But will this Portfolio contain any innovation?

Some are calling Portfolio the most important and anticipated magazine launch of the year, and maybe even the last big magazine launch ever. Joanne Lipman, formerly of the Wall Street Journal, has recruited 75 writers from publications such as Time, Vanity Fair, and the New York Times to launch a “lush but manly” business magazine called Portfolio. The new publication from Conde Nast, according to New York Magazine, “promises to be different enough from its rivals – Fortune, Forbes, Business 2.0, Fast Company – to sell ads when they can’t seem to anymore.”

Judging from the Portfolio website and the types of other magazines in the Conde Nast empire (Vogue, GQ, Glamour, Allure, Lucky), it’s safe to assume that the magazine will focus on “celebrity business” issues — hedge fund stars, billionaires and CEO Masters of the Universe — while adding in a judicious mix of fashion, glitz and glam (so that the magazine can sell perfume and upscale clothing ads, one presumes). For example, check out the graphic for the “Housing Boom in China” article — it features a completely gorgeous Asian woman in high heels swinging a titanium golf club in a glitzed-out Chinese condo.

No word yet on whether innovation will be a central theme of the new mag, but methinks not.

[image: Conde Nast Portfolio]