More Job Cuts Expected at Conde Nast

by Terri Potratz | December 30, 2008 at 10:25 am

1017 views | 10 Recommendations | 11 comments

It wasn't too long ago that Condé Nast cut a number of jobs, shut down underperforming magazines and canceled promotional events in an effort to conserve funds in the wake of global economic uncertainty, and now it appears that more jobs may be on the chopping block when chairman S.I. Newhouse returns from his European vacation.

Rumour has it that Details and Dominoes magazines are facing cutbacks, in addition to the online property CondéNet.

But with all Condé Nast magazines reeling these days, it's gotten tougher to figure out exactly what Newhouse's January surprise will be this time around.
What has made the guessing game complicated is that Newhouse is tough to read.

"You can't apply standard business rules to Condé Nast because Si doesn't run it for profit," said a former Condé Nastie.

There is no denying that the people on the business side have tightened the purse strings - a big change for a company known for its free-spending ways. Already, the company has been told to reduce headcount by 5 percent and to slash budgets by 5 percent.

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Geneva B

at 10:36 on December 30th, 2008

The bigger the organization, the heavier the fall! I read something about how corporations operate well at a certain size and when they keep growing they actually become less and less efficient...

Terri Potratz

at 11:27 on December 30th, 2008

I think I read something about this in a Malcolm Gladwell book - the law of 100 or something along those lines, can't seem to remember the details now. The gist was that companies and/or departments ran most efficiently when the number of staff was kept to a minimum.

Tebbe (not verified)

at 11:57 on December 30th, 2008

Thank you for using my image of the CondéNast tower.

startowa13

at 12:34 on December 30th, 2008

I worked there years ago for Bride's Magazine as a freelance designer. I'm glad I moved on to work with someone else... I felt like I was in the "Brazil" movie production :)

I'm glad you like to use my picture for this story.

jerseyjur

at 13:35 on December 30th, 2008

Conde Nast Building (4 Times Square) in the center. Photo taken on October 3, 2004.

jerseyjur has contributed a photo to this story.

dsearls

at 15:41 on December 30th, 2008

It has been interesting to see the purposes to which the Condé Nast Building -- 4 Times Square -- has been put. It has an amazing Frank Geary designed restaurant inside (which I visted once, as a guest of <a href="http://buzzmachine.com">Jeff Jarvis</a> when he worked there), and a somewhat distinctive exterior; yet its top has been subordinated to other commercial interests in some odd and interesting ways.

First, there are the four ugly panels meant to serve as billboards. The problem is, there aren't many good sight lines to the building, at least at street level. It is advertising space that has gone unsold.

Second, there is the spire on top. The original auxiliary FM transmitting antennas for a handful of New York stations were removed to make room for a new stretched wedding-cake spire containing main and auxilliary antennas for New York's TV stations. The mast is roughly a replica of the one that stood on the north tower of the World Trade Center, and went down on 9/11. It took years to rebuild at 4 Times Square -- work that I recorded in a series of photographs, one of which is the main one at the top of this story. Others are here and here.

Most of these will be obsolete when television's mainframe era ends in February -- a kind of corollary to the rest of this story.

JessyeAnne

at 16:37 on December 30th, 2008

My photo shows the Fox & Fowle-designed Conde Nast building (right) next to the Cook + Fox-designed Bank of America tower (left). The break off of Fox from Fox & Fowle to start Cook + Fox exemplifies nasty competition between two large firms. The result: competing towers in Times Square run by major corporations. I wonder what it says now that Conde Nast is laying people off and Bank of America's tower (which is also taller than the nearby Chrystler Building) is about to open... Impending doom caused by the competition?...

JessyeAnne has contributed a photo to this story.

amanderson24

at 23:39 on December 30th, 2008

This was from the W Hotel party in West LA. It was so cold that night! :)

amanderson24 has contributed a photo to this story.

thissstephenbetts

at 04:14 on December 31st, 2008

Taken from the top of the Rockefeller Center.

Minimalist360 / Kurt Koller

at 09:29 on December 31st, 2008

The construction photo is mine.

Also, dsearls, won't the antennae continue to be used for HD broadcast?

Paschen

at 10:38 on January 1st, 2009

Every business over 70 Employes is becoming less efficient with every additional 10 employes by 0.02%. This was one conclusion drawn by Richard Marquwardt in 1956. He did some consulting work for VW at the time on how to compensate does losses or counter them.