Conde Nast Portfolio: Si Newhouse happy, but staff not with first issue

The Gawker web site has an interesting item about the mood inside Conde Nast Portfolio as it prepares its second issue to go to the printers. Company leader Si Newhouse was apparently very happy with the first issue, but many at the staff of the new business magazine were not, especially with editor Joanne Lipman.

Gawker wrote, “Lipman—who had worked at the Wall Street Journal since she was 22—has never worked in magazines before, which rankles some of her staff. ‘There is a group of editors who are very unhappy with Joanne and feel like she sort of doesn’t ‘get’ magazines and isn’t being very creative,’ said a magazine staffer. ‘She doesn’t get magazines to the point where her judgment on writers isn’t very good and her assignments are questionable.’

“And the biggest gripe seems to be that the magazine may be paying lip service to being ‘serious business journalism,’ but its first issue doesn’t fulfill that mandate. ‘It’s totally wrong for the audience it’s going for,” said the source close to the magazine. ‘They want to know deals. They want information that they can’t get anywhere else. The Observer article said the magazine provides no narrative—they don’t tell you how the money was made. And almost every single article in the first issue is tainted—there’s lifestyle or pop culture dragged into it. The [hedge fund manager Ken] Griffin story is all about his art collection. The audience would rather read about the merger of two steel companies!’

“This source added, ‘The bottom line is, there’s nothing in the magazine that is quote-unquote ‘compelling’ if you’re a business executive. There’s nothing in there that you need to know.'”

Read more here.