The Inquisitr » conde nast

Condé Nast closing Gourmet Magazine

Duncan Riley — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 22:43:25 +0000

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 shutters Gourmet, Cookie, 2 bridal titles

Kim LaCapria — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 16:40:38 +0000

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.”

Four Michigan Newspapers Eliminate Daily Editions

JR — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 16:16:03 +0000

Four newspapers in Michigan are cutting out their daily print editions and shifting to less cost-intensive schedules. One is shutting down completely and being replaced with a new online-driven alternative.

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.

Magazines Hit Hard By Advertising Downturn, Condé Nast The Hardest

Duncan Riley — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 04:12:07 +0000

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.

Condé Nast shuts 3 blogs: failed astroturfing attempt?

Duncan Riley — Sun, 14 Dec 2008 00:44:09 +0000

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.

CondéNet cuts: Wired.com lays of 25% of staff

Duncan Riley — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 23:50:38 +0000

CondéNet, the online arm of publisher Condé Nast has today laid off staff across the board, with Wired.com taking a big hit.

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.

Media Briefs: Washington Post mixed results, Conde Nast makes cuts

Duncan Riley — Sun, 02 Nov 2008 04:15:16 +0000

Another week ended with mixed news on the media front, with The Washington Post reporting mixed results, and Conde Nast making cuts.

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.