Janice Min, the media executive and former gossip journalist widely credited with revolutionizing pop culture at Us Weekly and orchestrating the Hollywood Reporter’s successful turnaround, has significantly upgraded her L.A. residential circumstances with the $8 million purchase of an elegant Westside mansion. Located on a particularly desirable street in the Brentwood neighborhood, the mauve-colored manor weighs in with more than 6,600 square feet of traditional living space and is done up with Hamptons-style shingle siding.
Although the off-market transaction went down without fanfare, property records show the house was sold by William S. Anderson, executive chairman of diversified family holding company Topa Equities and son of the late John E. Anderson, a billionaire businessman and major philanthropist. Originally built in 2015, Anderson acquired the property in late 2017 for about $7.6 million, though he held onto the .3-acre mini-estate for less than two years before flipping it to Min.
Set privately behind tall hedges and gates, the house offers an attached three-car garage plus an adjacent motorcourt. The front door opens into a double-height foyer accented by wide-plank hardwood floors that flow throughout the entire structure. Straight ahead is the formal dining room, framed by elegant floral wallpaper and French doors opening directly to the gardens. To the right of the entryway is a living room with fireplace, to the left is a sumptuous kitchen outfitted with cornflower blue custom cabinetry, two islands and a full array of high-end stainless appliances.
Just beyond the kitchen is a fireplace-equipped family room with vaulted ceiling and bronzed chandelier; elsewhere are an office/study/library set just across from a convenient powder room and maid’s quarters.
Upstairs is the airy master suite, which features a vaulted bedroom ceiling and pale blue walls. There are lavish dual master baths and his-and-hers dressing rooms and closets, plus three additional family bedrooms, all of them with ensuite baths.
Surpisingly — and unlike most of its neighbors — the house is not equipped with a swimming pool or spa. However, the compact backyard does include a rose garden, manicured hedges, wee patch of grass and patio space for alfresco dining.
Reared in Colorado, Min began her journalism career in New York City, where she covered celebrity gossip and fashion for People magazine, eventually being promoted to senior editor. She later had brief stints at Life magazine and InStyle — where she led the development of InStyle Weddings — before landing at Us Weekly, where she soon became editor-in-chief, leading the magazine through a period of tremendous growth and singlehandedly spearheading a pop culture revolution through her editorial coverage of the Kardashians, the Bachelor and other reality TV guilty pleasures.
In late 2009, Min was hired as editorial director of The Hollywood Reporter, a then-struggling industry publication that many assumed was spiraling down the proverbial drain. Over the next several years, Min led an unprecedented turnaround that saw The Hollywood Reporter become a successful weekly magazine with a more hard-hitting approach industry news. She left in 2017, though she reportedly still owns a substantial stake in the publication, later joining Jeffrey Katzenberg and Meg Whitman’s Quibi upcoming video service as a content executive. This September, however, Min departed Quibi well ahead of its scheduled April 2020 launch.
And though she’s a new Brentwood resident, Min is certainly familiar with the posh Westside area of town. Since 2010, when she bought it for $4 million, she’s bunked up in a large Cape Cod-style home in Pacific Palisades. In 2017, she shelled out an additional $3 million for the smaller cottage next door. Neither property is currently on the market, though it seems likely that Min and her nonprofit organization director husband Peter Sheehy will soon be looking to unload those side-by-side Palisades pads.