Condé Nast
Condé Nast (/ˌkɒndeɪˈnæst/) is a global mass media company founded in 1909 by Condé Montrose Nast, and owned by Advance Publications.[1] Its headquarters are located at One World Trade Center in New York City and The Adelphi building in London.
Type | Subsidiary |
---|---|
Industry | Mass media |
Founded | 1909 |
Founder | Condé Montrose Nast |
Headquarters | One World Trade Center, , United States |
Area served | Worldwide |
Key people |
|
Products | Magazines |
Parent | Advance Publications |
Subsidiaries | Condé Nast Entertainment Pitchfork |
Website | condenast |
The company's media brands attract more than 72 million consumers in print, 394 million in digital and 454 million across social platforms. These include Vogue, The New Yorker, GQ, Glamour, Architectural Digest, Vanity Fair, Pitchfork, Wired, and Bon Appetit among many others.
Roger Lynch was appointed Chief Executive Officer in April 2019. In October 2019, Lynch announced his plans to increase Condé Nast's revenue from readers.[2] US Vogue Editor-in-Chief Anna Wintour serves as Artistic Director and Global Chief Content Officer of Condé Nast. The company launched Condé Nast Entertainment in 2011 to develop film, television, social and digital video and virtual reality.
History
Condé Montrose Nast, a New York City-born publisher, launched his magazine empire in 1909 with the purchase of Vogue, which was first created in 1892 as a New York weekly journal of society and fashion news.[3]
At first, Nast published the magazine under Vogue Company and did not incorporate Condé Nast until 1923. He had a flair for nurturing elite readers as well as advertisers and upgraded Vogue, sending the magazine on its path of becoming a top fashion authority. Eventually, Nast's portfolio expanded to include House & Garden, Vanity Fair (briefly known as Dress and Vanity Fair), Glamour, and American Golfer. The company also introduced British Vogue in 1916, and Condé Nast became the first publisher of an overseas edition of an existing magazine.
Condé Nast is largely considered to be the originator of the "class publication," a type of magazine focused on a particular social group or interest instead of targeting the largest possible readership.[4] Its magazines focus on a wide range of subjects, including travel, food, home, and culture, with fashion the larger portion of the company's focus.
Nast opened a printing press in 1924, which closed in 1964 to make way for more centrally located sites capable of producing higher volumes. During the Great Depression, Condé Nast introduced innovative typography, design, and color. Vogue's first full color photograph was featured on the cover in 1932, marking the year when Condé Nast began replacing fashion drawings on covers with photo illustrations―an innovative move at the time.[5] Glamour, launched in 1939, was the last magazine personally introduced to the company by Nast, who died in 1942.[6]
In 1959, Samuel I. Newhouse bought Condé Nast for US$5 million as an anniversary gift for his wife Mitzi, who loved Vogue.[7] He merged it with the privately held holding company Advance Publications. His son, S.I. Newhouse, Jr., known as "Si," became chairman of Condé Nast in 1975.[8]
Under Newhouse, Condé Nast acquired Brides in 1959,[9] revived Vanity Fair in 1983 after it was shuttered in 1936,[10] and launched the new publication Self in 1979.[11]
2000-09
In January 2000, Condé Nast moved from 350 Madison Avenue to 4 Times Square,[12] which at the time was the first skyscraper built in New York City since 1992 and boasted a Frank Gehry cafeteria. The move was also viewed as contributing to the transformation of Times Square.[13] In the same year, Condé Nast purchased Fairchild Publications[14] (now known as Fairchild Fashion Media), home to W and WWD, from the Walt Disney Company. In 2001, Condé Nast bought Golf Digest and Golf World from The New York Times Company for US$435 million.[15] On October 31, 2006, Condé Nast acquired the content aggregation site Reddit,[16] which was later spun off as a wholly owned subsidiary in September 2011.
The company folded the women's magazine Jane with its August issue in 2007, and later shut down its website. One of Condé Nast's oldest titles, the American edition of House and Garden, ceased publication after the December 2007 issue. Portfolio, Mademoiselle and Domino were folded as well. On May 20, 2008, the company announced its acquisition of a popular technology-oriented website, Ars Technica.
On October 5, 2009, Condé Nast announced the closure of three of its publications: Cookie, Modern Bride, and Elegant Bride. Gourmet ceased monthly publication with its November 2009 issue; the Gourmet brand was later resurrected as "Gourmet Live," an iPad app that delivers new editorial content in the form of recipes, interviews, stories, and videos. In print, Gourmet continues in the form of special editions on newsstands and cookbooks.
2010–2020
In July 2010, Robert Sauerberg became Condé Nast's president. In May 2011, Condé Nast was the first major publisher to deliver subscriptions for the iPad, starting with The New Yorker; the company has since rolled out iPad subscriptions for nine of its titles. In the same month, Next Issue Media, a joint venture formed by five U.S. publishers including Condé Nast, announced subscriptions for Android devices, initially available for the Samsung Galaxy Tab.[17]
In September 2011, Condé Nast said it would offer 17 of its brands to the Kindle Fire.[18] The company launched Conde Nast Entertainment in 2011 to develop film, television, and digital video programming. In May 2013, CNÉ's Digital Video Network debuted, featuring web series for such publications as Glamour and GQ.[19] Wired joined the Digital Video Network with the announcement of five original web series including the National Security Agency satire Codefellas and the animated advice series Mister Know-It-All.[20][21]
In October 2013, the company ended its internship program, after being sued by two former interns claiming they had been paid less than minimum wage for summer internships at Condé Nast.[22][23] In November 2014, the company moved into One World Trade Center in Manhattan, where its headquarters are now located.[24] On September 14, 2015, the company announced Robert A. Sauerberg Jr. as its new CEO, with former CEO Charles H. Townsend taking the role of Chairman, and S.I. Newhouse Jr. taking the role of Chairman Emeritus in January 2016.[25] On October 13, 2015, Condé Nast announced that it had acquired Pitchfork.[26]
In July 2016, Condé Nast announced the launch of Condé Nast Spire, a new division of the company focusing on consumer purchasing data and content consumption through the company's own first-party behavioral data.[27] The Chairman of the company, Charles Townsend, retired at the end of 2016,[28] and the Chairman Emeritus, S.I. Newhouse, died the following year in October.
In March 2018, Condé Nast announced the launch of the influencer-based platform Next Gen.[29] Condé Nast's Chief Revenue and Marketing Officer, Pamela Drucker Mann, stated that the platform would feature both "in-house and external talent with significant and meaningful social followings". In April 2019, Condé Nast appointed the former CEO of Pandora Media, Roger Lynch, as the company's first global CEO. It also sold the magazine Brides to the digital media company Dotdash, and in May of the same year, announced the sale of Golf Digest to Discovery, Inc.[30] In June of the same year, Condé Nast sold W to a new holding company, Future Media Group.[31] Condé Nast also fired Stefano Tonchi, who had been the head of W for nine years;[32][33] Tonchi later sued the company for wrongful termination, with Condé Nast suing Tonchi in response, seeking the return of "all monies paid to [Tonchi] during his period of disloyalty", claiming that he had acted as a "faithless servant" during the sale of W, and had interfered with the sale to benefit himself.[32]
In June 2020, following the global outbreak of the coronavirus COVID-19, it was reported that Condé Nast had experienced a drop in advertising revenues of 45% as a result of the pandemic. It was also reported that the company had, in previous years, sublet six of the company's 23 floors in the One World Trade Center, following the cancellation of a number of its publishing titles.[34]
Current US publications and digital assets
Print
Defunct publications
- Cargo
- Cookie
- Details
- Elegant Bride
- Golf for Women
- Golf Digest
- Gourmet
- Jane
- Lucky
- Mademoiselle
- Men's Vogue
- Modern Bride
- NowManifest (blog)
- Portfolio Magazine
- Style.com
- Vitals Men
- Vitals Women
- World of Hibernia [35][36]
- WomenSports
- YM
Mergers and acquisitions
Acquisitions
Date | Company | Business | Country | Value (USD) | References |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
December 30, 1987 | Signature Magazine[note 1] | Magazine | United States | — | [37] |
November 30, 1988 | Woman[note 2] | Magazine | United States | $10,000,000 | [38] |
June 25, 1990 | Cook's[note 3] | Magazines | United States | — | [39] |
April 22, 1992 | K-III Magazines-Magazine Sub[note 4] | Subscriber lists | United States | — | [40] |
April 20, 1993 | Knapp Communications | Magazines | United States | $175,000,000 | [41] |
June 12, 1998 | Wired Magazine[note 5] | Magazines | United States | $90,000,000 | [42] |
January 8, 2000 | Fairchild Publications[note 6] | Magazines and newspapers | United States | $650,000,000 | [43] |
September 5, 2001 | Johansens [note 7] | Accommodation guides | United States | — | [44] |
February 28, 2002 | Modern Bride Group[note 8] | Magazines | United States | $52,000,000 | [45] |
March 28, 2002 | Ideas Publishing Group[note 9] | Publishing | United States | — | [46] |
July 11, 2006 | Lycos Inc-Wired News[note 10] | Online news | United States | $25,000,000 | [47] |
July 20, 2006 | Nutrition Data | Internet service provider | United States | — | [48] |
October 31, 2006 | Social news | United States | — | [49] | |
April 23, 2008 | SFO*Media | Web sites | United States | — | [50] |
May 20, 2008 | Ars Technica | Web sites | United States | — | [51] |
April 11, 2012 | ZipList | Web sites & Mobile Apps | United States | — | [52] |
October 13, 2015 | Pitchfork | Web sites | United States | — | [26] |
Stakes
Date | Company | Business | Country | Value (USD) | References |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
November 29, 1988 | Wagadon[note 11] | Magazines | United States | — | [53] |
January 19, 1994 | Wired Magazine | Magazines | United States | — | [54] |
January 17, 2001 | Ideas Publishing Group[note 12] | Publishing | United States | — | [55] |
Notes
- Citicorp-Signature Magazine was acquired from Citigroup.
- Harris Publications-Woman was acquired from Harris Publications.
- Pennington Publishing-Cook's was acquired from Bonnier AB.
- K-III Magazines-Magazine Sub was acquired from Primedia.
- Wired Magazine was acquired from Telefonica.
- Fairchild Publications was acquired from The Walt Disney Company.
- Johansens, the parent company of Daily Mail, was acquired from Rothermere Investments.
- Modern Bride Group was acquired from Primedia.
- Ideas Publishing Group was acquired from Advance Publications.
- Lycos Inc-Wired News was acquired from Telefonica.
- Conde Nast Publications acquired a 40% interest in Wagadon.
- Conde Nast Publications acquired a majority interest in Ideas Publishing Group.
References
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- "Condé Nast veut développer les revenus issus des lecteurs". Le Figaro. Le Figaro. Retrieved 14 January 2020.
- A Brief History of the Condé Nast Publications, New York: CNP, 1993.
- "Today in History: March 26". Library of Congress. November 9, 2010. Archived from the original on February 10, 2012. Retrieved November 2, 2011.
- "IN VOGUE: The Illustrated History of the World's Most Famous Fashion Magazine". NYTimes.com. December 3, 2006. Archived from the original on February 25, 2012. Retrieved November 3, 2011.
- Sumner, David E. (2010). The Magazine Century: American Magazines Since 1900. Peter Lang. ISBN 9781433104930. Archived from the original on 2018-03-03. Retrieved 2018-03-02.
- Mahon, Gigi (1989-09-10). "S.I. Newhouse and Conde Nast; Taking Off The White Gloves". Archived from the original on 2017-10-26. Retrieved 2017-08-26.
- "Si Newhouse of Advance Publications, Conde Nast dies at 89". al. Associated Press. 2017-10-01. Retrieved 2019-10-01.
- Hsu, Tiffany (2019-05-15). "Condé Nast Sells Brides Magazine to Barry Diller's Dotdash". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2019-10-01.
- Salmans, Sandra (1983-02-06). "Courting the Elite at Conde Nast". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2019-10-01.
- Journal, Wendy BoundsStaff Reporter of The Wall Street (1999-06-23). "Conde Nast's Udell to Step Down As Self Magazine's Editor in Fall". Wall Street Journal. ISSN 0099-9660. Retrieved 2019-10-01.
- Bagli, Charles. "Conde Nast's Stylish Clan Moves Into Times Sq". The New York Times. June 6, 1999. Archived from the original on November 16, 2012. Retrieved November 3, 2011.
- Agovino, Theresa. "Condé Nast deal at 1 WTC now official". Crain's New York. June 6, 1999. Archived from the original on September 3, 2011. Retrieved November 3, 2011.
- Kuczynski, Alex. "Merger Planned for 2 Giants of Fashion Publishing". The New York Times. August 20, 1999. Archived from the original on March 10, 2013. Retrieved November 3, 2011.
- Condé Nast Redesigns Its Future, The New York Times, 26 October 2003
- Arrington, Michael. "Breaking News: Condé Nast/Wired Acquires Reddit". TechCrunch. Archived from the original on 2018-02-15. Retrieved 2018-03-02.
- Kaplan, David. "Next Issue Media Works To Build The Storefront Before The Audience Arrives". PaidContent. June 29, 2011. Archived from the original on September 14, 2011. Retrieved November 3, 2011.
- Vranica, Suzanne. "Magazines Join With New Tablet Challenger". The Wall Street Journal. September 29, 2011. Archived from the original on 2015-03-17. Retrieved November 3, 2011.
- Tatiana Siegel (May 12, 2013). "Conde Nast Launches Digital Video Network – The Hollywood Reporter". The Hollywood Reporter. Archived from the original on 2013-05-20. Retrieved June 23, 2013.
- Erik Hayden (May 15, 2013). "Conde Nast Entertainment Launches 'Wired' Video Channel". The Hollywood Reporter. Archived from the original on 2013-06-24. Retrieved June 23, 2013.
- Erik Maza (May 2, 2013). "Condé Entertainment Previews Video Channels for Vogue, Wired and Vanity Fair". Women's Wear Daily. Archived from the original on 2013-06-24. Retrieved June 23, 2013.
- Buckley, Cara (Oct 23, 2013). "Sued Over Pay, Condé Nast Ends Internship Program". New York Times. Archived from the original on 2017-05-06. Retrieved 2017-02-15.
- "Why Condé Nast Felt It Had To Stop Using Interns". Forbes. October 24, 2013. Archived from the original on 2017-07-22. Retrieved 2017-08-26.
- "Condé Nast Colonizes Lower Manhattan". The New York Times. 2015-09-30. ISSN 0362-4331. Archived from the original on 2018-03-03. Retrieved 2018-03-02.
- Somaiya, Ravi (September 14, 2015). "Condé Nast Names Robert Sauerberg New C.E.O." The New York Times. Archived from the original on 2015-09-17. Retrieved September 14, 2015.
- "Condé Nast Buys Pitchfork Media". The New York Times. Archived from the original on 2017-10-08. Retrieved 13 October 2015.
- Emma Bazilian (26 July 2016). "Condé Nast Is Connecting Media Consumption and Purchase Data to Improve Branded Content". Adweek. Archived from the original on 2016-07-27. Retrieved 28 July 2016.
- Business – WWD
- "Condé Nast Influencer Platform: 'Journalism' for Cash?". Ikon London Magazine. 2 March 2018. Retrieved 3 March 2018.
- Spangler, Todd (May 13, 2019). "Discovery Buys Golf Digest From Condé Nast for $30 Million". Variety. Retrieved May 13, 2019.
- Burch, Sean (June 25, 2019). "Conde Nast Sells W Magazine, Sara Moonves to Replace Longtime Top Editor Stefano Tonchi". TheWrap. Retrieved June 25, 2019.
- Condé Nast slams former W editor Stefano Tonchi as 'faithless' extortionist
- Condé Nast Hits Back Hard at Stefano Tonchi’s W Magazine Lawsuit – WWD
- Helmore, Edward. "Can Anna Wintour survive fashion's reckoning with racism?". theguardian.com/uk. The Guardian. Retrieved 13 June 2020.
- "The world of Hibernia" Archived 2012-04-07 at the Wayback Machine. National Library of Ireland Catalog.
- "Bad tidings; it is the end of the World of Hibernia – Independent.ie".
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