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Conde Nast CEO Chuck Townsend’s official memo on closing Gourmet

From: Townsend, Chuck
Sent: Monday, October 05, 2009 10:17 AM
Subject: Announcing Changes within Condé Nast
We have now completed an extensive review of our business – an important undertaking given the dramatic changes in the U.S. economy. The review has led us to a number of decisions designed to navigate the company through the economic downturn and to position us to take advantage of coming opportunities. READ MORE on Conde Nast CEO Chuck Townsend’s official memo on closing Gourmet

Posted
October 5th, 2009

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Conde Nast to Close Gourmet, Cookie, Modern Bride

This is a major shocker that Conde Nast is closing these publications. Close Gourmet, Cookie, Modern Bride. Read more on Conde Nast to Close Gourmet, Cookie, Modern Bride

Posted
October 5th, 2009

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Luxury 2.0 blog, news, PR, affluent community

Here’s our review of the new luxury 2.0 blog Pursuitist.com:

luxury blog

If you’re looking for luxury news, PR, latest headlines on all things luxe, look no further than Pursuitist. It’s a great luxury news aggregator and affluent community, including forums and discussions. The Pursuitist is very unique compared to other luxury blogs and websites like Luxist, JustLuxe or BornRich — as this is really the first web 2.0 luxury blog — with more a community that encourages conversation compared to the old school way of one-way publishing. Already in two weeks of private beta, the site has had over 7000 affluent readers join the community. As marketers — its great to see a targeted audience; luxury brands, marketers and pr professionals could really focus on this crowd.

luxury community

And Pursuitist is less bling — more reflective of the new luxury mindset. Instead of spoiled richness, it focuses on “finding and sharing the good things in life.” Kind of like Daily Candy for the affluent. This is the type of site Si Newhouse’s Conde Nast or Barry Diller’s IAC/InterActiveCorp should pick up before it becomes too popular — as very few sites are doing a daily round-up of all things luxe. The site focuses on style, fashion, home and garden, travel, wellness, family, tech and gadgets, food and wine. From BMW, Lexus, Louis Vuitton, Chanel, Prada, Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts, The Ritz-Carlton, Coach etc., the top luxury brands are featured.

On the web at Pursuitist.com

Posted
July 14th, 2009

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Conde Nast to shut down Portfolio

For nearly two years I’ve been covering the media industry’s bad news on this blog, including some that’s hit very close to home. Now it hits closer still: Condé Nast Portfolio is closing. Our editor in chief, Joanne Lipman, just broke the news to staff, saying the decision had been made “because of financial reasons at Advance,” Condé Nast’s parent company. “It’s not anything that the company wanted to do.” She said she was informed by Condé Nast chairman S.I. Newhouse Jr. this morning of the decision. – from Portfolio

Conde Nast is shutting down its glossy business magazine Portfolio, two years after its launch. Conde Nast famously poured $100 million to launch the publication, which went on an expensive hiring spree in 2007 in its attempt to take on Fortune, Forbes, and Business Week. The magazine always seemed to me to have an unhealthy fixation with Wall Street and the hedge fund boom over other industries, but as Wall Street cratered nobody wanted to read those stories anymore. The drop in print advertising, down 26 percent in the first quarter, didn’t help matters either. – from Techcrunch

Under its chairman, Si Newhouse, Conde Nast has been known for its patience with money-losing titles and previously appeared ready to give Portfolio at least until the second half of the year. But ad declines across the company’s titles, including at the ones that traditionally could be counted on to cover losses at underperforming properties, has forced the publisher to have a shorter leash. “While the unprecedented nature of these times has made business and the economy the main topic of conversation, it has also led to high levels of uncertainty and a tremendous reduction in ad spend in the five key sectors Portfolio’s business model depends on,” David Carey, group publisher of the collection of Conde Nast titles that includes Portfolio, wrote in an email. – from WSJ

Posted
April 27th, 2009

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Layoffs hit Wired, Ars Technica as Conde Nast continues downsizing

Conde Nast Digital is cutting into some core online properties, making big cuts at Wired and Ars Technica. This follows a year of major reworking of their print world.

The layoffs at Condé Nast Digital Wednesday included not only Wired.com but also Ars Technica, the website known for its in-depth, computer-related technical articles. We’re told fully seven of roughly 17 staff were cut. One insider told us three staff were let go Wednesday; another says that the total is seven — mostly writers — when you include permalancers. That’s out of maybe 17 staff and permalancers, give or take, the second tipster said. – From Gawker

Posted
April 2nd, 2009

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CEO Looted Startup

Meanwhile, the company hired Mitch Fox, a veteran Condé Nast ad salesman who’d just left the publisher (or been fired, depending on whom you ask), a year ago at a staggering $500,000-a-year salary — a figure Valleywag has verified firsthand through a look at the company’s 2008 financials (included below). Fox vastly expanded the company, hiring expensive salespeople, launching a travel title, Everywhere, and preparing a fashion magazine. He more than doubled the company’s monthly losses. Closing Everywhere did little to staunch the bleeding. 8020 ended the year with $300,000 in the bank and $3.6 million in losses, and Fox announced that the company was shutting down and putting itself up for sale. – from Gawker

Posted
February 28th, 2009

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Conde Nuts Brand Fubar

Ok, we know way too many people at Conde Nast and Conde Net. The whole place is Fubar. Simple as that. Print, digital — it is like Girl Gone Wild meets NYC. All of the print sites (Vanity Fair to New Yorker) are a mess, while Style and Concierge should just be shut down. The only exceptions are Wired and Reddit, but are they really Conde Nuts?

Condé Nast’s famously Byzantine digital strategy may be getting a little bit easier to understand: The company’s Web operations, which had been splintered into two groups, are getting melded into one, which will be run by Condé digital exec Sarah Chubb. – from WSJ

On the list of magazine publishers that have built big businesses online, Condé Nast Publications ranks pretty low. About 3% of its ad revenue came from digital last year, a proportion topped by nearly every rival, public or private. And that’s been fine by Condé, especially while it was busy minting money at print glossies such as Glamour, Vogue and Vanity Fair. But now Condé is taking a new swing at this digital thing, starting by eliminating the 13-year-old CondéNet. Its functions, which include selling ad space on sites such as Style.com, as well as most of the magazines’ companion sites, will be consolidated with other pockets of digital activity at Condé, such as Brides.com and Portfolio magazine’s digital operation. Sarah Chubb, president of CondéNet since 1996, will lead the successor unit, Condé Nast Digital, with the benefit of a promotion making her just the fourth group publisher at Condé Nast.- from Adage

Condé Nast is abandoning its longstanding strategy of separating digital properties and deciding instead to roll them all into one division. Sarah Chubb, president of the now disbanded CondéNet, will retain her title as head of the new division, Condé Nast Digital. Chubb will report to Condé Nast CEO Charles Townsend. A rep told paidContent that no jobs would be lost as a result of the changes. The change is aimed at correcting Condé Nast’s jumbled approach to digital the last few years. For example, the publisher recently pulled the plug on a blog network tied to Glamour, Allure and Self and suspended new website launches. – from Paid Content

Posted
January 25th, 2009

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