Earlier this week the social media world was all-a-twitter over a new Twitter account that had started posting humorous little messages about conversations overheard in the Elevator on the way to and from the Conde Nast offices.

As people tried to figure out who was behind the account the messages kept coming – until today that is. It seems that those doing the guessing were either getting to close or the bosses at Conde Nast failed to see the humor and began trying to figure out who the loudmouth was; because today the person, or persons, behind the account posted their last message.

Whether or not this is truly their last Twitter message remains to be seen but I am sure that someone out there will care enough to let us know if it isn’t

via Huffington Post – Media

Good-bye Conde Nast Elevator Twitter person, we hardly knew you. is a post from: The Inquisitr

The team at Reddit explains why they’re not getting much in the way of support despite their gazillion pageviews a second:

Whenever this topic comes up on the site, someone always posts a comment about how reddit is owned by Conde Nast, a billion-dollar corporation like Time Warner or Cobra, and how if they wanted to they could hire a thousand engineers and purchase a million dollars worth of heavy iron. But here’s the thing: corporations aren’t run like charities. They keep separate budgets for each business line, and usually allocate resources proportionate to revenue. And reddit’s revenue isn’t great.

One of the things that seems so funny about “Reddit Gold,” the new money-raising idea, is that it’s so Reddit-like. Unlike comparable service TotalFark, it’s not a monthly subscription or recurring, and there’s no set amount you have to give to participate. It’s kind of an “oh, hey guise, if you’ve got a quarter, that’s cool, and if you don’t, no big” kind of thing. (Actually, it’s best to donate a bit more than a dollar because otherwise you’re essentially donating to PayPal, and no one wants to do that.)

A corresponding Reddit thread has nearing 3200 posts, and the reaction is mostly “just please don’t make us use PayPal.” A few Redditors suggested a pay-for-no-ads model, some proposed a straight-up donations system, and refreshingly few said to go back to their parents for money- a strategy likely to result in a dead Reddit, which would be sad.

Have you ever donated money to a beloved community to keep it going, or would you? Do you need something fixed in return, or is a “lame trophy” and access to something you dig on hard for several hours a day enough of a fair trade? Is the venture doomed to fail unless Conde Nast starts looking after it properly?

Sad: Conde Nast isn’t feeding Reddit is a post from: The Inquisitr

After writing about how newspapers seem hellbent to act like a bunch of lemmings headed over a cliff under the rallying cry of Rupert Murdoch it is almost a pleasure to write about a bunch of magazine competitors who seem to have finally caught on to how they might be able to succeed as their world changes around them.

As much as the newspaper industry might be facing some hard times the road forward has to be doubly hard for those publishing magazines. Where newspapers can at least fall back on the old mantra of printing the news as it happens magazine have always be thought of as the more of a monthly collection of long prose and glossy pictures. All of which is really hard to market in the Internet age – especially one crawling headlong into the real-time web.

Where they have funnily enough stood a chance of surviving in my opinion is in the growing mobile space where if done right their presentation is suited to the small viewing area fond on smartphones. The two big problems though are that people are increasingly use to a one-stop shopping experience ala iTunes and the App Store and aren’t inclined to go running about the web and paying piecemeal for content. The other problem is much more basic – people want everything for free especially when it comes to news.

With that in mind Time Inc., Conde Nast and Hearst have agreed to come together under the banner of a new company that will provide a unified web store where readers will be able to buy any one of the 50 magazines that the various partners publish.

Each magazine publisher now believes it’s too risky to go it alone to find new ways to get consumers to pay. If they all join together, the reasoning goes, they stand a better chance of producing greater revenue.

The deal is taking time to complete because it involves so many moving pieces.

“It’s pretty complicated stuff,” said a source. “The really, really hard part is that you’ve got so many different kinds of devices running on different operating systems. And how do you handle that? The consortium provides one point of contact for the consumer. When you come to the main store, you can get the content any way you want.”

Source: The Observer

Now as Frederic Lardinois at ReadWriteWeb noted

Most importantly, these companies will also have to reinvent their magazines for the digital age along the lines of Wired’s app for the rumored Apple Tablet or Condé Nast’s iPhone version of GQ (iTunes link). One of the reasons these publications are suffering is the long lead time that makes most of the content outdated by the time it arrives at the printer. While this still works for magazines like the Atlantic, which mostly publishes in-depth long form articles that aren’t time-sensitive, gossip magazines can’t really compete with TMZ or Perez Hilton. Just putting a digital copy of their magazines online simply won’t cut it.

He’s absolutely right – just unifying what they are already doing on the web under one umbrella and expecting people to be willing to pay for it based on that alone will only guarantee that the project will fail.

If they do manage to come up with unique content available via the store alone in order to add some extra value people are willing to pay for then yes I think this is a viable idea that could work out very well.

Too bad Murdoch doesn’t try forward thinking ideas like this instead of beating his chest against the big bully called Google.

Magazine rivals to join forces for iTunes-like magazine stand is a post from: The Inquisitr

Condé Nast today announced that it was immediately closing the well regarded Gourmet Magazine due to a massive decline in advertising revenues.

The folding of Gourmet Magazine comes as Condé Nast undertakes a strategic review of its titles after a shocking 12 months for the magazine industry. Also closing effective immediately are Modern Bride, Elegant Bride and Cookie.

Gourmet Magazine’s related recipes on Epicurious.com, as well as the book publishing and television programming is believed to be immune from the cuts, so the name will go on, even if the magazine won’t.

Editor Ruth Reichl thanked readers on Twitter: “Thank you all SO much for this outpouring of support. It means a lot. Sorry not to be posting now, but I’m packing. We’re all stunned, sad.”

Condé Nast closing Gourmet Magazine is a post from: The Inquisitr

Publishing giant Condé Nast announced today that it was discontinuing Gourmet magazine, an influential publication that has been published since 1940.

The closure comes as a shock, as Gourmet is a more influential magazine than fellow Condé Nast title Bon Appétit, and Gourmet editor Ruth Reichl is well known and powerful in food and restaurant circles. Condé Nast is also closing Cookie, Elegant Bride and Modern Bride, and in the past year has closed newer titles Condé Nast Portfolio, Domino and Men’s Vogue.

The New York Times reports that the closure of the 69-year-old title came as a shock even to industry insiders such as Bon Appétit publisher Paul Jowdy. The Times spoke with Jowdy in February (conceding that Jowdy was interviewed in far safer economic times) and he then doubted the title would be retired:

“They would never do that,” Mr. Jowdy said in February. “They’re both very important magazines in the culinary world, and they’re very different magazines, and they’re both very healthy. So there’s all these rumors that are just ridiculous. I try not to pay attention to them, but you have to know — if you think of two of the most prestigious, credible, trusted magazines in the industry, you’re going to say Bon Appétit and Gourmet.”

Condé Nast shutters Gourmet, Cookie, 2 bridal titles is a post from: The Inquisitr

The Ann Arbor News, in publication for 174 years, will print its final issue in July. After that time, its owner, Advance Publications, plans to unveil a standalone printing company that will release two issues a week, along with a Web-only publication that will deliver news at AnnArbor.com. All of the paper’s 272 employees will lose their jobs but will be “invited” to apply at the new operations. The number of available positions, however, is expected to be far fewer than the current staff’s size.

The other three papers undergoing transformations are The Flint Journal, The Saginaw News, and The Bay City Times — also all owned by Advance Publications. Each of those publications will begin going to print only on Thursdays, Fridays, and Sundays. The staffs will be cut down by 35 percent as a result, The New York Times reports.

Advance Publications is also instituting two-week unpaid furloughs for its employees as well as pay cuts across most of its newspaper properties.

Advance is the parent company of Wired publisher Conde Nast.

Four Michigan Newspapers Eliminate Daily Editions is a post from: The Inquisitr

The magazine industry has been hit hard by the recession, with advertising by volume dropping 17% in January, according to figures from the Media Industry Newsletter.

Worst hit was Condé Nast, with four magazine titles featuring in the list of top 10 declines for January. Advertising in Wired was down 47% over the same time last year, Architectural Digest 46% and Vogue and Lucky both down 44%.

Other magazines making the top ten include Boating (Hachette Filipacchi Media) Power & Motoryacht (Source Interlink Media), Everyday Food (Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia), Salt Water Sportsman (Bonnier Corporation), Texas Monthly (Emmis Communications), and Boys’ Life (Boy Scouts of America.)

As the New York Times points out, the difference can be seen by all readers: for example Allure magazine went from 70 pages of ads in January 2008 to 41 in January 2009.

The financial situation of Condé Nast going into the downturn is difficult to gauge; the company is an operating unit of Advance Publications Inc, a large newspaper owner, and one of America’s bigger privately held companies, so profit figures aren’t immediately available.

Notably the 17% industry downturn is by volume, not revenue, so the actual hit could be higher again. In a tight market advertising rates will be heading downward as magazines look to fill their inventory, so the financial loss could be 30-40% industry wide.

The only question now is how long for many of these magazines. Even a private company like Advance isn’t going to keep publishing titles that are bleeding money, and unlike the newspaper part of the business, the historical attachment to magazines is much less, making the decision to cease publication easier.

Magazines Hit Hard By Advertising Downturn, Condé Nast The Hardest is a post from: The Inquisitr

Condé Nast is closing three blogs you’ve probably never heard of: Product Fiend, Elastic Waist and Daily Bedpost.

All three were launched in 2007 as an attempt to leverage traffic back to key Condé Nast sites, and all display links back to Condé Nast sites including Glamor, Allure and Self. According to MediaWeek, a staff memo said that the sites were an experiment that could no longer be sustained in the current economic environmment.

What’s interesting about each site is its separation from Condé Nast itself. Each is uniquely themed and offers no upfront disclosure of the relationship aside from a Condé Nast copyright notice in the footer. The About us pages on each don’t mention Condé Nast at all, and for the casual visitor they all look like independent blogs, be it in a network of three (each site offers links to each other).

They may not count as outright astroturfing in a traditional sense, but they are close enough to be within the broader definition, particularly given the links back to Condé Nast properties with zero disclosure of the relationship besides the copyright notice. It may not be a huge issue either: none of the sites rank particularly well for traffic, making it perhaps a failed astroturfing effort.

Condé Nast shuts 3 blogs: failed astroturfing attempt? is a post from: The Inquisitr

According to reports, 25% of Wired.com’s San Francisco staff have been laid off, with the majority of layoffs coming from tech roles. 10% of the editorial staff have been cut.

According to Valleywag, also gone is Kourosh Karimkhany, the VP of corporate development for CondéNet and a man responsible for the acquisitions of Reddit and Ars Technica.

Peter Kafka at AllThingsD has an official statement from the company:

Visibility for 2009 is very limited and we are adjusting all costs to prepare for slower revenue growth. The adjustments are across the board and include staff restructuring and some reduction. Despite the current environment, CondéNet will end the year slightly up over 2007. These moves will put the company in a stronger position to handle a challenging year ahead and for the business to benefit when the economy and the ad market start to rebound.

The cuts don’t come as any surprise, with Condé Nast announcing a 5% cut across the board (online and offline) November 1.

Update: more from CNet

In an interview with CNET News, Evan Hansen, Wired.com’s editor in chief, said the company downsized to prepare for the economic downturn.

“Revenues are expected to be up year over year but not as much as we expected,” Hansen said. “We’re concerned about 2009 because visibility is murky. We’re taking steps to make sure we’re in good position.”

Hansen declined to discuss who was let go, but sources familiar with the situation said none of the publication’s staff writers was cut. This is only the latest reduction of editorial staffing for Wired.com’s publisher, Conde Nast.

CondéNet cuts: Wired.com lays of 25% of staff is a post from: The Inquisitr

Figures for the 3rd quarter released by the Washington Post showed a massive drop in operating income to $10.1 million, down from $72.2 million, but the majority of the drop was caused by a $60 million charge to write down the value of its Maryland community newspapers and a paper in Washington state.

Advertising delivered good news and bad news. The bad news saw newspaper publishing revenue fall 7% for the quarter off a decline in print advertising revenue of 14% at The Washington Post newspaper. The newspaper division reported an operating loss of $82.7 million in the third quarter of 2008, compared to operating income of $8.8 million in the third quarter of 2007. The good news is that the decline in ad revenue slowed from a 22% decline in the 2nd quarter. Revenue from online properties rose 13%, and non-newspaper related revenue increased 10% for the quarter.

Conde Nast, publisher of a range of well known magazines and online properties has joined the layoff trend announcing a cut in payroll and nonpayroll budgets by 5%. The exact number of jobs to be cut across the company has yet to be determined.

Magazines facing the biggest changes include Men’s Vogue, which will go from 10 issues a year to 2, and Portfolio, which will shift from 12 issues to 10 per year and have its online production outsourced to Wired Digital. Staff cuts at Portfolio are said to be 20%, or 32 members of staff.

Media Briefs: Washington Post mixed results, Conde Nast makes cuts is a post from: The Inquisitr