Star Magazine has fired editor-in-chief Candace Trunzo, TheWrap has learned.
She will be replaced by Radar Online editor David Perel. Perel told TheWrap that he will continue to oversee the popular gossip site.
Star has suffered from declining circulation and layoffs in recent months. In November, parent company American Media Inc. filed for bankruptcy protection.
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It emerged from Chapter 11 in December, with about $355 million of its $855 million debt load erased, but still leaving it about $500 million in the red.
Last month, the publication and AMI were slapped with a $50 million libel suit by Katie Holmes, after the tabloid implied the actress abused drugs.
In contrast, Perel's Radar has made a name for itself in the hyper-competitive world of Internet gossip. After the site posted taped conversations between Mel Gibson and Oksana Grigorieva, in which the "Lethal Weapon" star threatened his estranged lover, Radar's unique visitors jumped from 3 million to 6 million.
Star is expected to make additional cuts to its top editorial staff after Perel takes the reins, an individual with knowledge told TheWrap. Among those pushed out in the shakeup are senior editor Kara Feigeles and senior editor Melissa Cronin.
Trunzo's ouster isn't the only masthead overhaul taking place at AMI. The company fired Shape magazine editor-in-chief Valerie Latona for putting controversial singer LeAnn Rimes on the publication's cover in October, and also cut Men's Fitness editor Roy Johnson last February.
Trunzo took over the magazine's editorial operations in 2007. She first joined AMI in 1994 as a features editor for Globe magazine.
In 1999, Trunzo was named Star's executive editor, eventually becoming editor-in-chief. She later worked in other AMI publications such as the Globe and the National Enquirer.
Perel has been with AMI for 25 years, and previously served as editor-in-chief of the National Enquirer.
During the second half of 2010, single copy sales of Star fell 13.7 percent, while its total paid circulation dipped more than 11 percent to below 1,000,000 copies, according to the Audit Bureau of Circulations. But through March 2011, Star's advertising pages were up double digits (13.1 percent), generating an estimated $45.4 million in ad revenue.