‘Condé is passé’ compared to Hearst

 

Condé Nast is no longer the most desirable magazine empire to work for — Hearst is, according to those in the trenches.
After decades of free-spending Condé supremacy, owner Si Newhouse, 88, quietly retired last year.
  
Condé Nast recently shut down Details and replaced the editores at Allure, and the glamorous lustre has worn off.
“Everyone is on edge with all the firings and closings,” said one insider. “Plus, working at Condé is passé.”
Condé’s Vogue is still bigger than Harper’s Bazaar, but nerdy Hearst announced record profits earlier this month — and the probable launch of a print magazine in 2016.
“Like Icarus, Condé Nast flew so high for so long,” said Michael Gross..

 

“With magazine publishing facing an existential threat, it was inevitable that [it] got singed.”
The days are gone when there were so many black cars idling outside Condé Nast that it caused a traffic jam.
No longer does Condé have a phalanx of editors at the Ritz for Paris fashion week.

 

Hearst has the better perks now: visiting chefs in the cafeteria and free workout clothes in the gym. There are also master classes from the likes of Gloria Steinem, Ethan Hawke and Arianna Huffington.
Real estate is also part of the equation. Hearst Tower is a gleaming Norman Foster skyscraper erected on top of the landmarked 6-story stone building commissioned by William Randolph Hearst in 1928.
Condé Nast has been headquartered for over a year at 1 World Trade Center, having left 4 Times Square and its Frank Gehry-designed cafeteria. A rat infestation was exterminated, but the downtown location is said to make market appointments difficult.

 

“I can’t imagine those fashion editors walking around down there in their Louboutins,” said another insider.