AFTER yesterday’s shake-up at OK! magazine, it’ll take a microscope to find any trace of the mark left by Kent Brownridge.

He, along with Editor-in-Chief Susan Toepfer, are out after Richard Desmond, CEO of magazine owner Northern + Shell, cleaned house following years of losses.

Toepfer, former editor-in-chief of Rosie and Quick & Simple, leaves after producing just seven issues.

Brownridge, meanwhile, has been ousted after joining OK! as general manager in September. Sources said he had feuded with Desmond.

As a result of those changes, three OK! alums are returning to the fold. Sarah Ivens, who left the magazine in October to get married and move to Kentucky horse country, is reprising her role as the magazine’s top editor – but only for the moment.

Meanwhile, Rob Shuter, an executive editor who was bounced by Brownridge, is said to be coming back as well, though that was not confirmed by the company.

And finally, Brian Strong, who was tossed by Brownridge in September, returns as the magazine’s in-house p.r. person, replacing an ousted Beth Jacobson.

Publisher Lori Burgess appears to be the only Brownridge hire in senior management to survive yesterday’s purge.

The shake-up, which was first reported on NYPost.com, capped a tumultuous past few weeks at OK!. Virtually every editor hired by Brownridge and Toepfer in recent weeks has been given the old heave-ho.

That includes Senior Executive Editor Roberta Caploe and Managing Editor Marc Einsele, who just joined Jan. 4.

Tamara Glenny, a senior editor, and Creative Director Trey Steegle are also out.

Brownridge, who had been summoned to an emergency meeting with Desmond at Northern + Shell’s London headquarters, was said to be returning to New York yesterday and could not be reached for comment.

Sources said Desmond was infuriated that newsstand sales plummeted to the 300,000-to-400,000 range from the 500,000-to-700,000 range over the summer, which, when added to the subscription numbers, meant that the magazine was missing the circulation target it promises to advertisers.

In a drastic cost-saving move, Brownridge started putting out double issues from early December to early January, and cut the cover price to $2.99 from $3.49.

“He wasn’t able to boost sales by lowering the price,” said a source.

Sources said though Desmond was unhappy with the mag’s performance, he was able to take solace – and ostensibly remain patient – because the exchange rate between the dollar and the British pound favored Northern + Shell. When the dollar began to gain ground on the pound, Desmond found that investing in the US magazine was getting more ex pensive.

The numbers at OK! were particularly dismal given the title a year ago made a huge splash by paying $1 million for the exclu sive story that Jamie Lynn Spears, Brit ney’s little sister, was pregnant. That issue sold more than 1 mil lion copies.

But under Brown ridge the magazine got out of the game of buying pricey baby and wedding photos, favoring instead B- and C-list celebrities that larger rivals like People didn’t pursue. It’s a move that might have saved money, but it clearly hurt newsstand sales.

Brownridge also dismissed Publisher Tom Morrissy, and while there were claims OK! heavily discounted ad rates, the magazine saw its ad page-count jump 34 percent through the 2008 third quarter.

However, by the fourth quarter, the souring economy sent ad pages down for the first time in two years, trimming full-year ad-page growth to 23.3 percent.

Now there are rumors that Desmond has grown weary and is demanding immediate results. Sources said he is heading to New York next week, where he’s expected to outline a do-or-die plan to cut losses and push the languishing title to profitability.

Deadline

Time Inc. no longer stands alone.

Bauer Publications, publisher of In Touch and Life & Style, is joining the magazine giant in refusing to send copies of its magazines to two national wholesalers that are demanding a 7-cent-per-copy delivery surcharge on all issues.

The wholesalers – Ron Burkle-controlled Source Interlink Cos. and Charles Anderson’s Anderson News – both claim they need the extra money to shore up what they describe as a money-losing business.

Time Inc., publisher of People, Time, Sports Illustrated and Entertainment Weekly, became the first publisher to officially tell the wholesalers it won’t go for the surcharge and would refuse to hand over copies.

“Our intention is to have the business replaced by other wholesalers,” said a Time spokeswoman.

While Time Inc. and Bauer so far are refusing to pay the hike, other publishers appear to be more flexible, and the firms seeking the surcharge are using that to fight back.

Source Interlink, in a letter released Wednesday, said it has “assurances of no disruption in supply from Comag Marketing Group, Curtis Circulation, Kable News and any of the publishers with which SID has a direct relationship.”

Comag is jointly owned by Hearst, which publishes Cosmopolitan, and Condé Nast, which publishes Vogue. So far, neither company has made any public comment.

Meanwhile, Jim Gillis, chief operating officer at Source Interlink, blasted Time Inc., saying that for years People, the best- selling magazine in the US, has given wholesalers about 5 cents less per copy than mags like Us Weekly.

Anderson News also began firing back against what it terms “misinformation,” in cluding suggestions that the fee hike would add $1 billion in expenses to magazine publishers already struggling in the recession. Anderson said the real number was less than $200 million.

Combined, Anderson and Source control just under 50 percent of all copies going to US retail outlets.

Two other national wholesalers, Jimmy Pattison’s News Group and Jimmy Cohen’s Hudson News, have so far indicated they aren’t imposing the surcharge.

Sources said Hudson News stands to pick up the lion’s share of new routes in Chicago, Los Angeles and the Washington, DC-Baltimore area if those refusing to pay Anderson News and Source Interlink stick to their guns.

The new price would affect any copies shipped after Feb. 1. For most weeklies, the print and ship date is Feb. 3.

Awards

The Magazine Publishers of America and the American Society of Magazine Editors switched their joint awards luncheon from its usual location at the Waldorf-Astoria to a much more lightly attended affair at the Plaza yesterday afternoon.

Observers estimated that attend ance was off by 20 percent or more from previous years.

Ann Moore, CEO of Time Inc., was pres ented with a lifetime achievement award – the Henry John son Fisher Award – by her former Time Warner boss Rich ard Parsons.

Martha Stewart, founder of Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia, was inducted into the ASME Hall of Fame.

Parsons called Moore, who last year laid off 600 people and shut down magazines like Cottage Living, the “energizer bunny of optimism” during the dark days after the Time Warner merger with AOL.

Moore joked that Parsons, in his new job as Citigroup chairman, will probably need a new advertising strategy and to remember that “magazines are very effective.”

Stewart was also a controversial choice, in large part because of her stint in federal prison for lying to investigators about a suspicious stock sale several years ago.

Her presenter, “Today” host Matt Lauer, kidded her, saying, “It’s not just women who love Martha. Men like Martha too, even some straight men. It just proves that men love a bad girl.”

During her many appearances on “Today,” Lauer said he and Stewart had “done just about everything except have sex. And if you had put that damned glue gun down once, that might have happened, too.” keith.kelly@nypost.com