Fancy Conde Nast Not So Fancy Any More
Prepare to die, entitled Conde Nasties! Conde has always had a well-deserved reputation as the most opulent and self-important of all magazine publishing companies. Those days are coming to an end. The (gender-neutral!) diva culture that spawned The Devil Wears Prada and a million young aspiring media people who thought that a magazine employee could live the lifestyle of an investment banker—it's all on the way out. We come to bury you, Conde Nast culture, not to mourn you. Contemplate this, special ones: you may soon be forced to travel in (and pay for) common taxi cabs, like the poors! And it gets worse:
The Condé Nasties are expected to get a memo from CEO Charles Townsend telling them that Town Car use is being cut way back. On top of that, the hardworking assistants who used to be able to get the company to pay for working lunches at their desks will no longer have that luxury. Further, the glitzy publisher that used to give virtually everyone carte blanche when it came to magazine and newspaper subscriptions is cutting that perk out, as well.
Yes, soon we will see hungry Vogue assistants trudging from their Dorito crumb-strewn desks, down to 6th Avenue to hail a cab driven by a foreigner, with whom they will have to have a conversation, because of their conspicuous lack of a magazine to read. We can't wait. And please send us this memo when you get it! [NYP]