That may work fine for a magazine, newspaper, or TV show, where competition is limited & barriers to entry are high, but the web is an altogether different animal. I realize that maybe part of this thinking reflects a dependency on longstanding brand advertiser relationships and/or ad agency sloth and conservatism, but web audiences–or perhaps more accurately, the interests of each person on the web–could simply be too fragmented for this approach to work.

I notice that there’s been no discussion of Conde Nast’s teen-oriented Flip site (288,000 visitors in March according to ComScore), which granted has only been around for a little while. On paper it looks like it could be a winner (though it is a little derivative) due in part to the emphasis on UGC, but the question is always how do you get people to go there when so many other sites out there do the same thing just as well if not better–and are run by ten people with no overhead and no marketing budget?

Portfolio will be interesting for many reasons, not the least of which the amount of muscle behind the Digital side - and the double-barreled approach Conde is taking to bringing it to market. And it will be a bit of a betting man’s game to see which side of the house prospers.

Knowing Brandt’s history at Yahoo! makes me curious to see what will be rolled out in the weeks and months to come. Experience suggests it will be more than shovel/brochure ware as the one thing that Yahoo! instills in its people, despite some other shortcomings, is understanding advertiser’s needs and bringing those advertisers the audience they desire.

This leads me to believe Portfolio (Digital) may be the tail that wags the dog and will help bring some of the more high end consumer goods marketers into the online realm. And as the luxury goods market is yet to really explode on the web - Portfolio, among other things, might be the digital home for all the LVMH and PPR brands that want to reach the Alpha Consumer/Overachiever in the comfort of their own boardroom or luxury suite.

And that might be a good thing for Conde Nast’s portfolio.

I am wondering whether a cloud of bloggers can be really helpful in building a community for a monthly publication. The gap in periodicity is a real issue. A daily newspaper and the hourly business-news cycle give conflicting demands — and the monthly publication cycle is very slooooowwww

the navy fighting in pirate-style.
only that they are much better looking and they have all these wonderful resources at hand and easily integrate some outside bloggers too

a very self-confident way of embracing new seas - which are in fact - “blue oceans”. - it is a lot of free advertising. and it definitely is a way to build a media brand.

two thumbs up.