Former Hearst Editorial Director Ellen Levine Dies at 79
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Hearst Magazines’ former editorial director Ellen Levine died Sunday at age 79.
Selling Oprah Winfrey on the prospect of a signature title, which wound up being the company’s most successful magazine launch, was among her achievements. Earlier in her career, in 1994, Levine became the first female editor in chief of Good Housekeeping since the publication’s inception in 1885. Levine exited Hearst Tower as editorial director in fall 2016 and served as an editorial consultant for a period of time.
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Levine died at her home in New York City, according to a Hearst spokesperson, who did not provide the cause of death. Services will be held Wednesday at 11:30 a.m. at the Frank E. Campbell Home on the Upper East Side.
After graduating from Wellesley College, Levine started out in journalism as a cub reporter at The Record newspaper in Hackensack, New Jersey. An interview with actor Dustin Hoffman led to what was said to be lifelong career advice. Perhaps showing the glow of celebrity access, Levine’s editor at the time advised her, “Get over yourself. It’s not about you,” according to information provided by Hearst.
Before joining Hearst, she worked for a series of other magazines including Cosmopolitan under the mentorship of storied editor Helen Gurley Brown. There were also stops at Woman’s Day and the lead editorial job at Redbook before Levine helmed Good Housekeeping, infusing a certain gravitas. Levine later served as president of the American Society of Magazine Editors for two terms.
She also became politically involved as a member of the U.S. Attorney’s General Commission on Pornography and filed a minority dissent. In recognition of her work on the commission, the American Society of Journalists and Authors presented her with an award for courage in pursuit of the truth.
Levine was elevated to Hearst’s editorial director in 2006. In that capacity she helped champion the Food Network magazine in 2008 and HGTC Magazine in 2012. Those moneymaking launches were executed through what was then the Scripps Network. During her extended career at Hearst, Levine’s influence spanned well beyond the printed word, eventually working across corporate divisions including newspapers, television, entertainment, brand extensions and digital.
With a readers-first mindset, Levine was unabashed about addressing issues that impacted their lives years before that became a common practice, including equality, the hazards of smoking for women’s health, pay equity, mental illness, prostate cancer and political issues. In the ’90s, Levine once explained that Good Housekeeping still was thriving because it was the only magazine that she was aware of that would refuse an ad if its claims could not be proven.
The occasional industry salute — and there were more than a few — provided an opportunity for her to recognize struggles, as was the case at the 2007 Legal Momentum’s annual Equal Opportunity Awards. Levine spoke publicly about the male-dominated work environment she experienced as a young woman starting her career. She also detailed the realities of earning far less money than men, and not being taken seriously for many reasons, including the chance that she could become pregnant.
During Levine’s tenure at Good Housekeeping she recruited such unexpected contributors as Condoleezza Rice, during her days as Secretary of State in George W. Bush’s administration. When Rice headlined a private media luncheon on the day that a letter from the-then Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to Bush was made public, she was asked about U.S.-Iran negotiations at that time and about her views of Ahmadinejad as a man and a politician by Time’s managing editor Jim Kelly and Newsweek editor Mark Whitaker. While other media outlets might have tried to veer the question-and-answer session in another direction, that was not the case at the Hearst-sponsored lunch, which also included such journalists as Barbara Walters, Diane Sawyer, Katie Couric and Gayle King.
Levine was integral to the launch of Oprah Winfrey’s O the Oprah Magazine, working closely with her and Hearst Magazines’ former president Cathleen Black on the publication’s concept and design. Banking on a winner from the start, the first issue in March/April 2000 had an initial press run of 850,000. Levine had more than a hunch about Winfrey’s salability in print before the debut. Whenever she had put Winfrey on the cover of Good Housekeeping, it had sold out. In its first 15 years in publication, O, The Oprah Magazine pulled in $1 billion in consumer revenue from subscriptions and newsstand sales alone.
Levine, who had a personal relationship with Winfrey, is credited with sealing the deal. So much so, the talk show star referred to her as “Queen Levine.” Winfrey’s friend Gayle King explained to WWD in 2017 that “Ellen gave her such a good sell in terms of the written word. That’s what got to Oprah.”
The Hearst duo also broached bringing King, who was working in TV news in Connecticut at the time, into the fold as O’s launch editor and liaison with Winfrey — a move that Winfrey didn’t expect King to make. After meeting Levine and Black, King embarked on a magazine career. Winfrey’s and King’s entry into the magazine business was like “Stevie Wonder leading José Feliciano, meaning the blind leading the blind — no disrespect to José or Stevie,” King once said. “We didn’t even know what a TOC [table of contents] was. I can remember Oprah sitting in a meeting and going, ‘Why do we have to have so many ads?’ And I could see the people at Hearst going, ‘Aieeee!’”
Indicative of another era in publishing, before Levine was inducted into the Magazine Editors’ Hall of Fame, as selected by the American Society of Magazine Editors, in 2004, Black procured a fire-engine red Hermès Kelly bag for the occasion. Rather than try to jump what was then a two-year waiting list by leaning on the luxury house’s public relations, a Paris-based Town & Country contributor waltzed into the Hermès flagship and sweet-talked the sales staff to sell her one. (The fact that she had written a profile of Hermès a few years prior probably helped.) Either way the bag was presented to Levine at a Hearst reception.
That same year Levine was inducted into the Magazine Publishers of America, which is now known as the MPA. Levine also was honored by Help USA with their Hero Award in 2015, and two years later, the Association of National Advertisers’ Educational Foundation bestowed on her a lifetime achievement award.
Former Hearst president and publishing director Michael Clinton recalled Tuesday how Levine invited a few sitting U.S. Presidents and First Ladies to speak to Hearst editors and management team. Bill Clinton, Laura Bush and Michelle Obama obliged and “the talks were informative about the key issues on their minds.” Michael Clinton said.
When U.S. postal pricing increases once loomed, Clinton – in his former role as the MPA’s chairman – enlisted Levine to testify before Congress about the importance of magazines and their sites as vehicles for information, education and entertainment for Americans across the country. He said, “Her explanation in magazines playing this role in the country was well-received,” he said.
“Ellen was as comfortable with presidents ,as she was with everyday people. She was a dynamic presence in the world, and she had a great instinct for what women wanted to read and learn.” Clinton said. “I saw her in action with clients, in front of Congress and with every celebrity imaginable. They all immediately connected with her, as she was always interested in them. [She had] a true reporter’s curiosity and was an editor’s editor.”
As part of the senior brass, Levine helped the company expand into other ventures. During Hearst’s “magfronts,” a riff on the television networks’ upfronts, Levine interviewed the television personality Dr. Mahmet Oz in advance of the launch of his magazine Dr. Oz The Good Life. (Oz is now more commonly recognized as the Republican surgeon-turned-politician who is vying for the Senate seat in the battleground state of Pennsylvania against Democrat John Fetterman.) Through the years Levine’s status in the media conglomerate was well established. In 2014, Hearst’s then-president David Carey described her as “our Anna Wintour. She is a very important person in our company.”
Describing Levine as “a beloved and admired member of the Hearst community,” Hearst executive vice chairman and former chief executive officer Frank A. Bennack Jr. said in a statement Monday: “Over the years, she invaluably shaped numerous publications. We remain in awe of her boundless creativity, ingenuity and dedication to inspiring and informing readers through journalism.”
Predeceased by her husband Richard in 2020, Levine is survived by her sons Daniel and Peter. In lieu of flowers, donations to the Richard U. Levine Memorial Fund are asked to be considered, the Hearst spokesperson said.
