Conde Nast Closing 'Portfolio'

For nearly two years I've been covering the media industry's bad news on this blog, including some that's hit very close to home. Now it hits closer still: Condé Nast Portfolio is closing.

Our editor in chief, Joanne Lipman, just broke the news to staff, saying the decision had been made "because of financial reasons at Advance," Condé Nast's parent company. "It's not anything that the company wanted to do." She said she was informed by Condé Nast chairman S.I. Newhouse Jr. this morning of the decision.

Lipman said the magazine is ahead of its business plan on various business metrics, and also noted that it won a National Magazine Award last year after publishing only a handful of issues, a rare accomplishment. But a sharp and extended downturn in ad revenue has made success elusive. Over the past year, Condé Nast has made a series of other cutbacks, and has folded Domino and Golf for Women magazines.

UPDATE: On May 20, Condé Nast officials announced that Portfolio.com would get reborn as a product of American City Business Journals, which like Condé Nast, is a unit of Advance Publications.