Given the challenges of the US economy, this required difficult decisions, including the elimination of some staff positions. These changes have been communicated and while businesses must continually evolve, we expect no further announcements related to the 2013 business plans and staffing.

Celebration time! Well, until the next round of cuts come down the road.

In addition to what we learned yesterday, here’s a quick recap of the Condé cuts:

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It was a tasty mix of media mavens and fab fashionistas at Michael’s today as the town car set dined and dished before jetting off to their summer cottages. While Rupert Murdoch was still topic A for plenty of regulars, talk of the stalemate over the debt ceiling appeared to be on plenty of folks’ minds, too. “I’ve got clients who are on the brink of spending some serious money,” one stylista told me. “I’m praying I can get the deals signed and sealed before something happens to scare them away.” We’ve got our fingers crossed.

I was joined today by Jaqui Lividini whose company, Lividini & Co. specializes in brand development for fashion and lifestyle companies. Having spent two decades at Saks Fifth Avenue — when she left to start her own firm, she was senior vice president of fashion merchandising and communications –  Jaqui now works with an impressive roster of fab fashionistas, including fine jewelry designer Monica Rich Kosann, silversmith Georg Jensen and lingerie designer Josie Natori who, says Jaqui, has transformed her business into a “lifestyle brand” with a new East-West inspired home accents line and a lower-priced intimate apparel collection for Target due in October. Jaqui’s company also counsels a long list of retailers, like Scoop and my personal favorite, Lord & Taylor.

Richard Baker, CEO of the Hudson’s Bay Trading Company, which owns and operates Lord & Taylor, brought Jaqui on board six years ago when the store began its transformation from a staid, somewhat traditional specialty retailer into the go-to, chic shopping emporium it is today. “What [CEO] Brendan Hoffman and  the whole team at Lord & Taylor have done is fantastic,” says Jaqui. And rev up those credit cards — Jaqui reports the Westchester store (the most profitable location in the chain) is adding home to its offerings, plus two new locations are planned for New Jersey. Ready, set, shop!

1.  Joel Chase and a table full of suited up movers and shakers.

2. Cosmo editrix Kate White (loved those sky high sandals!) and Estee Lauder’s Marisa Thalberg.

3. ‘Mayor’ Joe Armstrong with Carl Bernstein, who told me he’s hot on Rupert Murdoch‘s trail for The Daily Beast and Newsweek. The intrepid journo, who knows a thing or two about covering wire tapping stories, says the story of Murdoch’s imploding media empire is “complicated.” He also told me he’s not as sure as some other media watchers seem to be about Murdoch’s eventual ouster as chairman of his company. “It’s more about him being able to put one of his kids in there,” Carl told me. We’ll be reading your future dispatches from the front lines with interest.

4. The Early Show: Face the Nation’s Bob Schieffer with his lovely wife Pat

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— DIANE CLEHANE

The dreary winter weather (Will it ever end?!) didn’t keep the loyalists away from Michael’s today. There were plenty of fab fashionistas and social swans in the dining room who braved the elements in inappropriate footwear to exchange air kisses and gossip about who knows what.  The usual mix of media moguls and mavens were there, too. Here’s hoping the sun and the celebrity A-List returns next week.

Here’s the rundown on today’s crowd:

1. Marie Claire editrix Joanna Coles with actor Richard E. Grant (Gosford Park, Dracula, and the upcoming The Iron Lady starring Meryl Streep) and three stylish looking folks. We  were so excited to see Richard up close and personal. (He’s blond now!) We’re dating ourselves a bit here, but he was absolutely the best Bob Cratchit ever a few years back in the TNT version of A Christmas Carol opposite another one of our favorite British actors, Patrick Stewart.

2. Literary agent Esther Newberg, enjoying soup with a handsome fellow whose face we definitely recognized but whose name escapes us.

3. ‘Mayor’ Joe Armstrong and Dorothy Kalins. I stopped by the table to check in with these two longtime friends. Joe couldn’t stop talking about last night’s screening at MoMa of The Restaurateur, the documentary about Danny Meyer by Dorothy’s husband Roger Sherman. The beloved museum, incidentally, is home to one of our favorite Meyer restaurants, The Modern. The screening was followed by a Q&A with Meyer and was a foodie’s delight, we hear. Speaking of food, Heart of the Artichoke and Other Kitchen Journeys written by David Tanis, chef at Berkeley’s Chez Panisse, and edited by Dorothy was among the nominees for the 2011 James Beard Awards announced yesterday. Congrats!

4.  Mrs. Army Archerd and pals.

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Townsend also cited individual titles for their efforts in his memo. He mentioned Vanity Fair for being its most profitable title as well as winning Condé Nast’s first ever “collaborative leadership award,” which pushed editors to think less like writers and more like business owners. He also mentioned Vogue and GQ for their profit increases.

The Condé Nast CEO closed the letter by challenging rival execs to a race by the willow tree, but we’re still awaiting word on if they accepted.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

— DIANE CLEHANE

It was SRO at Michael’s today with moguls Jack Welch and David Geffen holding court at their respective tables while the celebrity du jour, none other than George Hamilton, caused more than his fair share of double takes. We overheard one fan gush, “I loved you on Dancing With the Stars!” (So did we, but we’re too cool to say so.) Meanwhile, the rest of the crowd was so busy air kissing and table hopping between bites it’s a miracle anyone actually got to eat anything. We’re glad we did, because the new fall menu is fabulous!

I was joined today by Debbie Phillips, life coach and founder of Women On Fire, and Sophfronia Scott, author and founder of The Done For You Writing & Publishing Company. Debbie is busier than ever with her Women on Fire tea parties that have been helping women from all walks of life ignite their true passions since 2004. She’s hosting one at Lady Mendl’s Tea Salon in Gramercy Park on Friday, and there are others scheduled for Columbus, Ohio, Boston, Santa Fe and Naples this fall. Debbie is on track to reaching her important goal of “connecting 50,000 women to each other” through Women on Fire this year. You go, girl!

Sophfronia, who I first met when we worked at People together another life ago, got to know Debbie after she attended one of her tea parties. She is really on a roll. This mom of an adorable six year-old boy has been regularly cranking out books since she published her first novel All I Need to Get By in 2004. She recently published How The Fierce Handle Fear: Secrets to Succeeding in Challenging Times (Two Harbors) in which she compiles words of wisdom from high rollers, including Donald Trump and Jack Canfield. Just how does she juggle it all? “I can write for about four hours at a time; then I have to get up and do something else,” Sophfronia tells me. See, it’s just that simple.

Here’s the rundown on today’s crowd:

1. The “Imber Gang”: Dr. Gerald Imber, Jerry Della Femina, Jeff Greenfield, Andy Bergman and Michael Kramer

2. Peter Brown and Grace Hightower (That’s Mrs. Robert De Niro to you.)

3. ‘Mayor’ Joe Armstrong

4. Alan Grubman, David Geffen and Bob Daley

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Lucky day for Condé Nast publication Lucky: the magazine has just hired back publisher Michelle Myers to the company from Time Inc., where she’s been publisher of People StyleWatch for the past two and a half years. Prior to that, Myers had worked as the publisher of Star magazine, as well as associate publisher of Allure and Shape. In her new role at Lucky, she will also be serving as vice president to the title. Said Condé CEO Chuck Townsend, “We know she will bring her energy and excitement to the Lucky brand and we are pleased to welcome her back to the company.”

Full press release after the jump.

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Condé Nast, which took some tough hits in 2009 (along with most other magazine publishers), is now trying to raise employee morale — and trying to find its golden goose — by offering $10,000 every quarter to the staff member who comes up with the best idea for improving the company, The New York Observer reports. We’d suggest that $40K a year could pay for an outside consultant, but that’s so 2009.

The new Si Newhouse is all about being warm and accepting, as evidenced by last week’s Observer profile of the nicer, humbler, Chuck Townsend, Condé’s CEO. So get to work, Condé employees; there’s $10,000 up for grabs.

Read more: The $10K Contest at Conde Nast: Help the Company! –New York Observer

Previously: Condé Nast Hires Consulting Co. For “Realignment”, Conde Nast’s Positive Outlook

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

The Observer: After a rough 2009, it looks like Conde Nast CEO Chuck Townsend is ushering in the New Year with pep talks for every publication.

Silicon Alley Insider: Comcast is in talks to carry ESPN‘s 3D channel.

New York Times: Speaking of 3D, Discovery is set to show the pyramids and the Great Wall of China in 3D on its upcoming channels set for 2011.

Vanity Fair/CNET: A Twitter trend piece gets ripped apart for its pointlessness. At least there’s links to the subjects’ Twitter feeds now.

Variety: The Philadelphia Inquirer‘s executive online editor Chris Krewson has been named the new editor of Variety.com.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Condé still has 18 consumer magazine titles, plus two trades — WWD and Footwear News — under its Fairchild Publications arm. But the company had been working hard to streamline it portfolio in the past year. In addition to Cookie, Gourmet, Modern Bride and Elegant Bride, which all folded this week, the company has shuttered several titles this year. Men’s Vogue went a year ago, followed by men’s wear trade pub DNR (our former home), Domino and then Portfolio

So what’s left?

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“It made sense for a company that had two rival magazines to close one of them. It has been a very competitive year for magazines in the epicurean category, and we have had a lot of success. But Gourmet saw newsstand sales fall by 25 percent.”

–Merri Lee Kingsly, publisher of Gourmet rival Saveur

“Seeing a major media company like Condé Nast blindly shutting down four prominent publications without even trying to first migrate them to digital is a prime example of how out of touch many media companies are. Folding Gourmet, a magazine with over six decades of a strong readership, is the ultimate proof that the management of Condé Nast is very short-sighted when it comes to understanding the opportunities that exist within the digital publishing landscape. This is truly a sad day for magazines. I have this to say to all print publishers: Don’t kill off another publication! We have the opportunity reshape our industry with digital publishing. Major media companies need to have the vision to realize this.”

–Jim Gaines, former editor at Life, Time and People, and current editor-in-chief of digital media company FLYP

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Although there had been speculation that one of Condé’s epicurean titles was not long for this world, the closing of Cookie comes as sort of surprise. Especially since as recently as last week the magazine’s publicist pitched us an interview with Cookie‘s publisher Carolyn Kremins, boasting that she was “recently awarded the MIN Sales Team Leader of the Year for 2008 recognizing her 11 percent increase in ad revenue in 2008 versus 2007 with almost 30 percent of the publication’s 2008 ad pages [coming] from new advertisers.”

Mediaite quickly posted the email that went out to staffers today from CEO Chuck Townsend, which breaks down the changes. We’ve posted after the jump.

Here’s the most important parts of the memo:

“…Brides will increase its frequency to monthly to solidify its position as the most important brand in the bridal category, and Modern Bride and Elegant Bride will close.

Gourmet magazine will cease monthly publication, but we will remain committed to the brand, retaining Gourmet‘s book publishing and television programming, and Gourmet recipes on Epicurious.com. We will concentrate our publishing activities in the epicurean category on Bon Appétit.

Finally, Cookie magazine will be discontinued, and resources that had been dedicated to its publishing will be invested elsewhere.

The editorial and business staffs of Modern Bride, Elegant Bride, Gourmet, and Cookie all have earned their magazines large and devoted followings. We have been proud to publish these titles, and we are grateful to the staffs for their hard work and dedication.

We’re also hearing that there are staffers roaming around Condé’s offices at 750 Third Ave., which houses WWD and the bridal group among other titles, counting empty desks.

Have a story to tell about this new development in the Condé Nast saga? Send us an email or leave an anonymous tip in the box at right.

After the jump, Townsend’s email.

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Koblin, who has been reporting on McKinsey’s work throughout the summer, reports that the consulting company is ready to wrap up its investigation of the state of Condé’s business and will present their findings to the company’s executives soon:

“The Observer has learned that McKinsey consultants are winding down their tour of Condé Nast, and will be ready to submit their final recommendations to chairman Si Newhouse and CEO Chuck Townsend in the coming weeks. One source said that recommendations could begin as early as Sept. 16, but another well-placed source said that the ‘totality of their recommendations’ will be given at all once, and that they would come down in the next two to three weeks.”

Although the consultants have taken a close look at Vogue and Condé Nast Traveler Koblin suggests that the magazines most in danger of being designated by McKinsey as “frequency reductions” are epicurean titles Gourmet and Bon Appetit and men’s mags GQ and Details.

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After interviewing anonymous sources on the edit and business side of the company, as well as editors like Glamour‘s Cindi Leive and The New Yorker‘s David Remnick and CEO Chuck Townsend, Koblin has uncovered some disturbing examples that illustrate the recent cutbacks at the magazine giant that may hint at things to come. Most troubling to Condé staffers? Seeing Vanity Fair editor Graydon Carter in the cafeteria and having their free Orangina replaced with Poland Spring, and then (gasp) tap water. Reports Koblin:

“When I started, there was this little refrigerator, and it was stocked with amazing drinks,” said one ad-sales source. “Pellegrino, Orangina, Red Bull. And like the water wasn’t Poland Spring, it was like Fiji. I remember when I started working here, I emailed everyone I know and I was like, ‘I have to tell you about the drinks!’”

But then in December, a few months after Condé Nast ordered publishers and editors to cut 5 percent from their budgets, the drink supply emptied out. That Fiji water turned into Poland Spring. Worse, instead of the fridge, the water bottles were stowed in a warm closet.

And then: “I just found out today that we are on our last batch of Poland Spring,” said the source. “We won’t have any more after this. We have to start drinking tap water.”

What’s more, the Monday morning flower deliveries are gone, expensed dinners at Nobu and mani-pedis are out and employees are thinking twice about taking company-provided towncars. Still, Townsend argues that the quirkiness of Condé, not the Orangina, will help the company stand out from its competitors.

“The Red Bulls and Oranginas are maybe no longer there, but what’s the difference?” he asked. “It’s still the quirkiest place on the face of the earth. A lot of that quirkiness makes us special. A lot of that quirkiness makes for interesting observations. But it has absolutely nothing to do with anything, so where’s the line drawn? I don’t want to lose the speciality or the quirkiness, but a lot of this stuff that has been part and parcel of it is just meaningless.”

Like us, Koblin wondered exactly what Townsend meant by that comment. You should read his story to find out.

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Today, the New York Observer reports that following all the recent news this week, Condé Nast-ers have finally started to shake in their boots. Apparently, the closures of multiple titles and 5 percent cuts across the board last year were not enough to worry these old media staffers, but the McKinsey threat has pushed them over the edge.

“It’s terrifying! It freaked me out!” one employee told the Observer about the memo sent by CEO Chuck Townsend on Monday. “Is this part of a McKinsey thing to do that? You know, a must-alert-all employees thing? They never do this! This isn’t a company that does a lot of internal communications.”

If you’re a Condé Nast staffer experiencing some fear and doubt, tell us your stories below or send us an email. We’d love to hear from you.

(Photo from Flickr)

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

This move is long overdue, since one of the magazines encompassed by Men.Style.com — Men’s Vogue — was shuttered last year as part of Condé’s cost cutting measures. There are reports that the Men.Style.com staff will be moved over to GQ.com, but we’re sure this is just the beginning of restructuring to come at the company now that McKinsey is on board.

Since the announcement yesterday, one anonymous tipster let us know what the experience was like when McKinsey was hired by Times Mirror Magazines in the 1980s. Then-president Francis Pandolfi called the staff into a rented out movie theatre and gave a prophetic speech.

“Look to your left, look to your right — your neighbor may not be here after this initiative,” Pandolfi said, according to our source. The company then hired McKinsey and spent a $1 million, which was quite a lot 20 years ago. The result? “Many people lost their jobs and then the company was bought out,” our tipster said.

Read on for a translation of yesterday’s Condé Nast memo.

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