Launch of Conde Nast's Portfolio will help competitors

Media Life Magazine staff writer Samantha Melamed writes that despite the fears from other business glossies that Conde Nast Portfolio, a new business magazine that will debut next year, will take away advertising, the launch of a new biz pub means that the sector is vibrant and the new publication will attract new readers and advertisers.

Melamed quoted a number of executives in the business magazine industry who support her thesis. Among the quotes:

— Says Bill Kupper, president of Business Week: “It means that for all those doomsayers saying that business publications are going totally extinct, it’s just not true.”

— “I think the fact that Conde Nast has plans to launch a business magazine indicates that there’s room for growth in this sector for all of us,” says Jay Goldberg, publishing director for Inc. and Fast Company. “It reminds everyone that magazines are still relevant and a critical part of the media mix.”

–“We recognize that we serve a very time-pressed marketplace, which is why our stories are edited so tightly. Whether there is room in an executive’s day for a 12-page feature remains to be seen,” says Jim Berrien, president and publisher of Forbes.

Read more here.

Meanwhile, PR Week’s Hamilton Nolan writes that Conde Nast will spend $100 million on the new business magazine before it sees a profit, and that it will have to steal readers away from the big three — Forbes, Fortune and BusinessWeek.

He wrote, “Condé Nast will have to either steal (a lot of) readers from the others; convince business types to add a fourth purchase to their roster of subscriptions, about which they are not too excited at the moment anyway; or pull in enough totally new readers to keep the new product afloat. The company has said that it expects at least 30% of its readership to come from the latter category. To do that, much of the $100 million will certainly be dedicated to the ubiquitous ‘branding initiatives’ that have become essential in the magazine space.”