Spin has parted ways with Editor-in-Chief Caryn Ganz. Jeff Leeds, the editorial boss of parent company SpinMedia, gave the news to staffers in a meeting Wednesday night in Spin's New York office.

Reached by phone, Ganz confirmed her departure, which she called "surprising," noting that Spin's website had just had the second-biggest month traffic-wise in its history. Ganz worked for Spin from 2001 to 2006, and returned in October 2011 after stints at Yahoo! and Rolling Stone.

"Before I came back there was a large rift between the editorial visions of the site and the magazine," she said. "Now that we only had digital concerns, we were amping up the quality and the aesthetic and the humor of the old Spin." The publication, Ganz said, "had restored the faith of our peers in what we were doing." (more...)

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Former Spin Editor Steve Kandell will edit BuzzFeed's longform content, the publication announced Monday. In a press release, Kandell said "the conversation-provoking longform journalism and profiles that have long been a staple of magazines are as vital as they’ve ever been, and I'm thrilled to help make this kind of writing a working part of the social web at BuzzFeed.”

Last month, Caitlin Johnston wrote about the buzz surrounding BuzzFeed's advertisement for this job and suggested "the addition of longform stories to a site that posts photos of NFL players who look like Muppets can be jarring." But BuzzFeed Executive Editor Doree Shafrir told her, “Why should we take for granted that a sort of quote, unquote ‘longform,’ serious piece won’t be shared on social media, as if the two things can’t exist in one ecosystem?" (more...)

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Spin will publish only six issues in 2012, down from 11 this year. The music magazine also plans to cut its rate base to 350,000 to 450,000, "an acknowledgment that the Web is replacing print for its mainly young, male readership," reports Lucia Moses. Spin Media CEO Alan Nichols tells her the decision was more about responding to changing reader habits than cutting costs. “It’s right-sizing for print,” he says. Moses writes:

While cutting back on print, Spin has been ramping up digitally. Earlier this year, it introduced a $1.99 iPad app called Spin Play, featuring a streaming playlist. In 2012, it plans to redesign Spin.com with a greater focus on reviews, blogs, and news.

> Earlier: Young woman cries until she passes out after failing to get Spin internship