Chuck Townsend
Empty Nast Syndrome: At Last Week's Condé Nast Executive Meeting, Several Titles Were in Doubt
Early last week, the survival of several Condé Nast titles was in doubt.
According to sources familiar with the situation, when Condé Nast executives walked into a weekly meeting last Monday, October 27th at their headquarters at 4 Times Square, it was not clear whether chairman Si Newhouse and C.E.O. Chuck Townsend would decide to scale back several titles, or to fold them entirely.
Two magazines, Portfolio and Men’s Vogue, were specifically in trouble. Both magazines are newer titles for the company—18-months- and 3-years-old respectively—and have had difficulty drawing instant results, particularly in an ad climate that Condé Nast executive director Tom Wallace told the Portfolio staff later was the worst he had ever seen. read more »
Confirmed: Men's Vogue 'Absorbed' Into Vogue; Will Publish Only Twice a Year
A Condé Nast spokeswoman writes in an e-mail, "Men's Vogue will be absorbed into Vogue and published in the spring and fall, it was announced today by Charles H. Townsend, President and C.E.O of Condé Nast Publications. It will continue to be edited by Jay Fielden."
Earlier today, we reported that Condé Nast execs have been figuring out what to do with Men's Vogue at a time when the entire company is going through cutbacks. They were considering folding it, but decided to eliminate its staff and reduce its publishing schedule from 10 issues a year to two issues a year.
A source at Condé Nast said the only reason it exists in any form is "nothing more than for Anna to save face."
Empty Nast Syndrome: Conde Cancels Florida Publishers Retreat, Relocates to New York
In addition to announcing a hiring chill, Condé Nast C.E.O. Chuck Townsend has informed his publishers that their annual retreat will not be in Florida ths year as originally planned; it'll be in New York instead.
WWD reports:
This year’s meeting was scheduled to be at the Ocean Reef Club in Key Largo, Fla. According to one insider, executives were sent a save the date about the Florida meeting in July.
On Tuesday morning, Condé Nast top brass mentioned to executives that the meeting would be moved, and by Friday morning, an events staffer sent a short e-mail to publishers informing them the meeting will be held Jan. 26 and 27 in New York, with a dinner to be held on the 26th.
Also: Hearst canceled its Christmas party.
Empty Nast Syndrome: Condé's New Hiring Chill
Condé Nast CEO Chuck Townsend informed a group of his publishers yesterday morning that if their magazines can avoid hiring someone, they should.
"If you have an open position on your team, they're going to make you stand on your head until you're blue in the face before you fill it," said one attendee at the meeting.
Mr. Townsend gathered publishers for a quarterly breakfast meeting on the fourth floor at 4 Times Square. It lasted from 7:30 a.m. to 9:30 a.m. Scrambled eggs, potatoes and fruit were served.
The language from Mr. Townsend wasn't entirely clear, but with more bad news released yesterday about ad revenues in the industry, Mr. Townsend and Si Newhouse have notified the publishers of each Condé Nast book to say that it's time to reevaluate things on both the editorial and business sides before swinging into 2009.
It's not quite a hiring freeze! It's a hiring chill of sorts.
"My interpretation of it is that it's not cast in stone or that the doors are locked," said the source. "But it's a request that however you're running your business now, you should continue to do that for the foreseeable future."
Chuck Townsend Gets Married
The 64-year-old Conde Nast CEO Chuck Townsend was married this weekend on his yacht, "Current Issue," in Rhode Island.
His new wife, 42-year-old Jill Roosa, used to be the executive director of a charity group. Page Six reported that it was "a small wedding just for family." Here's the Times' wedding announcement.
Success, and Succession, at Conde Nast
The most interesting thing in Richard Perez-Pena's 3,330 word write-around profile of Si Newhouse is the language from Condé Nast executives about the importance of the Web.
- Tom Wallace, editorial director, Condé Nast: “You’re going to have to go a long way on the Internet to compete with the way we produce words and images in the magazines."
- Steve Newhouse, chariman of Advance.net: “What we’re not doing is trying to turn those companion sites into large Web destinations. They’re there to support the magazines.”
- Jonathan Newhouse, head of Condé Nast international: “I think sometimes commentators throw around these assumptions about what is happening to the industry, going the way of newspapers, and I don’t believe it.
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