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We've made our feelings about Marie Claire known, but have nothing to do with this little poison-pen plot that's going on now. Really, we don't—it sounds like way too much trouble.

Anyway, apparently someone has been sending copies of this Radar story about the magazine—in which it became clear that EIC Joanna Coles has no fucking clue what she's doing, and Hearst is freaking out about it—to advertisers.

MC publisher Susan Plagemann took the opportunity to trash Radar's reporting to Ad Age:

"The writing was irresponsible and inaccurate," she said of the article. "Second of all, when people are nervous and insecure, they do desperate things. Our business is fantastic. Our business has been fantastic every single issue since Joanna Coles has been our editor in chief."

Ad Age goes on to note that ad pages are down 1.4% for the year, while competitor Glamour's are up 7.3%; though subscriptions are up by nearly 18%, newsstand sales have declined 16%. "Fantastic" might not be quite the right word—we'd suggest going with "mediocre."

Spreading Not-So-Jolly Cheer [AdAge]
Earlier: No One Buys Marie Claire, Possibly Because It Sucks