Big Executive Shakeup at Conde Nast

There's a big shakeup underway at Conde Nast Publications, home to Vogue, Vanity Fair, The New Yorker and -- hi there! -- Portfolio.

Mitch Fox, group president overseeing the Golf and Fairchild Fashion groups, is out. The only real surprise is that it didn't happen sooner: A year ago, I heard, and reported, overwhelming chatter that Fox would be removed before the end of January 2007. (For some reason, Conde Nast always seems to do this sort of thing in January.) But he reached some sort of accommodation, involving visits to a career coach, that allowed him to keep his job.

Well, so much for the coach. Now Fox's fiefdom is being divvied up. The Golf Publications will henceforth report to Portfolio's publisher and president, David Carey, according to WWD. I haven't seen any explanation of what happens to the Fashion group (whose flagship property is WWD), but Jon Fine says Vogue publisher Tom Florio is in line for "additional responsibilities," so I'm guessing that will be added to his slate. (UPDATE: No, as you see below, Florio's promotion is the addition of Teen Vogue to his portfolio; the Fashion group will now report directly to CEO Chuck Townsend.)

Accompanying all this is a flurry of moves at the publisher level, including the departure of Lucky's Sandy Golinkin.

UPDATE, 2:36 p.m.: Here's the internal announcement from Conde Nast CEO Chuck Townsend:

I am pleased to announce the appointments of three new Senior Vice Presidents and several important executive changes. This is an exciting time for our organization and these changes in the management structure will serve to position us for many years of continued growth.

Tom Florio, currently Publishing Director of Vogue, Men's Vogue and Vogue Living is named Senior Vice President and will now lead the Teen Vogue publishing business in addition to his current responsibilities. Tom has done an extraordinary job building the Vogue franchise in the marketplace, and it makes sense that his group should evolve to include Teen Vogue.

Bill Wackermann, currently Vice President and Publisher of Glamour, will now add the oversight of the Bridal Group to his responsibilities and is being promoted to Senior Vice President, Publishing Director. Under Bill's direction Glamour magazine has resonated in the ad community as an important vehicle to reach American women, and we look forward to him leveraging his talent and experience at Brides, Modern Bride, Elegant Bride, Brides.com and the regional and special issue bridal publications.

Lou Cona has been named Senior Vice President of the Conde Nast Media Group. Reporting to Richard Beckman, Lou will now oversee all of the Media Group's sales and marketing teams. Given Lou's success at two of our high profile magazines--Vanity Fair and The New Yorker --we anticipate great results as he expands his expertise to the CNMG, where he can influence all of our titles.

It also gives me great pleasure to announce the following:

Drew Schutte has been named V.P. and Publishing Director of The New Yorker. In his eight-year run as Publisher and Publishing Director of Wired and Wired Media, Drew has presided over the franchise's advertising growth, as well as the effective integration of Wired magazine and WiredNews.com. We have great confidence that he will take The New Yorker and TNY.com to new heights.

Gina Sanders has been named V.P. and Publisher of Lucky. We applaud Gina's efforts in leading Teen Vogue from launch to profitability and look forward to her stewardship of Lucky as it grows in both financial and editorial significance to our Company. Tom Florio will name a Publisher of Teen Vogue in the coming weeks.

David Carey, Group President & Publishing Director will now oversee Wired Media and The Golf Digest Group in addition to CN Portfolio. We recognize the natural synergy that exists among these brands in the advertising community, and David has established himself as an accomplished executive in this arena.

As part of the restructuring, Mitch Fox, Amy Churgin and Sandy Golinkin will be leaving the Company. We are grateful to them for the numerous contributions they have made to our magazines and to our Company over the course of their tenure.

Please join me in congratulating Tom, Bill, Lou, Drew, Gina, and David on their new positions and in wishing Mitch, Amy and Sandy all the best in their future endeavors.

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