Saving Conde Nast Portfolio

Marketwatch media columnist Jon Friedman writes Friday about how Conde Nast Portfolio, which recently announced it was cutting its issues per year from 12 to 10, can be saved.

Friedman writes, “Portfolio must produce — and soon — at least one killer story or cover design to show progress and take the pressure off its highly public woes. It needs to come up with a story with mammoth water-cooler appeal so everyone will start talking about ‘that great story in Portfolio,’ and not the layoffs or the start-up snafus or the dissension.

“Unfortunately, when I think of Portfolio, the piece that leaps to mind is what I regarded as a hatchet job about George Steinbrenner, the now-feeble New York Yankees owner who was virtually ambushed by one of Portfolio’s writers.

“The magazine has to work harder on concocting memorable, thematic covers. New York and Time magazines have been especially adept in recent years at publishing thought-provoking covers that remind me of some of the most evocative work of fabled magazine designer George Lois.”

Read more here.