Why Conde Nast Portfolio failed

Jon Fine of BusinessWeek has some ideas as to why business magazine Conde Nast Portfolio didn’t last more than two years.

Fine writes, “Conde Nast made a classic mistake of spotting a consumer magazine ‘opportunity’ based on advertising and demographic considerations, not actual reader demand. (And judging from the last few years’ worth of ad pages at most business titles, there may have been too many of them on newsstands even before Portfolio launched.) It debuted at the end of a business boom, not at the beginning of one. It came at a time when business is a moment-by-moment bloodsport uniquely unsuited to being chronicled by a leisurely monthly frequency.

“The shuttering of Portfolio, among other cutbacks at Conde Nast, means that not even a magazine company well-known for keeping struggling titles alive (generally for reasons that are more personally-driven than market-driven) can elude current media realities. Conde Nast’s ad pages were especially hard-hit in the first quarter of this year, as consumers slammed purses and wallets shut and avoided the kinds of high-end purveyors that grace its magazines.

“The simple calculus of this moment in media is that a magazine with no demonstrated reader or advertising appeal cannot survive. (Don’t laugh. In flusher times, many such magazines lived on for years.) Portfolio came to the game with all the advantages a magazine could hope for — a deep-pocketed owner; a place at the table of a big company that specializes in assembling cross-magazine ad deals; run by a company that values the primacy of the printed page above all else. And it couldn’t make it into its terrible twos. Portfolio ultimately proved that sometimes a great notion turns out to be pretty not-great when exposed to the harsh light of day.”

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