Crimson magazine is a top-of-the-line fashion magazine owned by Aurora Media.
They are continually one of the sponsors of the annual Nurses Ball charity event.
Background[]
Crimson is a fashion magazine which was originally run by Connie Falconeri, who was formerly known as Kate Howard. In 2007, Jasper Jacks helped Kate get the magazine off the ground by housing Crimson at the Metro Court Hotel and becoming a major investor. Kate hired Maxie Jones as her first assistant, and Lulu Spencer as her second assistant. In 2008, Maxie was almost raped here by Logan Hayes, but he saw Lulu watching from Johnny's penthouse (which was formerly the home of Jasper Jacks). Lulu then accidentally killed him, which put her in the Shadybrook Sanitarium. When Kate was shot, Maxie temporarily took over for her as the top dog at the magazine.
In December 2008, Kate held a party at the skyline restaurant to commemorate the re-launch of Crimson under Kate's name. During the party, after giving Carly the same dress that Kate had on, Lulu and Maxie were almost fired. But due to Jax having controlling interest, he prevented the event from taking place. In May 2009, it was revealed that new designs from Crimson were being leaked to Couture, Kate's former magazine now being run by Giselle May. After Damian Spinelli investigated closely, Clarice Bennett was fired from Crimson for her betrayal; but on further inspection, the culprit was revealed to be Kate herself.
In 2011, Lulu left Crimson, only later to return. In 2012, Maxie left Crimson when she was sentenced to 20 years in jail. Maxie was later released from jail. Kate then left Crimson in 2012 due to a mental illness and being confined to Shadybrook, but was later released.
Manning Enterprises[]
In June of 2012, Todd Manning bought out Lux Corp., to whom Kate had sold the magazine in 2009. Todd bought the company and renamed it Manning Enterprises. Todd also bought out Pres Floyd's newspaper The Port Charles Press and renamed it The Sun. Manning Enterprises also owned a sports publication and two publishing houses. ME also owned a cable television franchise, but in August of 2012, Todd sold it to Jerry Jacks, who approached him using the alias "James Craig." Jerry then took to the airwaves to inform the city that he had poisoned the water supply. Sam Morgan obtained a job as Todd's assistant so that she could secretly investigate his involvement with Heather Webber, but Todd fired her after realizing her scheme. Manning Enterprises was the sister company of Llanview, Pennsylvania -based Lord Enterprises, which Todd co-owns with his sister Victoria Lord. Kate's alternate personality, Connie Zacchara, later forced Todd to give her her job back at Crimson and in March 2013, Todd moved back to Llanview leaving Connie as owner once more.
In December of 2012, T.J. Ashford and Molly Lansing-Davis obtained internships at Crimson in order to investigate Connie for stealing the manuscript of Molly's book, Love in Maine.
Connie's End and New Ownership[]
In August 2013, Julian Jerome comes to town under the alias of Derek Wells and buys the parent company. "Derek" then orders Connie to find a major front-page story to publish in The Port Charles Press (which he also controls) or she and numerous other of employees will be fired. Connie finds out about Ava Jerome's scheme of falsely identifying her daughter Kiki Jerome as a Quartermaine and uses the scandal as the front page story. Connie is then shot and killed in her Crimson office on the night of August 23rd. The killer was revealed to be Ava, although A.J. Quartermaine was the main suspect.
In 2015, Julian leaves the mob and starts a new company called Derek Wells Media. Julian hired a very inexperienced Nina Reeves to be editor-and-chief of Crimson, so she can run it into the ground so he can get the tax write off. After finding out that Maxie worked at Crimson, Nina offers her a job and she accepts. Maxie also gives Nina a make over so she can play the part of Editor-in-Chief better. Dillon Quartermaine was also hired as a photographer.
In August 2016, Julian is facing criminal charges and Nina blackmails him for full control of Crimson. Nina held crucial information that could impact Julian's case, so he relented and signed over ownership of the magazine completely to Nina.
In 2017, it was revealed that Derek Wells Media still owns Crimson and signs off on its budget but Nina controls the magazine. Julian later sells Derek Wells Media to his daughter Sam McCall and Drew Cain who rename it Aurora Media. Following Sam and Drew's divorce Sam decided to step down and Drew later sold 50 percent of Aurora Media to Jasper Jacks making him co-owner.
In 2019, upon thinking Sasha Gilmore is her daughter, Nina hires her as her assistant - and Sasha leaves when the deception is discovered.
In 2020, Lucy Coe and Sasha partner to relaunch the "Deception" makeup brand, and they get a reticent Nina to sign a contract with them. After a series of misunderstandings, Maxie quits, Nina angrily voids the contract with Lucy while accusing her of poaching Maxie, and Lucy resorts to accepting an offer from Valentin Cassadine to be their new investor.
In 2020, after losing Sasha and Maxie to Deception, Nina hires Nelle Benson as her assistant. She later reveals to Carly, that her plan is to get close to Nelle and get evidence to help bring her down in court.
On June 29, 2021, the company launches a collaboration with Deception, for the "Year of the Mother/Face of Conception" campaign. Valentin convinced Lucy to hire Brook Lynn on, this time as social media manager. She secretly tells Maxie that while they both work for Crimson/Deception, "Bailey" will be mere yards away at daycare in the building, allowing both of her "moms" to visit her without arousing suspicions. Maxie is grateful, and agrees to Sasha's plan for a candlelight vigil. The goal is to inform the public about missing children nationwide, and help in the search for Louise and the fugitive Peter.
In May 2023, after Nina anonymously calls in a tip, it leads the S.E.C. to open an investigation on Drew Cain for insider training, his assets - including Crimson's parent company Aurora Media - are frozen.
Nina Took The Metro Court, Carly Takes Crimson[]
On January 19, 2024, in retaliation for Nina snitching to the feds which lead to him getting thrown into prison, Drew forces Nina to resign and hires Carly Spencer to take her place as "Editor-in-Chief." Immediately following Nina's exit, Carly admits to Drew she doesn't want to be editor, she just wanted to get one-up on Nina and go back to running "Bobbie's" for her mom. Drew is having none of it and talks her into taking the position.
On January 26, Nina meets up with Valentin at Charlie's Pub, and where he suggests he fund a rival fashion magazine for her, and poach all of her former employees from under Carly. Nina is tempted but turns him down. She does agree to come to him if she needs any help, and he toasts her as the eventual winner.
On February 22, after an argument over Drew refusing to drop his vendetta against Nina, Carly quit as Editor-in-Chief, after only having released one issue.
Metro Court[]
Crimson is located inside the Metro Court, a hotel currently co-owned by Nina Reeves and Olivia Quartermaine. It is located at 1420 Quartz Lane, Port Charles, New York. It was built by Jasper Jacks on the former site of the Port Charles Hotel, which was destroyed in a fire in 2004, and named after his then-fiancée, the late Courtney Matthews. It is one of many companies onsite in the hotel.
Employees[]
Bold denotes current employees
- Drew Cain (Co-owner and CEO)
- Sydney Val Jean (Fashion editor)
- Jasper Jacks (Co-owner)
- Hayden Barnes (former Chief Financial Officer)
- Connie Falconeri (former Editor-in-Chief)
- Nina Reeves (Former Editor-in-Chief)
- Carly Spencer (Former Editor-in-Chief)
- Maxie Jones (former Creative Director)
- Todd Manning (former owner)
- Julian Jerome (former owner and publisher - as "Derek Wells")
- Sam McCall (former co-owner and publisher)
Lulu Spencer started as the second assistant to Connie / Kate. As a favor to her cousin Carly, Lulu begins to work as an assistant to Kate Howard, who is launching a magazine with Jax. Lulu also discovers that Maxie is an assistant for Kate. However, after quitting Crimson, abandoning the Haunted Star and vowing to no longer devote herself to healing the Spencers, Lulu suffers from a bit of an identity crisis. Lulu never ends going back to Crimson, but rather becomes Chief Investigative Reporter at The Invader.
Maxie Jones started as a Junior Editor / first assistant to Connie / Kate. She was later an Executive fashion editor to Nina.
Soon after Maxie's escape from the hospital, Spinelli makes his way out of the burning building, and the two reunite with a passionate kiss. After the crisis at General Hospital, Maxie returns to work at Crimson. Kate hires Johnny to go on publicized dates with Maxie in order to stimulate press for Crimson that neither Spinelli nor Lulu liked. It is revealed that they had both been kissing and Johnny had cheated on Lulu. Spinelli leaves Maxie but they reconcile when Maxie and Sam save him from going to prison for hacking in to government computers.
Maxie and Spinelli discuss his desires to have children. The new integrated Connie Falconeri hires Maxie back to Crimson. However on her first day of work, she is more concerned with keeping her personal secrets hidden than going to work. She throws a fit when she finds lab technician Ellie Trout looking through confidential medical files and she spends a considerable amount of time at The Floating Rib discussing the situation involving Lulu Spencer running away from the hospital. She finally goes back to Crimson and is able to regain her job. She also feels her daughter move for the first time while talking to the newly-fired replacement of Maxie.
In 2015, after finding out that Maxie had worked at Crimson, Nina, the new Editor-in-Chief, offers her a job. Maxie is now executive fashion editor. She also gave Nina a make over. Eventually, Nina fires Maxie due to personal reasons.
Maxie was rehired in late 2017.
In 2020, upon Lucy and Sasha relaunching the "Deception Cosmetics" makeup brand, Maxie begins to feel unappreciated at Crimson, especially when Lucy notices her talents and offers her a place at Deception. Nina attempts to get Jax to agree to a raise/title bump for Maxie, and when he refuses, she quits and joins Lucy and Sasha at Deception - though neither she nor Sasha are pleased that Valentin is their new investor.