Lipman: Nothing was wrong with Portfolio's business journalism

Johnnie L. Roberts of Newsweek got the first interview with Conde Nast Portfolio editor Joanne Lipman since Conde Nast closed the publication on Monday.

Here is an excerpt:

What did you get most right, most wrong in the job?

A magazine is a creative enterprise, so it’s always evolving. I couldn’t be happier with the magazine. You’re always trying new things. That’s the nature of the thing. Some of the new things you try work better than others. We were in the process of building on things that worked and weeding out those that didn’t.

Is the market simply not big enough for several major business titles—Fortune, Forbes, BusinessWeek, etc.? What did Portfolio add to the mix?

Portfolio‘s DNA was to be smart, substantive and sexy. Our approach was always counterintuitive. If the story were conventional wisdom, we wouldn’t write about it. We brought ambitious narrative journalism to a field that had often been seen as narrow. There was plenty of appetite for the material. It couldn’t have been stronger. This is the story of the 21st century—business, finance and the economy.

Read more here.