Magazines. After losing $120m in 2017, the not-so-glossy Condé Nast is putting three of its loss-making magazines up for sale. Sale (or closure) of the US edition of Brides, Golf Digest and W will help to reduce costs by sub-letting six floors (or about one-third) of its 1m sq ft flagship headquarters at New York’s World Trade Centre four years after it moved there. Showcase magazines like Vogue, Vanity Fair and the New Yorker, which have been spread across entire floors, are being told they will have to join the real world and squeeze up a bit. But this cost-cutting is unlikely to be sufficient to save the Newhouse family-owned magazine company. There may be more portfolio rationalisation to come. Speculation has surrounded the future of Condé Nast‘s legendary artistic director Anna Wintour but this has been batted away by CEO Bob Sauerberg who himself risks being the one in the firing line. But the smart money is still on some kind of merger or (much) closer alliance with Hearst, with which it already has some JVs. Hearst-Condé could be a perfect fit in the UK, US and across their global licensed editions. But the tribal stuff might be tricky. Fresh from putting the cat among the pigeons by picking digital whizz Troy Young to succeed David Carey (ex Condé Nast) as Hearst Magazines’ new boss, it could be another bold strategy for Hearst Corp CEO Steve Swartz. Go on.
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Condé Nast to sell 3 mags. But what’s next?
