In the family, conde nast, jezebel, magazines, media

New Year's massacre at Conde Nast

Steve Newhouse and Gina Sanders Everyone in the magazine world is getting very excited about the new year's massacre at Conde Nast, the publisher of titles such as Vanity Fair and Vogue. Conde is tightly controlled by the Newhouse family, and its office politics have all the transparency of the Brezhnev-era Politburo. But we're told by one insider that Lou Cona, formerly the publisher of the New Yorker, is stepping up by moving to group ad sales, even if the role sounds less glamorous. Anyway, business: boring! There's one amusing tidbit. Gina Sanders, promoted to publisher of Lucky magazine, presided over the huge success of Teen Vogue. We're sure her continued ascension has nothing to do with her marriage to (pictured left) Steve Newhouse, heir-apparent to the Conde Nast empire.

2:40 PM on Mon Jan 7 2008
By Nick Denton
3,133 views
8 comments

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DorothyZbornak at 02:50 PM on 01/07/08
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Connectedness Index: 731

Nepotism: It'll get you everywhere.
Shabba at 02:53 PM on 01/07/08
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If that is the guy nepotism gets me, thanks but no thanks.

Nepotism Schmepotism
ciaomanhattan at 02:56 PM on 01/07/08
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Marry me, Sy!
meerkat at 03:02 PM on 01/07/08
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Gina is a complete idiot, as you might suspect.
Conbon at 03:03 PM on 01/07/08
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Connectedness Index: 664

Oh, THAT'S what Condé Nast is. But what's a Brezhnev?
noiseyneighbor at 04:14 PM on 01/07/08
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All the marriages and families working at Conde... It's like a family reunion in West Virginia.
Nick Denton at 07:47 PM on 01/07/08
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Connectedness Index: 1764

A Conde Nast Kremlinologist writes in:

Summary: Mitchell Fox is out as head of the Golf group, and out of the company, and David Carey folds Golf into his (haha) portfolio - along with Wired. That is huge, Carey is a contender for future CEO of Conde Nast and Fox was his bitter rival. He also gets Wired - which his close ally, Drew Schutte, was in charge of, as publishing director (above publisher Jay Lauf). But no problem: Drew moves to the New Yorker, answering that question. Meanwhile, Tom Florio, another ambitious publisher looking for new worlds to conquer, becomes group publisher of all the Vogues (he had everything but Teen Vogue, which frustrated him greatly - but Gina was too senior to work under him - so her departure and replacement by a protege solves the problem and now he has TV and the entire Vogue operation under his umbrella).

Lately the company has been elevating publishers to group publishers and replacing them with less-senior publishers. Jay Lauf taking over from Drew Schutte when Drew moved up to group publisher (when CN/Wired bought back Wired.com), William Li (Men's Vogue) and now Alison Matz at Teen Vogue under Tom Florio.

Bill Wackermann is another very ambitious publisher, he gets the Bridal group. The fact that Cona is promoted to SVP (along with Wackerman and Florio) clinches that his transfer is a clear promotion - those titles are hugely significant.

And I should add -- seeing as how Gina Sanders "presided over the huge success of Teen Vogue," which many people doubted, her continued ascension may not be completely determined by her marriage to Steve Newhouse. Nepotism never hurts at CN but Gina has a really strong reputation.
lilyb at 08:03 PM on 01/07/08
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@Nick Denton: This is great and all very interesting, but why is this a comment and not a post?