Remember those black boxes…

If you recall those black boxes in the picture of the Condé Nast Portfolio’s staff two days ago, well I received one this morning, and let me tell you it was worth the wait. First impression, wow… second impression more wow… I know I am not going to have time to actually sit down and read the whole issue now, (For those of you who do not know me, I am the chair of the Journalism Department at The University of Mississippi and they really pay me to do other things beside reading magazines). The funny thing is that media critics are issuing their verdicts without even giving the magazine the chance to hit the newsstands (a week from today)… If it were up to the print (funny to say that) media “Some analysts question whether Condé Nast’s new Portfolio magazine will fare better than other business magazines,” read the caption accompanying the picture of the cover of the new magazine in the New York Times Business Day section this morning. Some even went as far to state “I don’t think they (Condé Nast) would make the same decision to launch a business magazine now because the climate ahs changed since they announced.” The sad part those analysts have forgotten the history of the magazine industry plus they did not even see the magazine or any of its content. Just as a quick reminder about launching a magazine in the worst of times, Fortune was launched by Henry Luce in the midst of the Great Depression with a dollar cover price (think one dollar in 1930). There will more on the first issue of Portfolio as soon as I can leave my office and find a quite corner and read the whole “glowing” package.

Why do I love CN Portfolio? read on …

Before I get accused, although for some the verdict has been announced already, of being a Condé Nast Portfolio’s magazine groupie or cheerleader, let me give you a quick brief on why I love this magazine and why I am neither a groupie nor a cheerleader for CN Portfolio. I came to America in 1978 and continued my hobby of collecting first issues and studying them since then. I used first issues as my base for my academic studies, books, website, and now my blog. I have accumulated more than 23,000 first editions of all kinds of magazines. I have seen magazines come and I have seen magazines go. I never paid attention to the hype the media gives any given title. I always had my own views and my own opinions. All were and are based on my careful analysis and research on the new titles, how relevant they are, and how they relate to a specific audience. Yes, of course I also pay a lot of attention to my gut feeling about the titles. When I selected In Touch Weekly as the launch of the year of 2002, the traditional media and media reporters completely ignored the title and wrote it off. The magazine now has a circulation over 1.2 million and growing. My friend Steve Cohn wrote in MIN last week about the decline of new titles in the first quarter of 2007, “but it will not be a “slow” year with the onset of CN Portfolio, which Husni “has a good feeling about.” He was not pre-launch optimistic over the just-as-hyped Talk (1999) and Rosie (2001), and both failed.” It happened with Brill’s Content before them. While some media reporters are betting on how long CN Portfolio is going to be with us, and others are questioning the wisdom of the launch techniques, I am celebrating the fact that a major magazine company is still committed to launch a major title rather than pulling the plug on one. Passion and love (two words are so foreign to most of the media crowds) are what took my magazine hobby, turned it into an education, and in turn to a profession… the same passion and love that I see now in the way the folks at Condé Nast are launching Portfolio. I love Portfolio, even before I see its first issue (a first for me), because I love the commitment and courage of Condé Nast in launching this title. Bloom in the midst of plenty of business magazines doom…wow what an encouraging event for the future of magazine publishing and those who still believe in this business…