Portfolio wants shelf life

Keith Girard of The Washington Post writes Wednesday about a conversation with Conde Nast Portfolio publisher David Carey, who told him that the new business magazine wants its content to have a long shelf life.

Girard wrote, “As for the editorial, articles for the most part were written with shelf life in mind. They can be read now or a month from now and still have relevance and value, he says. Of course, the content has drawn the most scrutiny of all. From the hiring of Lippman, who had no previous magazine experience, to her hiring of a high-powered staff (and the subsequent defections of some), to the less than overwhelming impact of the first issue’s articles, critics have had a field day.

“Some said subjects received fawning treatment, and they quickly branded Portfolio the Vanity Fair of business magazines. Still others chronicled Lippman’s seemingly unending intramural sparring with staff members and her supposed lack of magazine savvy.

“‘People overthought the first issue,’ Carey says. ‘They thought it would be the same for the next 100 years.’ But he says the four-month gap until the publication of the second issue was not without purpose. During that time, Condé Nast engaged in a barrage of marketing surveys.”

Read more here.