The challenge for Conde Nast Portfolio

According to Media Life’s Samantha Melamed, new business glossy Conde Nast Portfolio will need to have journalism that will distinguish itself from others in the group.

Melamed wrote, “The challenge for the new monthly title will be to present readers the sort of engaging journalism that will separate it from the slew of existing titles, led by Forbes, Fortune and Business Week, which are either weeklies or biweeklies, as well as The Wall Street Journal and the business pages of The New York Times. It will also be competing with the personal finance titles, such as Money and Smart Money.

“Portfolio faces a similar challenge with advertisers: wooing away ad pages at a time when more and more business advertisers are trimming print budgets for online. In first quarter 2006, ad pages were down 3.5 percent year to year for business titles and 3.1 percent for personal finance titles. Conde Nast will target business advertisers and consumer advertisers of the sort that now fill the pages of its other titles.

“Next spring, the magazine’s site, cnportfolio.com, will also join the existing business titles’ squabble for online market share—where the category’s top magazines have seen strongest growth recently—with interactive features and online-only content.”

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