Joanne Lipman’s Best Portfolio DecisionNaming the magazine ‘Portfolio’ to begin with. Pretty much every other decision, according to the ‘Observer,’ was somewhere south of that.
‘Portfolio’ Soldiers OnCondé Nast’s glossy business title took a few hits, but remains standing … for now.
ByElizabeth Wolff
ink-stained wretches
‘Portfolio’ Still Looking Elsewhere for InspirationHave you noticed that all of the news about the Great Condé Nast Reshuffling of 2008 has emerged from Women’s Wear Daily? It’s becoming the mouthpiece of the company’s HR department. (Or maybe the news is all a little too boring for anyone else to care about.) After a week of updates about shifts and firings on the business side at Condé titles Vogue, Golf Digest, Lucky, Teen Vogue, and The New Yorker, WWD today tells us about Portfolio (this month’s cover pictured here). Apparently the business mag’s editor, Joanne Lipman, tapped recently departed Post metro editor, Dan Colarusso, to run its growing Website. Also, to fill new Portfolio publisher William Li’s absence at Men’s Vogue, Condé looked within its walls to Details associate publisher, Marc Berger. We’d walk you through all of the changes that came last week, but the most telling detail is already above: While the rest of Condé Nast continues to recruit talent only from inside the company, Portfolio continues to look outside for fresh ideas!
New Titles All Around [WWD]
ink-stained wretches
S.I. Newhouse Is Being Nice to Joanne Lipman. Too Nice.Embattled Portfolio editor-in-chief Joanne Lipman still appears to be in S.I. Newhouse’s good graces. In his annual rundown of Newhouse’s annual holiday lunch at The Four Seasons, Keith Kelly reports she was seated “at his elbow” at the main table, “in what can only be seen as a signal from the taciturn Newhouse that she still has his support.” Shiver! Those types of machinations totally remind us of Mafia dons, or African dictators. Not that we hang with many Mafia dons or African dictators, but we have seen movies, and we do know this, Joanne: Those guys can be real friendly. Right until they up and slit your throat.
Who’s in Si-Beria? [NYP]
company town
Is Kate Beckinsale Too Hot to Play Judy Miller?MEDIA
• Matt Drudge cracked open The New Republic’s Iraq fabulist controversy once again. Did the mag’s Baghdad diarist really make up details about mass graves and troops ridiculing a disfigured female soldier? Franklin Foer complains that Drudge’s docs could only have come from the Army. [Slate, NYO]
• Chris Jones, the managing editor of Portfolio.com, announced his departure from the mag after giving notice over a month ago. High-level rumors also indicate Joanne Lipman may soon be relieved from command — but only for the Website. [WWD]
• The Judith Miller movie is now filming in Memphis, and let’s just say that Kate Beckinsale is way too hot to be a reporter. On the other hand, the Valerie Plame CIA character, played by Vera Farmiga, looks just about right. [WP]
company town
Goldman Defies Credit CrunchFINANCE
• Credit crunch, what credit crunch? Goldman’s record profits, which involved somehow shorting the mortgage market, have left a bonus pool of $17 billion, even larger than last year’s record. [WSJ, DealBreaker]
• The surge in the markets aside, the Fed rate-cut had one immediate bad effect: The Canadian dollar, a.k.a. the Loonie, pulled even with U.S. greenbacks for the first time since 1976. The euro also pushed past $1.40, another record. [NYP]
• It’s tough out there for a billionaire: While sixty-four New Yorkers made Forbes’s list of the 400 richest Americans, eighty-two Americans failed to make it with their paltry billion dollars. [AP]
company town
Imus Not Hiding As Much Cash Under His Hat As It AppearsMEDIA
• Don Imus may not have gotten that full $20 million; no one knows where he’s going to work next; and he may have to pay an unspecified amount to settle a defamation suit brought by a Rutgers player. Oh my! [NYT, AP via NYT]
• One staffer at Portfolio compared editor-in-chief Joanne Lipman to the captain in Mutiny on the Bounty who gets thrown over board, confirming the total geekdom of staffers at Portfolio. [NYP]
• Dow Jones union suggests members fight the power by using anti-Murdoch wallpaper on their computers, and Jack Shafer thinks the term “genocidal tyrant” fits Murdoch nicely. [FishbowlNY/Mediabistro, Slate]
