Portfolio web site in beta until September

Gawker has a nice critique of the Conde Nast Portfolio web site this evening and breaks the news that it will remain in beta format until September, when the business glossy’s second issue will hit newsstands.

Gawker wrote, “The website’s tagline is ‘Breaking Business News and Opinion, Executive Profiles and Careers.’ So what did they break today? There’s a piece about Hugo Chavez forcing oil companies out of Venezuela; a much longer and thoughtful piece ran on the front page of the Wall Street Journal today. There’s a perfunctory (330 words) update about the Rupert Murdoch-Dow Jones takeover. There’s an article about business spending that essentially summarizes a Bloomberg article about the same thing, and another about the Bear Stearns hedge fund bailout that’s also a takeaway from a Bloomberg piece. Their fifth lead story is about the pricing plans for the iPhone, with zero analysis or new insight—just a list of prices and features. There’s nothing terrible really. None of these are must-reads, or unique stories that the average business executive hasn’t already read when he picks up his WSJ in the morning.

“Also on the front page today is a story about art market hedge funds, including The Art Trading Fund, which isn’t that dissimilar from that outfit’s mention in the Economist last month.

“And as the magazine spends the next month closing its second issue, are any of the staff writers going to have stories for the web? Not likely. It’s like a more serious version of the Radar effect: The more stressful the magazine closing, the less content there is on the website.

“Okay. So the Breaking Business News is a wash. How about those much-vaunted bloggers? Well, a couple of them are doing some decent stuff.”

Read more here.Â