Keith Kelly: "CONDÉ Nast Chairman S.I. Newhouse Jr. sat down Wednesday with Portfolio Editor-in-Chief Joanne Lipman to take a very serious look at every page in the upcoming November issue of Portfolio, his $100 million pet project. When the meeting was over, a flurry of Newhouse-dictated changes ensued, and that had some staffers concluding that Si was not happy with the original incarnation of Portfolio issue No. 4." Shockingly, Condé spokesfolk deny it. [NYP]
"Just change the art direction, content, font and style book, contributing editors, tone of all columns, character of the feature stories, layout and pagination, then we should be ready for print! And, oh, let's go with a cover that doesn't scream 'Sunday NY Times Business Insert.'"
Oh yeah, this one's not long for the world. And proof that Conde needs to think about where it puts its money. This was a crackpot idea from the get-go and they just couldn't step away from the table. Too bad those Jane people all had to be let go to support this crapfest. I really wanted to like this thing and I thought it was awesome that they had a woman editor-in-chief...until I read Lipman's gushy editor's letter in the first issue that not only failed to set up a clear direction for the magazine, but made my stomach turn over with her folksy-daddy stories.
at the risk of my commenting status I will venture this: pfolio is slowly getting better, ie. ish 3 is gooder than ish 1. it's still mediocre but have any of you read fortune, bweek or forbes in the last two years? as for si tearing it up, doesn't that mean the biz must not exactly be popping?
