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Portfolio Magazine

conde nast

The Most Fractious Media Company In America

The Hollywood rumor about rivalry between two Condé Nast editors—passed along by former New York Times reporter, Sharon Waxman—sounds incredible. Why would Graydon Carter, the behemoth of Vanity Fair, bother to ice out his colleagues at Joanne Lipman's Portfolio? More »

portfolio magazine

Power: Jacob Lewis Has It, Joanne Lipman Doesn't

Portfolio's Joanne Lipman must be chafing at the New York Observer's flattering profile of her managing editor, Jacob Lewis. For sure, John Koblin's piece is the first positive coverage of the business magazine in a while. But almost every passage, while praising the new managing editor's calming influence on the troubled Conde Nast title, is an implied criticism of Lipman's management style. More »

corrections

When Is Malcolm Gladwell To Be Believed?

Jeff Bercovici's deleted blog post on Portfolio.com—on the tussles between fellow Conde Nast writer, Malcolm Gladwell, and the fact-checkers—has reappeared again. Apparently, it wasn't so much censored as benched, pending additional reporting. So, what has Bercovici's additional reporting uncovered? Gladwell, author of anecdotally rich best-sellers such as The Tipping Point, now denies ignoring a fact-checker's warnings at the New Yorker, where he is a contributor. That would be the end of it, except Gladwell's credibility is shot. The pop science writer boasts that he inserts nonsense into articles for his own amusement, but Gladwell is inaccurate even in regard to his inaccuracies. His denial might be a denial; or it could just be another elaborate prank within a prank.

magazines

The Evolution of Portfolio's Covers

Portfolio magazine's highly conceptual covers were commercially foolish, but rather brave. The cityscapes and factory floors of the Conde Nast title's first four issues paid homage to an earlier, more confident era of magazine publishing, in which editors could survive a bad month on the newsstand. And then, spooked by low sell-through numbers, Joanne Lipman panicked. January's Spy vs Spy cover could have been borrowed from the defunct Business 2.0; February's How Fat Won, illustrated by an overloaded burger, is a bogus trend story more often found in Newsweek. The latest shows a man's black shoe treading on a woman's red stiletto reminiscent of nothing more than a classy fetish magazine. Provocative? Pathetic? Discuss.

portfolio magazine

Another Novelist Who Should Stick To Fiction

So how is Portfolio magazine doing with its newly topical covers? The concept illustration, a golden gas nozzle, leaking more gold, is attention-grabbing. And the cover story (teased with a Boom!) is tantalizing: business is thriving, oil deals are flowing, McMansions are rising... in Iraq. We're not the most generous judges of Joanne Lipman's Portfolio, and the dissection of the lavishly funded Conde Nast title is a monthly ritual. Even if we were fair, we'd have to say: author Denis Johnson's feature, like Iraq itself, promises much and doesn't deliver. Why not? More »