Well, so much for the folks at Conde Nast giving one of its adopted siblings the scoop on the name of its new Joanne Lipman-driven business publication. It will be called Portfolio not Quote (as I regurgitated last week).
The Times’s print media beat reporter, Katharine Sealy, trumpets the news in today’s (aptly targeted) Monday “Business” section (where content is always king). Ms. Lipman (defensively) added:
“This is serious business journalism — investigative, narrative, profiles — a commitment to long-form journalism, and telling that story with great design and art,” she said. “This is not a lifestyle publication,” she added. “This is a business publication.”
I feel for WWD media reporter Sara James for going out on the limb and coming up short. (I guess the PR orchestrators didn’t want to spoil today’s exclusive in The Times.) I did get it right about the companion website, however.
On a related note, I took notice of another piece of non-synergistic news emanating from the Conde Nast — Fairchild (parent to WWD) front. Imagine calling up an editor, or rather, the editorial director, to complain that your social event didn’t receive prominent-enough coverage?
Coming from a PR person, it would be the kiss of death. However, the complainer was a Prada-wearing devil whose editorial stature rivals that of the editor on the receiving end of her vitriol. Naturally the respective PR reps were deployed to clarify matters. (Isn’t this always the case?)
“She called to express her frustration with the placement of the coverage,” Vogue spokesman Patrick O’Connell said by phone on May 30. “It had nothing to do with the tone of the coverage.”
“We gave it substantial coverage,” said Andrea Kaplan, a spokeswoman for Mr. McCarthy. “The left-hand page was the whole ‘Eye’ column on Wednesday, with eight photos.”
Now I understand: only eight photos!
PR WWD magazines Portfolio Joanne Lipman Conde Nast The Devil Wears Prada 