Conde Nast Portfolio closing

David Carr of the New York Times reports Monday that Conde Nast Portfolio, a two-year-old business magazine, is closing. The magazine is closing as of the May issue, and the Web site will close in the second quarter.

Carr writes, “The decision was announced to the staff at 10 a.m. on Monday by David Carey, Condé Nast’s group president and publishing director, and Joanne Lipman, Portfolio’s editor in chief.

“Under Ms. Lipman, a former editor at The Wall Street Journal, Portfolio failed to gain traction with advertisers and readers, in part because it was confronted by a historic recession in ad spending in its first few years of existence.

“‘The five main categories of advertising a publication like ours depends on are really in trouble,’ said Mr. Carey in a brief conversation.

“The most recent number from the Publisher’s Information Bureau showed that advertising pages in the magazine were down 60.9 percent in the first quarter of this year compared to the same quarter last year. The magazine had an average print circulation of about 415,000.”

Read more here.