Categories: OLD Media Moves

Grading the first Portfolio

The New York Post has a report card for the first issue of Conde Nast Portfolio. It gets an A+ for readability, a B- for cover and design, a C+ for wow factor and a D for breaking news. The overall grade is a B-.

The Post noted, “But there is a lot more work to be done if it seriously expects to become a major player in the field against Forbes, Fortune and BusinessWeek.

“‘It looks like Vanity Fair Lite,’ said Steve Cohn, editor of Media Industry Newsletter. He said he expects better in late August when Lipman’s new mag turns to regular monthly frequency.

“Roger Black, a veteran magazine designer, said that in going with a cityscape cover for its debut issue, Portfolio seemed to be going for a vintage Fortune look. (Usually a cover with no people is death, but since this arguably could be on the newsstand for three months, it artfully avoids looking dated. Just don’t do it again.)

“Said Black: ‘One thing about CondÃ© Nast launches – if they don’t get it right at the beginning, they’ll just go back and redesign and rework.'”

Read more here.Â

Chris Roush

Chris Roush was the dean of the School of Communications at Quinnipiac University in Hamden, Connecticut. He was previously Walter E. Hussman Sr. Distinguished Professor in business journalism at UNC-Chapel Hill. He is a former business journalist for Bloomberg News, Businessweek, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, The Tampa Tribune and the Sarasota Herald-Tribune. He is the author of the leading business reporting textbook "Show me the Money: Writing Business and Economics Stories for Mass Communication" and "Thinking Things Over," a biography of former Wall Street Journal editor Vermont Royster.