Si Newhouse

Anna Wintour, Pitiable Monster

Today's Observer contains a smart, if depressing, package of stories on the fading glories of the magazine industry, but the weekly saved its cruelest cut for the front page, where appeared the parody at left of Vogue's infamous LeBron James cover (click for larger version). The message: if anyone deserves to be compared to a crazed monster it is the notoriously demanding Wintour, with her ostensible boss Si Newhouse along for the ride. The illustration, by Victor Juhasz, capped a rough few months for Wintour, who was publicly dissed by fashion's priesthood during a recent trip to Europe, then faced uproar over her recent weight-loss outreach to two female designers and is now grappling with fallout from the James cover. After the jump, a large version of the parody cover, and the object of said parody. More »

5:22 AM on Wed Apr 2 2008
By Ryan Tate
8,895 views, 34 comments

Latest by slimceagirl: @TheRealRedDuke: I have a feeling this might be the case here, too. But no, I never saw the movie. It never interested me. Well, that's why I was asking, anyway. Nobody else answered, so I'll take my clues from you and more »

portfolio

It's Always The Cover-Up That Gets You

Portfolio editor Joanne Lipman should learn rule number 63 or web publishing: by deleting a blog post, one only draws greater attention to it. On Friday, the Conde Nast magazine's media industry terrier, Jeff Bercovici, wrote a typically niggling piece for Portfolio's website about best-selling fabulist, Malcolm Gladwell (displayed after the jump). According to Bercovici, the Tipping Point author is the bane of the fact-checking department at his day job, as a writer for the New Yorker, another title owned by Conde Nast boss Si Newhouse. There was nothing that controversial about Bercovici's item: Gladwell has himself drawn attention to his mockery of orthodox journalistic practice. But the post disappeared from Bercovici's Portfolio blog over the weekend. More »

11:02 AM on Tue Mar 25 2008
By Nick Denton
3,637 views, 10 comments

Latest by rosaluxembourgeoise: @rosaluxembourgeoise: "contact him for comment". more »

from the mailbag

Portfolio Editor Taken To Point Of Ecstasy By Boss

An online staffer has written in with a fairly lengthy account of the continuing discontent inside Condé Nast business magazine Portfolio. The anonymous tipster said that "every last person at the magazine" except new managing editor Jacob Lewis is lined up against editor Joanna Lipman, deputy editor Amy Stevens and senior editor Kyle Pope. (And the ungrateful hacks wonder why they are being pushed out the door!) But the anger may only be strengthening Lipman's position. Condé Nast patriarch Si Newhouse has a big fan in Lipman, who recently told staff her initial meeting with the Advance Publications CEO left her "so happy she could have been hit by a truck." Now Newhouse is said to have embattled Lipman's back. Email from the Portfolio.com insider after the jump. More »

7:57 PM on Mon Mar 24 2008
By Ryan Tate
2,306 views, 33 comments

Latest by onetimeagain: I also am one of the many who left. I have no animosity toward anyone there and hope that Joanne pulls it together. Still, I have no faith that my hopes will ever be reality. I have worked plenty of more »

old school odes

To The Golden Age Of The Press

So we were a tad scatterbrained on Friday and forgot entirely to post the second weekly installment of Old School Odes, in which we (and you!) remember The Press The Way It Was. We apologize heartily for neglecting our elders. Last week our inbox was flooded with the smells, sights and sounds of journalism's Golden Age. We've never seen the word 'fedora' quite so many times. We also got a good serving of cranky Si Newhouse stories and heard some whacked-out altweekly shit from the 1970s for which we have zero proof, but it involved crack cocaine and who can resist a good crack-cocaine-in-the-newsroom story. After the jump, our favorites from your nostalgia. Thanks to all who wrote in—keep them coming! More »

11:53 AM on Mon Jan 28 2008
By Maggie
1,062 views, 2 comments

Latest by IBentMyWookie: yeah well, if you want to get buzzed in the newsroom nowadays you just have to inhale deeply when Tommy Friedman walks by and hope that you can get a contact high off his self-importance. more »

eulogies

Deceased Conde Nastie Steve Florio Is Spun In the Grave

Ex-Conde Nast president and recently deceased Steve Florio didn't always really get on with one-time GQ publisher and model for Mr. Big model Ron Galotti, a fact which would have come to light in Florio's tell-all memoir had it not been squashed by more prudent minds. But at ~~his funeral~~ over the phone with Observer's John Koblin on Monday, Mr. Galotti said, "A lot is always written about myself and the Steve Florios. But I would hope you understand that when you get older, you forget the bad. You just do. You really try to focus on the good. And my memories of Steve Florio are all good. And I'm lucky to have had him as a friend." The Steve Florios, may they rest in peace. More »

3:06 AM on Wed Jan 2 2008
By Joshua Stein
1,398 views, 4 comments

Latest by Fritzpeterson: Having met Ron Galotti several times over the course of my career in the ad game, I can say that in a world where everyone is full of shit, few people (if any) are as full of shit as is more »

bellport

Si Newhouse's Lawn

Advance Publications chairman S.I. Newhouse—Conde Nast's big honcho—and his wife live on three adjacent lots in Bellport, Long Island, on South Howell's Point Road. The lawn proper is guarded by a little wooden gate at the road. As we unlatched it the other day, we pondered the legality of our actions—but we were accompanied by Eddie Hayes, the New York lawyer who's defended Jon Gotti, the mafia cops and Andy Warhol's legacy, so we thought we'd be okay. It turns out that Si Newhouse's grass is short, lush and well-kept. Surprised? More »

4:00 PM on Wed Sep 5 2007
By Joshua Stein
3,647 views, 17 comments

Latest by Freddie Freelance: C'mon, no one's gonna point out that Si has a Copper-Clad Erection? Scandalous! more »

the only restaurant that matters

Inside The Waverly Inn

At 9 p.m. last night, Bank Street was humming with black Mercedeses, all idling for the air conditioning. "It's gotta be cold when my client comes out," said one driver. A bright red motorcycle with Diplomat plates screeched to a halt and an olive-skinned man bounded off into the most literarily significant inn since the Tabard. As prescribed by the Post's Mandy Stadtmiller, we had made reservations through Jon Kelly, Graydon Carter's assistant. More »

10:16 AM on Tue Jun 26 2007
By Joshua Stein
7,394 views, 14 comments

portfolio

Eventually All We Will Be Writing About Is 'Portfolio'

As you might have heard, Conde Nast's Portfolio launches today. The most important business magazine of its generation, Portfolio starts life with 185 ad pages in a 332-page issue. Cond chair Si Newhouse says the book was "inspired by a positive response to business articles in Vanity Fair and The New Yorker, although he could not recall precisely which ones." (We have the same problem!) Conde 's willing to dump around $125 million into making the mag a success, but some see the publication as a shot across Time Inc.'s bow. In any event, it's the little things that make the difference. Like the pillows in the "idea lab." More »

10:24 AM on Mon Apr 16 2007
By abalk2
2,667 views, 13 comments

Latest by cdmunch: Premier! That's insane, just totally insane. more »

media

Media Bubble: All in the Family

The Chandler family, former owners of the Los Angeles Times, are unhappy with the way Tribune is selling itself off. [NYT]

It's the Family Issue of the Observer, and if you think we're going to delve too deeply into it, you grossly overestimate our commitment to this feature. Anyway, there's something about the Sulzbergers and Newhouses and something else about the Rubenstein flack clan. [NYO]

Jeff Immelt is proud of NBC. Really! Why are you laughing? [NYP]

Liz Smith has three fewer days a week to prattle on about Ann Richards and whatever current starlets she's obsessed with. [Radar]

Couple more defections to that Allbritton online thing. [NYT]

Bonnie Fuller on the hot seat. [NYP]

More »

9:50 AM on Wed Dec 13 2006
By abalk2
104 views, Comment

conde nast

Conde Christmas: Who Sat Next To Si?

It's that time of year again: Bleary-eyed Conde Nast editors turn out for the annual Christmas luncheon, and, middle-school style, determine their status by their closeness to (or distance from) Chairman Si. Conde Kremlinologist Keith Kelly gives you the scoop, but here are a couple of highlights: More »

10:00 AM on Thu Nov 30 2006
By abalk2
292 views, 3 comments

james truman

Vanity of Vanities, Saith James Truman, All is Vanity

There's an interesting moment in this Daily Intelligencer interview with James Truman concerning his former employers. Truman, who resigned from LTB media yesterday to cast his bread upon the waters of the media industry, is asked to compare his most recent employment to his time at Cond Nast, and replies: "How does Ecclesiastes compare with the Bhagavad Gita? One, it's shorter ..." More »

10:50 AM on Tue Oct 17 2006
By abalk2
130 views, 5 comments

malcolm gladwell

Malcolm Gladwell Thanking His Lucky Stars He Passed On The Garlic Dip

While scouring the web to search for an appropriate image to accompany our earlier item on Conde Nast chairman Si Newhouse we came across this photo of Si with loveable New Yorker scribe Malcolm Gladwell. We find the Blink author's expression priceless, if somewhat inscrutable. Any guesses as to what's going through his mind? More »

3:15 PM on Tue Sep 19 2006
By abalk2
148 views, 6 comments

conde nast

Conde Nast Without End, Amen

There has been a succession of CEOs since time immemorial.

Conde Nast's chairman Si Newhouse, on Conde's relatively new president and CEO, Charles Townsend, successor to the "legendary and flamboyant" Steve Florio. Much like the recent trope categorizing the blogosphere as the Wild West — and just in time for "Talk Like a Pirate Day" — Florio is described as a "pirate captain" who ran Conde Nast as "a very swashbuckling sort of an organization." Arrr! Of course, others say he ran the company like "a high school"; Townsend diplomatically calls that era a "very emotionally charged environment." Just like high school! Or a pirate ship. No matter your metaphor, remember that Si Newhouse endures, always waiting, seeing all who have been and all who are still to come. More »

12:15 PM on Tue Sep 19 2006
By Chris Mohney
510 views, 1 comment

Latest by josh speed: OMG that guy looks like half Jerry Orbach, half Jar-Jar Binks. meesa no likey. more »

si newhouse

When He Buys Your Condo, He'll Put His Hands Where He Damn Well Pleases

There are many things we love here around Gawker HQ, but none make us feel quite so full of joy as do accounts of New York's media elite behaving like dirty little children. Today comes one such item from one of our most beloved venues in all of Manhattan, the Conde Nast cafeteria: More »

6:11 PM on Thu Apr 6 2006
By Jessica
110 views, Comment

media bubble

Media Bubble: Si Newhouse Loves All His Children Equally

• As Fairchild is integrated into Conde Nast, portraits of the Fairchilds go, a fancy cafeteria arrives, and garlic is banned. [NYO]
• Absolute mag might live again, that to Realtor William B. May. At the very least, the already-completed next issue will be distributed. Oh, and that trademark thing the Post was all worried about last week? Not a big deal, May says. [NYP (second item)]
• ABC's Bob Woodruff still has a face for TV, his brother reports. The talking for TV? Less so. [NYDN]
• Judy Miller admits she was wrong! OK, the other Judy Miller, and about moving to New York. [Romenesko]
• Maer Roshan delays your plane. [Media Mob/NYO]

12:42 PM on Wed Mar 8 2006
By Jesse
125 views, Comment

fairchild publications

When Fairchild Says No, Conde Says Yes

About a month ago, Fairchild Publications — the Newhouse publishing division behind W, WWD, Jane, Details, and all your favorite rag-trade trade pubs — sent a company-wide email reminding staffers of its prohibition on holiday-time gifts from "clients and contacts." But Fairchild is being merged into Newhouse's glitzy and glossy Conde Nast umbrella, and that's creating an interestingly dichotomous Christmas season. Emails a Fairchild friend: More »

11:40 AM on Thu Dec 1 2005
By Jesse
188 views, 1 comment

money

41 Media Moguls Make Forbes 400; Denton Not Among Them

The new Forbes 400 list is out — ranking the 400 richest Americans — is out, and the Forbes people tell us there are 41 media moguls on it. It's a lot of family money: There are five or six Hearsts, a Disney, an Annenberg, two Coxes. But what we're finding is making us surprisingly happy — maybe because we're interpreting as a victory for New York, or for magazines, or for people who aren't rightwing ideologues — is that Si Newhouse comes in above Rupert Murdoch. More »

10:06 AM on Fri Sep 23 2005
By Jesse
110 views, Comment

Gawker

One More Thing

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