Posted by chicagomedia.org on April 27, 2009 at 18:50:49:
Portfolio, Portfolio.com closed by Condé Nast
Portfolio, the upscale business magazine Condé Nast launched with great fanfare and high hopes only two years ago, announced today it is folding after its May issue and closing its Web site in the year’s second quarter, unable to overcome the very economic pressures faced by the companies and executives it chronicled.
“The pressures and realities of the continuous deep economic slump have lowered Portfolio’s revenue projections below what is needed to continue publication,” Charles H. Townsend, Condé Nast’s president and chief executive, said in making the announcement. “Portfolio was an ambitious and innovative magazine and website, and we were proud to publish them. The challenges facing this launch however proved too great.”
Townsend praised Joanne Lipman, the magazine’s editor, and William Li, its publisher. “It is unfortunate we were unable to give Portfolio the time needed to fully mature,” Townsend said in his statement.
Portfolio and Portfolio.com were launched in May 2007, publishing 21 issues. The magazine received a National Magazine Award last year.
Its advertising pages were down 60.9 percent in first quarter of this year, compared to the same quarter last year, according to the Publisher’s Information Bureau, although some of that can be attributed to the decision in October to shift from 12 issues a year to 10. The Web staff also was reduced at that time.
Portfolio’s circulation was around 415,000, but it had trouble making inroads against established rivals in the business sector such as BusinessWeek, Fortune and Forbes.
Condé Nast Publications, a unit of Advance Publications, publishes such other titles as the New Yorker and Vanity Fair, which cover some of the topics that were found in Portfolio, although it wasn’t their primary focus. In the last year or so, Condé Nast also has shuttered Domino and Golf for Women magazines.
(Phil Rosenthal, Chicago Tribune)