Illustration: Jason Seiler

About six years ago, Tom Florio, then the publisher of Vogue, had an idea. He wanted to expand the fashion bible’s brand into a new platform: online television. The magazine’s discerning editor-in-chief, Anna Wintour, approved and Mr. Florio found blue-chip financial investors who did too. He’d been working on the proposal for nine months when he presented it to Si Newhouse, Chuck Townsend and other top Condé Nast brass.

“I hate it,” Mr. Newhouse said.

Encountering Mr. Newhouse at a dinner party a few days later, Mr. Florio asked the Condé Nast chairman to elaborate on his abrupt dismissal of the idea.

“All that did was make money,” the boss told him.

It’s hard to imagine the executive who would utter such a sentence in today’s economy (let alone one tasked with navigating the turbulent media market). But the story exemplifies what some say is the defining brilliance of Mr. Newhouse: his quickness to tear a book up, to unceremoniously fire and replace someone (see: Vreeland, Diana, or Mirabella, Grace), to say “no.”

“He makes decisions based on what the essence of Condé Nast was,” Mr. Florio, now CEO of Advanstar Fashion Group, explained.

It’s certainly the signature trait that enabled him to build his stable of glossies into one of the most influential corporate architects of consumer aspiration. But as luxury print advertising—the company’s lifeblood—continues to dry up, Condé Nast is reprogramming its top brass to say “yes”: to brand extensions, such as e-commerce relationships (GQ and Nordstrom), membership programs (Lucky Rewards) and licensed merchandise (Bon Appetit for Home Shopping Network).

Though the 84-year-old Mr. Newhouse remains the company’s chairman and is still regularly spotted in the cafeteria, insiders say his presence is less common and his day-to-day influence quickly waning. The upshot is that the editorial old guard of Condé Nast is losing its best defender, prompting some to wonder if it the company’s “essence,” the ineffable lustre that long captivated advertisers and readers, will survive its 2015 move downtown to 1 World Trade.

Some signs of drift are more apparent than others. Employees have become accustomed to the sight of busted banquettes in the once-gleaming Frank Gehry cafeteria, for instance. “That was the symbol of the luxury of the place,” noted a long-time staffer, adding that the food has also become less appealing. “I think they just stopped caring,” the staffer said. “I think something happened where they were like, ‘I’m not spending any more money.’”

And according to some male editorial employees, even the elevator eye candy isn’t what it used to be. As one put it, “You do sense that maybe one of the weird by-products of the ‘Death of Print’ is that girls in sundresses don’t all flock here quite as much.”

The result seems to be a corporate culture that has lost its edge. “You sense a little bit the loss of that swagger, the feeling that ‘I’m working in some special place,’” the employee added with a sigh.

At this rate, how long will it be before the aroma of garlic—which Mr. Newhouse views with such vampiric scorn that it has been banned from the lunchroom—is wafting through the hallways?

THE ELDEST SON of self-made newspaper mogul Samuel Irving Newhouse, Samuel Irving Jr., aka “Si,” knew a thing or two about aspiration. Born rich but chronically unstylish (surrounded by clotheshorses, he favors a sweatshirt), he left something to be desired as an heir apparent. As a student at Horace Mann and Syracuse, he was ambivalent about journalism, introverted and angsty, according to Carol Felsenthal’s biography, Citizen Newhouse. Living in New York after dropping out of college during his junior year, Mr. Newhouse earned a reputation as the family’s “crowned prince,” racking up bills at 21 and the Stork Club while his younger brother, Donald, demonstrated an affinity for the family business at papers like the Newark Star-Ledger.

Condé Nast was an afterthought investment that Newhouse Sr. snapped up as birthday gift for wife Mitzi in 1959, and therefore not considered a suitable perch for junior. But it was there—under the influence of elegant and brilliant editorial advisers like Leo Lerman, the man of letters whose epic house parties earned him a spot on the Mademoiselle masthead, and Alexander Liberman, the Russian-born artist whose judgment even the most headstrong editors trusted—that Mr. Newhouse found his calling. Lerman and Liberman gave Mr. Newhouse access to the kind of artistic high society from which he’d previously felt excluded. Enthralled, Mr. Newhouse threw himself into the work, serving in positions at Glamour and Vogue, reading every line of the magazines, and to the chagrin of his colleagues, showing up before dawn.

When Liberman wasn’t tearing up his editors’ pages, he was teaching Mr. Newhouse what contemporary art to hang on his walls; the collection eventually earned Mr. Newhouse a spot on the board of MoMA. Liberman also imparted one of his signature managerial gifts: identifying talent. Mr. Newhouse watched Mr. Liberman lure Vreeland from rival Harper’s Bazaar with the promise of a bottomless expense account, then made a name for himself poaching Tina Brown, the young editor of Tatler for his revived Vanity Fair.

Mr. Newhouse learned to spot gifted editors practically in utero. “It was often at such an early stage that other people didn’t even realize it was talent,” Mr. Florio said, recalling the days before Tina was Tina. “She was not all fancy and fashionable but she was wickedly irreverent, super brilliant and funny.”

He then kept that talent on its toes by being selective and unpredictable with his attention.

“I always admired that in a board roomful of talking executives that he would quietly listen to what was not being said and then provide the most meaningful comment of the meeting,” former Details publisher Steve DeLuca, now the publisher of Departures, told The Observer.

But while Mr. Newhouse’s shifting affections made Condé Nast a hotbed of competition, where alpha salesmen (and tabloid regulars) like the late Steve Florio (Tom’s older brother), Ron Galotti and Richard Beckman thrived, a series of appointments and hires over the past two years have dramatically altered the character of the company’s leadership.

At the top, there’s Chuck Townsend. An operations-minded backslapper whom sources say earned major brownie points when he streamlined the company by moving its back offices to Delaware, Mr. Townsend ascended to CEO and president in 2004 when Florio, who suffered from heart problems, stepped down. (He died from a heart attack four years later.)

Two years ago, Mr. Townsend relieved himself of the president half of his job title, handing it off to Bob Sauerberg, Condé Nast’s top consumer marketer (thank him for the subscription cards all over your apartment floor), with whom Mr. Townsend had worked at The New York Times Magazine group in the ’90s. Mr. Sauerberg was tapped just as David Carey, a brainy publisher credited with turning The New Yorker around, departed for rival Hearst and dynamic personalities like Mr. Florio (Steve’s brother) and Mr. Beckman fled in search of CEO gigs.

According to insiders, Mr. Sauerberg promised the Newhouse family board that controls the company that he would bring in millions in non-advertising revenue, while magazine publishers would continue to report to Mr. Townsend. Mr. Sauerberg’s appointment signaled a sea change. In a 2010 internal memo, he foretold “a consumer-centric business model, a holistic brand management approach and the establishment of a multi-platform, integrated sales and marketing organization.”

In the two years since Mr. Sauerberg took over, he’s significantly reconfigured the top of the company to look less like a magazine publisher, and more like a sales and marketing organization, inventing at least three new positions and eliminating dozens more. First, parent company Advance Publications hired a Yahoo! mergers-and-acquisitions executive, Andrew Siegel, to serve as “senior VP, strategy and corporate development,” i.e., “Find us the next Pinterest, please.” Next, it invested heavily in a brand-new entertainment division to translate so-called “premium magazine content” into television and movies. Almost a decade after Vogue sniffed at Bravo when asked to participate in Project Runway (Elle and Marie Claire happily took part, garnering immeasurable publicity for their efforts), Mr. Sauerberg tapped Dawn Ostroff, the woman behind America’s Next Top Model, to run the new division. In the spring, Condé Nast poached a Lancôme executive, Gillian Gorman Round, to be the first-ever VP of brand development, meaning “e-commerce, membership programs, video, product and sampling.”

The new management structure crowds out the once-crucial editorial director. Liberman hand-picked his replacement: James Truman, the natty, British-born editor who successfully reinvented Details as a proto-lad-mag for marketing-averse Gen Xers. Projecting an aura of millennial cool, he carried the torch for editorial ambition—and its handmaiden, expenditure—up to the brink of the print downturn (and he oversaw the design of that cafeteria). But after Mr. Newhouse used his “no” on Mr. Truman’s proposed art magazine, he left. The position still exists, but it is held by Tom Wallace, a veteran newspaperman and the former editor-in-chief of Condé Nast Traveler. Unlike his predecessors, Mr. Wallace is said to have a mind for budget-conscious as opposed to “visionary” editorial content. Meanwhile, as Condé Nast searches for new revenue streams, it seems to be performing triage internally, siccing Bill Wackermann, an old-school charismatic publisher, on Condé Nast cash cow Glamour, for example.

Critics note that Mr. Sauerberg’s slew of new divisions have yet to yield anything lucrative, and the new team’s mandates are only growing more urgent as Condé Nast’s core businesses fade. Earlier this month, CMO Lou Cona laid off much of the company’s print corporate sales team, including the leader of its brand management service, Ideactive. September issues came in light this year, with the exception of Vogue, and publishers were asked to trim their budgets by 10 percent, according to WWD. Like any Condé Nast insider to climb to the top of the heap, Mr. Sauerberg has quickly become the subject of ouster rumors, but it’s early yet. More important, it’s hard to discern who will be judging his efficacy. The changing business model of Condé Nast combined with dramatic shifts at other arms of Advance Publications have renewed a decades-old media parlor game: speculating about Mr. Newhouse’s succession.

According to Thomas Maier’s Newhouse, a long-standing tax loophole (the subject of a failed $1 billion IRS lawsuit in the 1980s) will expire with the passing of Sam Newhouse’s sons, leaving the third Newhouse generation with an unprecedented tax burden, which it will have to “rally to overcome.” Mr. Newhouse has said that his first cousin Jonathan, who runs Condé Nast’s lucrative international business, will replace him, but Jonathan is said to be happily stationed in Europe. At Advance Publication newspapers in Michigan, Louisiana and New Jersey, Steven Newhouse (Si’s nephew, long identified as the third-gen Newhouse to watch) has proven himself a savvy businessman who little relishes underwriting a failing business model. He has reduced the frequency of the family’s print newspapers, focusing their pared-down staffs on digital platforms instead. Steven’s wife, Gina Sanders, is the CEO of Condé sister Fairchild and well-liked by top Condé Nast editors, making her a favorite internal candidate to replace Si.

While the next generation seems equipped to face Condé Nast’s new economic realities, however, it may no longer have the motive. As Condé Nast diversifies its business, distancing itself from the glamorous magazine company that became an improbable home for the family’s misfit patriarch, a once-unthinkable sale may be far less painful.

“Elegance is refusal,” Diana Vreeland pronounced, back when she was in Si’s good graces. Then again, acquiescence does have its advantages.

editorial@observer.com

Photo by Derek Gee / Buffalo News, via twitter.com/Sulliview

New York Times executive editor Jill Abramson announced Monday that Margaret M. Sullivan, editor and vice president of The Buffalo News, will replace Arthur Brisbane as the paper’s public editor.

Speaking on the phone from Buffalo Monday afternoon, Ms. Sullivan told Off The Record that she had lusted after the gig for years.

“Now that there’s going to be much more of a digital job,” she said, “it’s a very good fit for me.”

She described the Times search as broad and the vetting process as lengthy and thorough.

“It was not a slam dunk,” she admitted.

A post created in the wake of the Jayson Blair plagiarism scandal in 2003, The Times’s public editor serves as a liaison between readers and newsroom. He or, for the first time since the position's creation, she, answers reader questions and critiques newsroom decisions in a biweekly Sunday column.

In an internal memo announcing Ms. Sullivan’s appointment, Ms. Abramson said the position will expand “to keep pace with The Times’ multi-platform presence.” The public editor will now engage with readers “in a more timely way,” she wrote, by way of a social media presence, a blog and a web page, in addition to the print column.

After praising Ms. Sullivan’s reporting credentials (she created The Buffalo News’s first investigative team), Ms. Abramson lauded her digital bona fides.

“She’s a regular blogger and is comfortable with social media,” she wrote.

Ms. Sullivan told Off The Record that she began her Buffalo News blog, called SulliView, as an experiment late last year, when she was itching to do more writing and “immerse herself in the tools journalists had.”

“Whatever the digital platform may be, you can’t understand it until you do it,” she explained.

She has used SulliView as a platform to explain why a tough Romney article landed during his Buffalo fundraising weekend (total coincidence), engage in a live chat about an impending digital subscription plan and simply riff on the late Nora Ephron, Burmese activist Aung San Suu Kyi, and Pitchfork-beloved lo-fi group Youth Lagoon.

She sees the new public editor blog as “a digital village square where the conversation can be outside in real time.”

To outsiders, the rise of social media and reader feedback has only made the job of public editor more difficult. Her predecessor, Mr. Brisbane, received a social media lashing for one controversial article, “Should The Times Be a Truth Vigilante?”—including a parody Twitter.

In May, The Washington Post reported that he would step down after two years in the job and not pursue his third year contract option. (“I am grateful to him for his unwavering integrity and commitment to our readers,” Ms. Abramson wrote in her memo.)

But if the public editor has become something of a punching bag for media watchers, Ms. Sullivan isn’t concerned.

“I’ve learned in my job as top editor that you have to roll with the punches, have some equanimity and know that whatever the crisis du jour is, there will be another one soon,” she said.

In taking the job, Ms. Sullivan leaves her hometown paper, where she started as an intern 32 years ago and has served as top editor for twelve. The paper will conduct a national search for her replacement.

Prior to being named the first-ever Times ombudswoman, Ms. Sullivan was the first woman to hold the top job at The Buffalo News.

“It seems to be my fate,” Ms. Sullivan said of her repeat glass ceiling breakings. “I’ve read the analyses that there are relatively few women opinion columnists, maybe I’m making a step in the right direction on that one.”

Ms. Sullivan, who has a son in law school in Boston and a daughter at New York University, said she is looking forward to relocating to New York City for the position. She also offered a word of hope for the small newspapers currently being snapped up by mogul and philanthropist Warren Buffett, owner of the The Buffalo News, since 1977.

“There are very few better places to be in journalism than in a paper owned by Warren Buffett,” she said.

The paper of record being one of them, it seems.

Smirnoff and Fitzgerald

The two Oxford American editors who were fired after a lock out of the quarterly's offices and a "personnel investigation" are lawyering up.

Managing editor Carol Ann Fitzgerald wrote on her Facebook page:

“Dear Friends: Marc Smirnoff, founder and editor of The Oxford American, and I, the magazine’s managing editor and art editor, have been fired in the strangest, most secretive manner imaginable. We plan to give the full details and truth of what we know as soon as possible but we must first focus on preparing our legal response. In the meantime, we send out our heartfelt gratitude to those many people who have enriched our lives by their connection and support to the real Oxford American.”

Mr. Smirnoff told the Arkansas Times that he and Ms. Fitzgerald were called to Little Rock (where the literary magazine’s business offices are located) on Thursday to meet with attorneys. He said they were questioned for hours without being told what, specifically, had prompted the investigation.

Mr. Smirnoff refused to explain what their questions were “because he was in the process of hiring an attorney,” but that he’s “not even convinced [their claims] were illegal.”

He did admit to one thing, however.

“One thing they asked me was had I ever served alcohol at a party to underage interns,” he said. “And the answer was, ‘yes.’ I know that’s illegal and I have to own up to it.”

Meanwhile, publisher Warwick Sabin—who locked out the staff, summoned the editors to Little Rock, and has been installed interim editor —has extra incentive to worry about his image. He’s running unopposed for the Arkansas state legislature in November.

Ms. Fitzgerald wrote on Facebook: “Marc just said: it disgusts me that a politician is the Oxford American’s interim editor.” Also: “The only people who should be in the literary business are literary people. --Marc Smirnoff”

The Observer reached out to Ms. Fitzgerald, Mr. Smirnoff and Mr. Sabin and will update if we hear back.

Smirnoff and Fitzgerald, via flickr.com/oxfordamerican

Oxford American founding editor Marc Smirnoff and managing/art editor Carol Ann Fitzgerald have reportedly left the "Southern magazine of good writing" amid an internal investigation being conducted by its lawyers.

On Wednesday evening, publisher and interim editor Warwick Sabin locked employees out of the non-profit quarterly's office on the University of Central Arkansas campus, reports local news outlet Log Cabin Democrat. A dispatch from the UCA campus police said the locks were being changed on the offices pending an personnel investigation "regarding inappropriate conduct."  The report said, in full:

"Oxford American employees are under an internal investigation Marc Smirnoff and Carol Ann Fitzgerald regarding inappropriate conduct...they were informed today [Wednesday] to meet with attorneys in Little Rock tomorrow [Thursday] Mr. Smirnoff was very upset and agitated and Mr. Sabin notified our department to assist in clearing the building....KIMMY MANNING from UCA Physical Plant was notified to come and change the locks on the doors ROOMS 106 / 107 / 108 HAVE BEEN CLEARED, STANDING BY FOR PHYSICAL PLANT. CAROL WAS LEAVING ROOM 107 UPON THE OFFICERS ARRIVAL / THEY ADVISED HER THAT THEY WERE THERE TO SECURE THE DOORS AND SHE LEFT SHORTLY AFTERWARD"

In 2008, an Oxford American operations manager was arrested for allegedly embezzling $30,000 from the quarterly's coffers. Mr. Sabin told Log Cabin that the company's recent audit, which showed the magazine was in good standing, was not related to the investigation.

Colleagues,

Come September, Art Brisbane’s term as public editor will come to an end.  I am grateful to him for his unwavering integrity and commitment to our readers.

The public editor is someone uniquely positioned to hold us to our own standards and to serve as our readers’ advocate. The role will change to keep pace with our multi-platform presence. The new Public Editor will engage with our readers in a more timely way by creating a presence in social media, a blog and Web page as well as a print column.

A comprehensive search for our fifth public editor has led us to Margaret Sullivan, editor and vice president of The Buffalo News. Margaret has deep experience as a reporter and editor. She created the first investigative team at The Buffalo News. She’s a regular blogger and is comfortable with social media. Margaret impressed us all with her fair-mindedness, openness and understanding of our values.

She’ll be around in late summer and debut on multiple platforms sometime in September. Please join me in giving Margaret a warm welcome.

-- Jill

After congratulating the staff on its new weekend magazine, Mr. Angelo wrote:

"As for the latest misinformed, untrue rumors of our imminent demise, I would urge you to ignore them. Since before we launched, our dear friends at competing media outlets have done their best to wish us ill and gleefully 'report' on what they think is going on here. The truth is we have over 100,000 paying subs who are renewing their subscriptions at a 98% rate and fantastic advertisers who love our brand and keep coming back for more because they get results. Pay attention to them, not the haters.

This is the truth about the modern media business - all outlets, including the ones writing about us, are under pressure to prove themselves as businesses.  We are no exception, and to be sure, we will need to continue to evolve, adapt and change in order to compete and be successful.  As something new and different, we are an easy target for erroneous wishful thinking. But make no mistake, we will be nimble and we will compete."

Now The Daily staffers can stop "freaking out."

(Image via thedailyfeed.tumblr.com)

Despite reports that iPad tabloid The Daily is on News Corp.'s budgetary chopping block, it's not slowing down, editorially speaking.

Today The Daily introduced WKND, a new weekend magazine supplement set to launch tomorrow. Judging from an announcement on The Daily's Tumblr, it appears to be a cross between the Huffington Post's feature app, Huffington. and The Wall Street Journal's magazine supplement, WSJ.

WKND is filled with food porn, celebrity playlists, photos and travel tips to exotic locals, plus everyone’s favorite DIY projects. Our best features throughout the app will run all weekend, so you’ll have more time to read them.

Adding a magazine sounds like a smart move. Last year, a study produced by Read It Later found that iPad users tend to time-shift their tablet reading to the leisure, after dinner hours, when they've already heard the news of the day (predominantly on their computers, over the lunch hour) and might be in the mood for longer, lifestyle features. Those stories are well suited to the iPad's strength (photo display), and the magazine will give a longer shelf life to expensive and high quality stories that would previously disappear as the app was refreshed each day.

But it appears the inspiration may actually have been one of Ms. Brown's chief gadflies, the late Spy magazine. Gawker's Adrian Chen pointed us to a very similar Spy cover from December 1993. Like TNR, Spy advertised a cover package about the end of the British empire ("U.K. Decay" vs. "Something's Rotten") by giving the country's most photogenic leader a patriotic dental makeover. (Also, note the coincidental cover line touting a piece on Ms. Brown's New Yorker.)

It's an uncharacteristically cheeky treatment from TNR, but it may be a sign of a new era at the magazine. With the online paywall torn down, is the magazine angling for more newsstand sales? Can we look forward to more visual hijinks from the buttoned-up beltway thought leader?

New Republic art director Joe Heroun declined to comment.

Looking at the three critics' first six months on the job side-by-side, The Daily Meal's executive editor Arthur Bovino found that Mssrs. Wells, Sifton, and Bruni all reviewed the same number of restaurants. During those heady and caloric early days, Mr. Wells gave out three more stars than Mr. Bruni and fourteen more than Mr. Sifton.

"Sifton was twice as likely as Wells and five times as likely as Bruni to drop a big fat zero. Both Sifton and Bruni were almost twice as likely as Wells to give a restaurant one star," Mr. Bovino wrote.

The Daily Meal, the two-year-old food site run by former Forbes.com CEO Jim Spanfeller, has also deemed Mr. Wells "the czar of the two-star review."

All told, Mr. Wells averaged 1.8 stars per restaurant while Mr. Bruni averaged 1.7 stars and Mr. Sifton averaged 1.3 stars.

Maybe the restaurants are just getting better?

For more detailed analysis—including by borough, neighborhood, and cuisine—click through to The Daily Meal.

Launched in 2009, Newscore collected and redistributed the news stories from News Corp.’s reporters in the U.S., U.K. and Australia, while racing rivals AP and Reuters on breaking news. Newscore CEO John Moody, a former Fox News executive, was reportedly inspired by a moment of synergy between Fox News and The Australian in covering Heath Ledger’s death.

Designed to save costs on outside wire subscriptions and minimize duplicate reporting, Newscore content was at one time poised to be sold to outside news organizations, although one News Corp. insider said those talks fell through when the company’s public image suffered amid allegations of phone hacking at News of the World.

For News Corp. employees, Newscore was cherished as a wackier alternative to other wires, curating a web-friendly—and classically Murdoch—mix of the buzzy weird news, crime and animal stories well-suited to the company’s tabloid elements.

The layoffs are part of a wave of cost-cutting measures occurring as the media giant prepares to spin off its newspaper operations (like The Wall Street Journal and the New York Post) into a separate company, which will no longer be insulated by the success of properties like Fox News and BSkyB.

Last month, Dow Jones shut down the print version of SmartMoney magazine, eliminating 25 positions, and The New York Times reported that News Corp.’s Australian business was also being restructured, cutting hundreds of jobs.

One insider said that COO Chase Carey—who became Mr. Murdoch’s deputy as the News International scandal gutted News Corp’s executive ranks—had gone through the budget identifying money losers like SmartMoney and Newscore. A person with knowledge of the situation said the final call was made by Fox News CEO Roger Ailes, who decided that Fox News would “absorb” Newscore, bringing home Mr. Moody, who will now be an executive vice president and executive editor of FoxNews.com. In a statement to The Hollywood Reporter last month, Mr. Ailes said that Newscore would “strengthen [their] overall newsgathering capabilities.”

His remarks confused reporters and editors, whom insiders say were unceremoniously laid off. In an HR meeting, reporters were told that the “Newscore function is going to be absorbed, but not the staff,” which they understood as a reference to its proprietary aggregation software. Laid off employees were given the opportunity to interview for positions at Fox News and handful of others were enlisted short-term to write evergreen service features for FoxNews.com after the wire went dark June 29. Some have already been placed in new positions within the company.

In addition, there are internal rumors that The Daily has been put “on watch.” According to a source the status of the groundbreaking iPad tabloid—which loses $30 million a year—will be reassessed after the November 6 election.

The shutdown of Newscore predated News Corp.’s decision to split, but some insiders speculated that Newscore’s function would be diminished if it weren’t relaying news stories from television news properties to print ones.

In a publicity blitz following the announcement of the split—a move long recommended by Wall Street analysts and unanimously approved by News Corp.’s board of directors—Rupert Murdoch said the company will pursue more digital subscription-driven models, (a la the Times of London) and will no longer spill buckets of red ink. (Watch out, New York Post!) Mr. Murdoch will remain chairman of the to-be-named company and appoint a separate CEO.