Si Newhouse

A little after 6 p.m. at the Frederick P. Rose Hall, Condé Nast president Richard Beckman was sharing a drink—vodka, olives—with Condé Nast CEO Chuck Townsend. The two were discussing the same thing everyone in the lobby of Jazz at Lincoln Center at the Time Warner Center was talking about: What the National Magazine Awards can do, or not do, for a magazine.  read more »

It's on the record now.

Condé Nast editorial director Tom Wallace gave the company's loudest and most forceful public support for Joanne Lipman, the editor of Portfolio. In a story in today's Women's Wear Daily written by Stephanie Smith, Wallace says the following: that the company "love[s]" Joanne Lipman; that she's an "ingenious" editor; that she's absolutely safe in her job; that the company is "extremely pleased" with the magazine.  read more »

Freelance Fizzle!  read more »

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Si Newhouse's plan for a new skyscraper on the far West Side with Douglas Durst is dead in the water, but is there something else out there?

Conde Nast C.O.O. John Bellando sent out an internal email this morning reassuring employees that all hope isn't lost. At least for a new skyscraper somewhere. Here's the memo:  read more »

So that new skyscraper that Si Newhouse was hoping for? It appears dead.  read more »

Last night, at Columbia's journalism school, Joanne Lipman said that three years ago she got a call from Si Newhouse. She met with him, had lunch, and loved the conversation so much she would have been perfectly satisfied with her life even if she'd been struck by a truck on her way out the door of his apartment building.  read more »

Looks like the biggest Manhattan real estate battle in years is shaping up to be the biggest media battle too.

As The Observer reported today, Rupert Murdoch has joined up with the real estate heavyweight The Related Companies, according to a source, in its bid for the Hudson Yards project on the far West Side of Manhattan. If the Related Companies wins the billion-dollar-plus bid, it would have the right to develop on land currently owned by the Metropolitan Transit Authority, and Mr. Murdoch's News Corporation would move its offices from 1211 Avenue of the Americas to an area in the West 30s along 11th Avenue.

Meanwhile, Conde Nast chief S.I. Newhouse is prepared to flee 4 Times Square for a new office tower in Hudson Yards as well...  read more »

It's hard to evaluate the news coming from Keith Kelly's Media Ink column in The New York Post about Conde Nast chief Si Newhouse's Wednesday meeting with Joanne Lipman, editrix of Portfolio.

The splashy $100 million project is the object of some Schadenfreude, though the Schaden-part has always been difficult to pin down.  read more »

Condé Nast's bulky Portfolio makes a lightweight debut.  read more »

Just weeks ago, Portfolio staffers could only communicate under double super secret background (Matt Cooper, natch).

But as this weekend's storm reached Biblical proportions in New York City--Genesis? Yikes!--came the first glimmer of Portfolio.com.

And now with today's print launch, the Conde Nast, no-talking-in-the-cafeteria gag order has been briefly lifted, letting in a gaggle of media reporters: Kit, Irin, Friedman, and Keith Kelly. Dylan is around, too, but only as a talking head for ABC News.

All this and there's not even a glitzy launch party to reward hard-working media reporters. Instead, the Portfolio gang will toast one another tonight at the Beaver Bar.