So it turns out that a business magazine for people who don't like business wasn't such a great idea, after all. Conde Nast officially pulled the plug on Portfolio Monday, a little more than two years after its much-hyped launch. And while it's very sad and scary to see a pub go belly up -- especially one put out by the deep-pocketed and print-devoted S.I. Newhouse -- I can't really say I'm surprised.
Portfolio was strictly a bubble phenomenon, dreamed up at a time when the masses still liked to talk about money and how people acquire it. More problematically, it never delivered on its lofty goal of creating something significantly different than any other business pub out there, even as editor Joanne Lipman gobbled up talent that the rest of media immediately labeled "stars." Though Portfolio vowed to produce serious, yet-accessible long-form business journalism, it seemed to traffic more in luxury and CEO porn -- a point driven home last fall when, as Wall Street crumbled, the mag featured overexposed American Apparel Inc. (AMEX:APP) CEO Dov Charney on its cover. That issue is destined to become the symbol of all that was wrong with Portfolio.
Interestingly, news of Portfolio's demise came on the same day that the Financial Times reported on plans by Bloomberg to expand both its technology and news operations, even as its financial industry customers contract. When it comes to providing business news, Bloomberg is mostly the opposite of what Portfolio set out to be. It delivers fact-dense business information not to the masses, but to a niche audience, albeit a broad one, quickly, cleanly and simply with little gloss or fanfare. One potential lesson: To make it in business journalism, perhaps you need to serve people who actually like business. - Yvette Kantrow
See related Media Maneuvers column from The Deal magazine
Yvette Kantrow is executive editor of The Deal.
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