The carnage continued at Condé Nast yesterday, with the publisher of Details magazine getting the heave-ho and rumors circulating that another game of publisher musical chairs was about to begin.
Steve DeLuca was quietly let go one day after Condé Nast CEO Charles Townsend pulled the plug on four magazines, the 68-year-old foodie title Gourmet, parenting book Cookie, Modern Bride and Elegant Bride.
Details, the struggling publishing house’s No.2 men’s fashion title, slipped back into the red this year, with a 33.7 percent decline in ad pages through its October issue.
There is new speculation that Nancy Berger Cardone, publisher of Gourmet, will return to Allure — which would seem to leave Agnes Chapski the odd person out.
On Monday, Carolyn Kremins, Cookie’s publisher, was shuffled over to Brides, where Alison Matz was shown the door.
A Condé Nast spokeswoman declined to comment on any future moves. “I have no word on Nancy Berger Cardone staying or leaving as of this moment,” she said. Berger Cardone did not return calls.
The spokeswoman said Details will operate without a publisher. Associate Publisher Lucy Kriz will report to Glamour Publishing Director Bill Wackermann, she said.
At least three Condé Nast titles are said to be considering frequency chops as a way to shave budgets, which are mandated to drop by about 25 percent after a three-month examination of company operations by McKinsey & Co. Editors and publishers are being given a lot of latitude in figuring out how to meet their numbers.
“Everyone has their own nut to crack,” one editor said.
Lower-level editors are said to be quaking.
As the exodus began yesterday, Human Resources put out huge cardboard boxes where the 180 laid-off employees could dump their company cellphones, blackberries and portable computers. Gourmet’s seven-figure editor-in-chief, Ruth Reichl, twittered that she was “sad.”
Bets are on Allure, W and Lucky for frequency cuts. Allure is down 32 percent in ad pages through October, W is down 45 percent and Lucky is down 30 percent.
Architectural Digest, which is down a whopping 49.3 percent, is expected to remain a monthly, but may move to cheaper paper stock in most markets.
With these shutdowns, Condé Nast has axed all of its recent start-ups, including Domino, Portfolio and Cookie. The folding of the bridal magazines indicates that its acquisition strategy of the past decade was unsuccessful.
Condé Nast snapped up Modern Bride in 2001 for $55 million and Elegant Bride in 2004 for considerably less, but passed on a chance to purchase The Knot, Inc., a bridal registry and wedding media company that developed strong Web brands and then moved into magazines, an industry source said.
The Knot is making money — second-quarter revenue rose to $29.5 million, up 3 percent from a year earlier — while Condé’s bridal titles have been bleeding red ink. One source estimated that losses at the two shut-down magazines totaled roughly $10 million annualized.