paidContent.org - Conde Nast Scales Back Portfolio, Men's Vogue; Layoffs Are Coming

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Tameka Kee

paidContent.org
Thursday, October 30, 2008; 4:07 PM

The print publishing cuts just keep coming. Condé Nast plans to cut budgets company-wide by 5 percent, including scaling back the number ofPortfolioandMen's Vogueissues it publishes and laying off some staff, NYT (FRB: 066570) reports.Men's Vogueis taking the biggest hit, shifting to bi-annual production from 10 issues per year, and business-industry last-year-darlingPortfoliowill go from 12 issues to 10. Most ofMen's Vogue's operations will be folded intoVogue, while some ofPortfolio'sonline components, including ad sales, will be bundled withWiredmagazine. While the layoffs with hit various titles, the NYT cites unidentified sources saying that the two aforementioned titles will absorb most of the job cuts.

At our FOBM conference Tuesday, Condé Nast group president David Carey was adamant thatPortfoliowas healthy and wouldn't be whittled down to a "digital only" publication, and was quite bullish on the magazine's digital revenue generation potential earlier this year. Condé Nast launched Portfolio amidst much fanfare in April 2007. The news comes just days after Time Inc. and Gannett ( NYSE: GCI) both said they were resorting to mass layoffs, and the Christian Science Monitor announced it will shift to printing its paper edition weekly instead of daily.

Rafat adds: How long before the artificial boundaries between Conde Nast and Condenet last, considering the tension between the two units over the years? Doesn't that need a full overhaul, instead of these temporary cosmetic changes? And I wouldn't be surprised ifPortfolioends up being a special section withWiredmagazine orNew Yorkera year down the line?

Carey: Portfolio.com To Supply 30 Percent Of Magazine?s Total Ad Revs By Next Year