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