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FROM THE FRONTLINES :: STEVE COHN
Monday is Also Condé Nast Portfolio's Marketing 'Opening Day'
 Much anticipated launch of CNP is getting the expected full “exclusive” splash in today’s (April 16) New York Times (the cover and all the editorial ingredients are there). With the one-year-plus expectations for Condé Nast’s $100 million-plus business-magazine venture so high, we’ll bet this week that the bloggers and gossipers will find their share of faults. But instead of a using a “big-bang” p.r. blitz to counter them, Condé Nast business group president David Carey and CNP editor-in-chief Joanne Lipman, are, to borrow baseball terminology, playing “small ball.” Rather than fireworks (à la Talk) or renting New York’s Four Seasons (which Carey did 11 years ago to celebrate the House & Garden relaunch), the two are hosting a private staff party tonight at New York’s Beaver Bar followed by a very private reception for big-ticket advertisers tomorrow (April 17) in the New York apartment of CN chairman (since 1959) S.I. Newhouse, Jr. No press, no pizazz at what we believe is a chez Newhouse first for a launch. (Self was his first in 1979.)Then, for Carey and Lipman, the game plan will resemble that of a presidential candidate. Starting Friday (April 20) in Boston, they and staff members will host “intimate” breakfasts/luncheons/dinners in about 25 cities throughout North America. “Each will have about 25 people,” says Carey. “When Joanne and I are together, we plan to switch tables during the meals so that everyone can talk to us and give us their reaction to the magazine personally. Joanne will not be away continuously, but I will, and I have told my wife Lauri and children not to expect me home until Memorial Day.” By then, he may know how memorable the effort was. From a business standpoint, the 189 ad-page CNP is a success. Incredibly, Goldman Sachs, IBM, Pitney Bowes, and Travelers are among the 20 advertisers that had never been in a CN magazine before. (Including The New Yorker, where it is easy to assume that 1998-2005 vp/publisher Carey’s success meant that he accomplished everything.) “That was job #1 for me. Job #2 is retaining them and getting new advertisers when we begin publishing full-time [as a monthly] in September,” he says. “Ad close is around the Fourth of July, and we’re on our way.” Joanne Lipman’s Daughter Was a Condé Nast “Star” Before Her OK, Lipman was a huge Wall Street Journal star: advertising column (February 1989) followed by Weekend, Personal Journal, and the Saturday edition. All impressive creations, but the Condé Nast Portfolio editor-in-chief was a year away from today’s (April 16) creation when then-15-year-old daughter Rebecca Distler appeared in the April 2005 Teen Vogue. “Rebecca was visiting my office, and I thought it would be fun for her to meet [TV editor-in-chief] Amy Astley,” she says. “Little did I suspect that Amy would find Rebecca photogenic and invite her to appear in a fashion layout. Obviously, it was not why I left the WSJ for CNP [September 2005], but it is an added benefit.” More Steve Cohn
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