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The gesture to American Express Publishing Co.'s nonexecutive staffers (who also got portable compact-disc players) came at the close of the company's December 19 Christmas party. It was an acknowledgment to the "troops" by Brewster--AmEx Publishing president since 1993--of the cumulative +8.45% ad-page performance by Departures/Food & Wine/ Travel & Leisure. Publishers, ad directors, and editors were rewarded separately. * Though Brewster's generosity pales next to the $100 million that Kingston Technology Co. (KTC) founders David Sun and John Tu gave to their 523 employees (average take is $191,205), he is sainted compared with Walt Disney {DIS} chairman/ceo Michael Eisner. His $90 million "platinum parachute" to outgoing Disney president Michael Ovitz, is, per The New York Times (December 25, 1996), said to be the reason why other employees "face a cut in bonuses." * KTC's Sun and Tu can afford the handout, because in September they sold their Orange County, Calif.-based computer-memory-board company to Ziff-Davis parent Softbank Corp. for $1.5 billion. (Tu told the NYT that Softbank chairman Masayoshi Son considered the bonuses "very cool.") And, if the rumors of an American Express Co. {AMEX} sale to General Electric {GE} come to fruition (no indication on how Time Inc.'s share in AmEx Publishing would be affected), then Brewster could be more magnanimous the next time. Most magnanimous magazine magnate remains Peter Diamandis, who in 1988 divvied chunks of the circa $1 billion payout for Diamandis Communications Inc. (Woman's Day, etc.) by Hachette Filipacchi Magazines/Times Mirror Maga- zines/Cahners Publishing among staffers large and small--and is said to have personally pocketed $18 million (min, August 3, 1988).