly@nypost.com
Copyright 2004 NYP Holdings, Inc. All rights reserved.
