Categories: OLD Media Moves

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.”

Read more here

Recent Posts

Dynamo hires former Business Insider executive editor Harrington

Former Business Insider executive editor Rebecca Harrington has been hired by Dynamo to be its…

1 day ago

Bloomberg TV hires Kerubo as desk producer

Bloomberg Television has hired Brenda Kerubo as a desk producer in London. She will be covering Europe's…

1 day ago

Jittery CNBC staff reassured by new boss

In a meeting at CNBC headquarters Thursday afternoon, incoming boss Mark Lazarus presented a bullish…

1 day ago

Making business news accessible to a wider audience

Ritika Gupta, the BBC's North American business correspondent, was interviewed by Global Woman magazine about…

1 day ago

Rest of World hires Lo as China reporter

Rest of World has hired Kinling Lo as a China reporter. Lo was previously a…

1 day ago

Bloomberg rises to No. 7 biz news website

Bloomberg News saw strong unique visitor growth to its website in October, passing Fox Business…

1 day ago