Running a magazine isn’t as glamorous as it used to be.
Just ask Jess Cagle, the long-time editor-in-chief of People, who announced his departure Wednesday after five years running the popular celebrity magazine.
Cagle, 53, said he is leaving People to spend more time “under the same roof as my husband and dog.” But sources tell The Post that he had been feeling crimped by the magazine’s new owner, Meredith Corp., a Midwestern company known for penny-pinching.
When People was still owned by Time Inc., Cagle had sold his Manhattan apartment and bought a home in the Hollywood Hills in order to live with his now-husband, Matt Whitney, sources said.
That arrangement — among other job perks — came under pressure after Des Moines, Iowa-based Meredith bought Time for $2.8 billion in January 2018, sources said.
Meredith placed business executive Bruce Gersh in charge of People, adding a new layer of supervision that irked Cagle, sources said.
“Bruce was not supportive of Jess spending a lot of time in LA,” said a former People staffer. “There was no love lost between them.”
According to another former staffer, Cagle “hated” Gersh.
Cuts at People under Meredith have even led to problems getting the magazine to press, one source said. In one recent instance, Meredith executives tried to help over the phone from Des Moines, which sent Cagle into a rage, the ex-staffer said.
“He lost his s–t,” this person said.
It did not help that Cagle was pulling in seven figures a year at a time when publicly traded Meredith is promising Wall Street $500 million in cost reductions to justify its now one-year-old acquisition.
A Meredith spokeswoman said it was “entirely untrue” that Cagle was unhappy under Meredith.
Cagle has been replaced by low-key deputy Dan Wakeford, who isn’t expected to earn as much as Cagle — or seek the limelight like he did.
“Let’s put it this way: You’re not going to have ‘The Dan Wakeford Interview,’ ” one source said, referring to oft-mocked “The Jess Cagle Interview,” which was broadcast on all of the brand’s digital platforms and SiriusXM’s Entertainment Weekly channel.
“He’s the kind of guy who will take a subway to a restaurant,” said a Wakeford friend. “He’s not flying across the country and sending a limo to get you.”
Cagle’s exit comes as the era of the celebrity editor comes to a close, along with the high costs required to fund their lavish perks and parties.
Legendary Vanity Fair editor Graydon Carter left at the end of 2017 after 25 years, amid budget cuts that would have required him to take a more hands-on role — with less time for hobnobbing with celebs, sources told The Post.
Joanna Coles, former chief content officer at Hearst and former editor-in-chief of Cosmopolitan, left Hearst in August after clashing with a colleague who was elevated above her.
Cagle’s last day is March 31, when his contract expires. Cagle, who couldn’t be reached for comment, chose not to renew the contract, a Meredith spokesperson said.
”I’m sure it was a mutual thing,” a source said.
Additional reporting by Lisa Fickenscher
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