Conde Nast

Tom Florio, the publisher of the Vogue titles at Conde Nast, has picked up a new hobby. Today's Intelligencer in New York reports that Mr. Florio has a thing for ... gondola racing!  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 »

Conde Nast was one of the tangential losers in the West Side rail yards bidding. The magazine publishing giant was the anchor tenant for the Durst-Vornado bid, and that bid, of course, lost yesterday to Tishman Speyer's.

But! John Koblin, at our brother blog Media Mob, reports that Conde Nast C.O.O. John Bellando sent out an internal memo this morning telling employees that the company was still looking to build a new tower--somewhere--by 2016.

From the memo:  read more »

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 »

Steven Florio, former C.E.O. and president of Conde Nast, died yesterday after a heart attack. He was 58.

Vogue editor Anna Wintour described the Conde Nast landscape under Florio's reign like this to WWD: "It was a smaller world. It was much less involved in the Internet. The company wasn't as large as it is now, and he ran it based on relationships he had. It was more like an old boys' network."  read more »

The Observer's John Koblin, on our sister blog The Media Mob, breaks the news this morning that House & Garden magazine will fold after its December issue hits stands.

Conde Nast, the magazine's publisher, just doesn't see money in the title any more.

We can't help but wonder whether the slumping national housing market--and all the attendant industries that relied upon it, from landscaping to contracting to brokering--had something to do with the magazine's folding.

Conde Nast's House & Garden has folded.

"We have announced this morning that with the December issue we will cease publication," said Maurie Perl, spokeswoman for Conde Nast to The Observer this morning.

“Our investment in House & Garden throughout the years has been substantial and we no longer believe it is a viable business investment for the company," said Charles Townsend, President & CEO of Condé Nast in a statement.

Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation has joined Stephen Ross's Related Companies in its bid for the Hudson Yards project, a source familiar with the bid said.

If Stephen Ross' Related won the bid to develop on the far West Side, News Corp. would move its headquarters from its Sixth Avenue tower and into a new tower in Hudson Yards, the source said. Last week, The Observer reported that Conde Nast would leave 4 Times Square for a new, 1.5-million-square-foot tower if Douglas Durst and Vornado won a bid; and it was also reported that Morgan Stanley had teamed up with Tishman Speyer.  read more »

When Condé Nast moved its headquarters from Madison Avenue to 42nd Street in 1999, it brought instant credibility to the Times Square office market. Now, only eight years later, Condé Nast is again making plans to relocate its headquarters to another untested area for big-name Manhattan office tenants.

Condé Nast intends to move out of its home at 4 Times Square and into an entirely new tower in Hudson Yards on the far West Side by 2015, developer Douglas Durst told The Observer this week. The new tower, as sketched out as part of a proposal by the Durst Organization and Vornado Realty Trust for the Hudson Yards development site, would be exclusively for Condé Nast and would be built to 1.5 million square feet.

Mr. Durst, the developer of 4 Times Square, said that Condé Nast would consolidate its offices in the new tower and would move out of the roughly 700,000 square feet it currently occupies in 4 Times Square. The Condé Nast lease there ends in 2018, but Mr. Durst said a deal would be negotiated to let the publisher break the lease by 2015.  read more »

Conde Nast intends to move out of its home at 4 Times Square and move into an entirely new tower in Hudson Yards on the far West Side by 2015, said developer Douglas Durst.

The new tower, as sketched out by a proposal for the Hudson Yards development site by the Durst Organization and Vornado Realty Trust, would be exclusively for Conde Nast and would be built to 1.5 million square feet.

Mr. Durst told The Observer this afternoon that Conde Nast would consolidate its offices in the new tower and would move out of the roughly 700,000 square feet that it currently occupies at Mr. Durst’s 4 Times Square. The Conde Nast lease at 4 Times Square ends in 2018, but Mr. Durst said a deal would be negotiated to let them break the lease by 2015.

This is all under the condition that the Durst Organization and Vornado win the bid to develop the Hudson Yards site. Bids are due Oct. 11 to the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, the yards' owner, and other companies preparing proposals include The Related Companies, Brookfield Properties and Tishman Speyer.

The news that Conde Nast wants to build a new tower was reported by Women's Wear Daily this morning. (The New York Times also reported this morning that Morgan Stanley has teamed with Tishman Speyer on a proposal to build a new headquarters on the yards.)

Mr. Durst told The Observer that having Conde Nast already secured as an anchor tenant for one of its towers can only help the position of its bid with Vornado.

“We think it’s a tremendous advantage,” he said. “We are very excited about it. We hope it’ll help our bid. We think the team we put together has put us in an excellent position.”

A call to a Conde Nast spokeswoman was not immediately returned.