Business

SWELLING PORTFOLIO

JOANNE Lipman, the editor-in-chief of Condé Nast Portfolio, and David Carey, the magazine’s president and publisher, were on the road in Boston yesterday.

And although they were traveling together, it appears each faces a very different road.

Carey seems to be sitting pretty, while Lipman is sweating it out.

Earlier this week, Carey wrapped up the December issue with 111.3 ad pages. That comes after a 185 ad-page debut in April, followed by 121.2 in September, 117.9 in October and 108.2 in November. That’s 643.6 ad pages at a time when other business magazines are struggling.

“It’s the second-biggest five-issue launch for a magazine behind, O, The Oprah Magazine in 2000,” said Carey. “Advertisers are clearly voting in favor of monthly magazines with great production values where their ads look great.”

According to Media Industry Newsletter, through mid-October, Forbes was down 2.94 percent in ad pages, while Fortune was down 16.28 percent and BusinessWeek was down 17.29 percent.

Lipman, meanwhile, is battling negative press associated with the resignation of Portfolio.com Managing Editor Chris Jones, the latest in a string of top-level departures on the magazine’s editorial staff.

Women’s Wear Daily broke the news that he had told the staff on Wednesday, but other sources said he had given his resignation to Lipman anywhere from two weeks ago to one month ago, but had been asked to remain quiet until a replacement was found.

As word began leaking out, Lipman sent a midnight e-mail to staffers – which, of course, was promptly posted on Gawker.com. Lipman’s e-mail told staff to ignore the negative stuff in the press and that everything was going smoothly.

In fact, the magazine has about 150 staffers, including about 90 on the magazine and Web site, and only six have left. But the departures have been high-profile people, including Lipman’s No. 2 Jim Impoco, a magazine veteran who was fired as deputy editor. Michael Caruso, who was listed as a contributing editor but worked on major features and cover stories, also exited.

Several high-profile writers, including Katrina Brooker and Kurt Eichenwald have also left for one reason or another, and there are rumors more are on the way.

Jones was also told that he was going to have to start vetting his projects through Ed Felsen thal, a former top editor at The Wall Street Journal who recently signed on as a consultant. And there were rumblings that Jones, an ex-Yahoo! guy, was going to have to report to Ari Brandt, another Yahoo! alum who now works on Portfolio’s business side.

“He hated Brandt,” said one source, who said Jones quit without a new job in place. He “has been unhappy for a while and when it looked like Lipman was going to get more involved in the Web, that was the last straw.”

Staffers continue to complain about Lipman’s management style. One insider says she changes her mind often on story ideas – and doesn’t seem to remember.

When reached via e-mail, Lipman said of Jones, “He’s done a great job building and launching portfolio.com – which is exactly what he came here to do.”

She said Jones will stay through the end of November to help with the transition.

Lipman, who was a top editor at the Journal, took issue with criticism of there being a Journal clique at the magazine.

“On the print side, we continue to attract top talent,” she said. “We’ve brought on more than a dozen experienced writers and editors since September, from publications including The New Yorker, Wired, The Wall Street Journal, Details and The Los Angeles Times.

Having faith

Some entrepreneurs still have faith in magazines, despite the gloomy assessments.

Here’s a rundown on three publications that have launched or are about to launch in the weeks ahead.

* Manhattan Media, the folks who in August purchased New York Press and last year launched City Hall, are next month introducing The Capitol, a new monthly newspaper covering the Albany political scene from Gov. Spitzer on down.

It’s part of a strategy by Tom Allon, the CEO of Manhattan Media, to keep political publications profitable – and local.

“The model is politics, policy and personalities,” said Allon. “It’s a good combination of public policy and bills that are in the Legislature and the people who are in government.”

The new newspaper will be modeled after City Hall, a paper that Manhattan Media launched last year to cover city politics. City Hall was modeled after the popular D.C. political weekly, The Hill, where Allon cut his teeth.

Allon’s already skimping on the cost of an editor. Edward-Isaac Dovere, who is already editing City Hall, will be the editor of The Capitol, which will have a staff of four or five full-time reporters and editors.

* ZS Publishing on Nov. 15 will begin publishing Jewish Living, a bimonthly lifestyle magazine.

Daniel Zimmerman, president and publisher of this start-up, got the idea for the magazine one December day when he noticed all of the red and green that adorned magazines such as Martha Stewart Living and O, The Oprah Magazine.

But when he got to the Jewish magazines, he noticed very serious, weighty topics – such as Israel’s conflict with the Palestinians – and nothing about Judaism’s holiday celebrations.

“It wasn’t the first time that I felt like the only kid without a Christmas tree,” he said.

So Zimmerman, who moved down from Canada where he was an advertising executive, raised about $4 million from an undisclosed number of Canadian investors to finance the magazine’s launch. He’s also teamed up with his wife Carol Moskot, who is now the magazine’s creative director.

The first issue will have a $4.99 cover price and a circulation of 100,000.

Zimmerman said he joined with the United Jewish Appeal in several cities, including Baltimore, Toronto and West Palm Beach, Fla., to have copies distributed through the organization’s branches in those cities.

* Charlotte, N.C.-based Easter Post Publishing Co., which owns a number of small newspapers, will soon begin publishing Gardens & Gun.

Rebecca Darwin, a publishing veteran of The New Yorker, is the magazine’s publisher and president, and just this week landed another transplanted Southerner, Sid Evans, to be the new editor-in-chief.

Evans was the editor-in-chief of Field & Stream, once a Time Inc.-owned magazine that is now part of Bonnier Publications.

“I hate to be leaving Field & Stream, but this is just too good an opportunity to pass up,” he said.

keith.kelly@nypost.com