Stengel to take over Time mag

Remember that limb on which your blogstress perched herself, overlooking the speculative media landscape? Well, down just came blogstress, Spandex and all.

Your cybertrix had put her money on People magazine managing editor Martha Nelson to be the fixer of Time. She based this on an obviously poorly educated guess, since the buzz around the impending appointment was that the new leader of the venerable newsweekly would be a surprise, and would come from outside the magazine. Your écrivaine took this to mean that the new top Time ed would come from outside the magazine but within the ranks of Time Inc., since the Time Inc. corporate culture is famously insidey. Looking around up in the corner offices of the Time+Life Building, your blogstress found Ms. Nelson to be a likely choice, being the brilliant magazine editor that she is. (Not that your net-tête is sucking up, or anything.)

"Outside the magazine" turned out to be a bit of a ruse, since the enigmatic Richard Stengel, who won Time's top edit spot, spent a number of years on the magazine's staff before leaving to lead a Philadelphia think tank. Your blogstress remembers Stengel from her New York days as the enigmatic and very elegant writer of January Sun. (Not that your Webwench is sucking up, or anything.)

Herewith, via Romenesko, the memo from Time Inc. honcho John Huey announcing Stengel's appointment.