Back in December, we told you that Condé Nast insiders were confidently predicting the downfall of Mitchell Fox, a top executive in charge of Women's Wear Daily, W, Golf Digest, and a battery of other magazines.

They, and we, were wrong, sort of. Fox still has his job, but with a fat new golden string attached: He is now attending one-on-one counseling sessions to rid him of the behavioral tics that caused one underling to label him "the king of the mindfuck."

Condé Nast insiders say Fox has been meeting with a "wildly expensive" career coach who has helped other top executives, including CEO Chuck Townsend and corporate sales chieftain Richard Beckman, refine their management styles. (And when the people who publish Vogue and Vanity Fair tell you something is "wildly expensive," they know whereof they speak.)

Sources disagreed about whether this development was a "last-ditch attempt" (as one put it) to avoid transferring or firing Fox, or a sign that chairman Si Newhouse deems Fox an important prospect worthy of cultivation. "It's a luxury, not a punishment," says one insider. Indeed, working with the coach can't be seen to have harmed either Townsend or Beckman.

On the other hand, Beckman, who once fractured a female staffer's cheekbone in a rowdy drinking incident, is not exactly a model executive. As for Townsend: "Chuck did it, but then he rebelled against everything the coach told him," says a colleague.

Asked about Fox's coaching sessions, a Condé Nast spokeswoman says, "We really don't comment on this type of stuff."

Photo: Patrick McMullan/PatrickMcMullan.com