Portfolio pits old media vs. new media

Steven Zeitchuk of Variety writes that the launch of new business magazine Conde Nast Portfolio is counter to what is going on in the publishing business.

Zeitchuk wrote, “But the suggestion of a more progressive model for magazines — at a lunch for the very magazine that is embracing a more traditional conception of the business — raises a pointed question: Can the conventional model for print titles still work when so many ad dollars and eyeballs are flowing to the Web?”

“These are uncertain times for the New York publishing world. Unlike nearly any other time in media history, it’s not just a group of print publications that’s in question, it’s the idea of print itself that seems so shaky.

“Magazines with weekly lead times are struggling to keep up with the pressures of daily print publications as well as the Web, not to mention grappling with the fundamental question of whether they should reinvent themselves as breaking news outlets.

“It’s a question that magazines like Entertainment Weekly, which has built up relatively little brand equity as a breaking-news site, and even general-interest publications such as Newsweek and Time, have encountered and responded to in diverse ways.”

Read more here.