Business

Condé Grinch gone

The Condé Nasties were partying like it was 2007.

After a three-year hiatus, the heralded Condé Nast holiday luncheon returned to the Four Seasons restaurant yesterday.

CEO Charles Townsend said that while the company did not set a new revenue record, “we had a very good year — up in high single digits.”

And he said the profit margin was the best in the company’s history. That’s a dramatic reversal from 2009, when the company operated in the red, forcing it to shut down four magazines and downsize more than 10 percent of its staff.

While there were laggards this year, stalwarts like Vogue and Vanity Fair were up. For the first time ever, the company’s digital operations will end the year in the black, Townsend told Media Ink, while standing in the Four Seasons lobby after the party.

Townsend said the company was generating more than 10 percent of its overall revenue from its Web operations.

As for the proliferation of tablet devices, he noted, “It’s not a defined business yet, but we’re going to stay the course.” He said it accounts for “less than a point,” or 1 percent, of revenue at this stage.

Townsend’s table, No. 6, was heavy with publishers, including Susan Plagemann from Vogue, Giulio Capua from Architectural Digest and Jack Haire, who runs the Sunday insert Parade — not to mention Gina Sanders, the Fairchild big boss who is married to heir apparent Steven Newhouse, seated at Table 4.

For years, the seating chart at the Condé holiday party received the same level of scrutiny that Kremlin watchers applied to photos of Soviet leaders to determine who was in and out of power by where they were standing in relation to the party chairman.

At Condé, power is thought to reside with those who land the choice seats near Newhouse, CEO Townsend and new President Robert Sauerberg.

But it would not be Condé Nast if there weren’t intrigue. Yesterday, as the partygoers were sitting down, word circulated that Jason Wagenheim, who had jumped from Time Inc.’s Entertainment Weekly to fill the long-vacant publisher’s job at Glamour only three months earlier, was out of a job.

Group publisher Bill Wackermann — who was at Table 8 with Editorial Director Tom Wallace — is re-inserting himself into Glamour once again.

Glamour is a key title and has long been the second-most profitable magazine in the company. But last year, ad pages tumbled 7.2 percent to 1,504.

Table watchers noted Wagenheim was seated at Table 7. While it may not have been the outer reaches of Siberia, the locale seemed to be far away from the seats of power.

Reached by Media Ink, Wagenheim insisted he was staying with Condé Nast. “I’ll have more for you next week,” he said, which suggests he may know where he’s headed.

One source speculated that Wagenheim was going to be publisher of another magazine, which could put Condé publishers in a new game of musical chairs next week.

Chairman Si Newhouse was actually adjacent to the pool at Table 9, joined by his digital media guru, Scott Dadich, New Yorker Editor-in-Chief David Remnick, Vanity Fair Publisher Ed Menicheschi, Lucky Editor-in-Chief Brandon Holley, Fairchild executive Will Schenck and Carolyn Kremins, the publisher of Condé Nast Traveler.

Newhouse did not reveal anything new, but did heap praise on his favorite editor, Anna Wintour of Vogue, for her work on Fashion’s Night Out, now an international event. She snagged a choice spot at Table 5, breaking bread with Sauerberg and the newest member of Condé’s corporate constellation, Dawn Ostroff. A former CW television exec, Ostroff recently landed as president of Condé’s new entertainment division.

Ostroff is one of the most sought-after executives at the moment. Also coming in for a cushy landing was Paul Jowdy, the newly named publisher of Women’s Wear Daily. He arrived only days earlier after losing his last publisher job at Everyday with Rachael Ray, after Reader’s Digest Association sold it to Meredith.

When Si Newhouse decided to duck out a little early after finishing his chicken pot pie, but before dessert was served, it was Wintour who escorted the chairman to his waiting Town Car to whisk him back to headquarters. Condé staffers won’t see him again until January, after he finishes his month-long European break.

With the big boss gone, Wintour returned briefly to the party in the pool room, then beat the crowd out the door herself. Sans her trademark sunglasses, she called for her car. “It was great for everyone,” she said when Media Ink approached. Wintour smiled and then was gone.

Vanity Fair chief Graydon Carter proclaimed the lunch “the best ever”— but not so good that he wanted to linger. He was next out the door after Wintour.

The last time Condé Nast held its fabled luncheon was in 2007. In 2008, it was canceled out of a sense of dread over the growing financial crisis. By 2009, the roof fell in and the company was in danger of not making its payroll at one point, its cash flow had shrunk so drastically.

Even if the good times weren’t rolling for everyone — only six of Condé’s 14 titles notched ad-page gains — at least they were enough to carry the company to a gain and put its staff back at the Four Seasons again.