unemployed summer in the city

hi. remember me? i know its been awhile, but seriously, i needed a break. i've been struggling through unemployment and freelancing attempts for five long months, looking forward to a san francisco trip for the wedding of my good friend erin. when the opportunity came along to tie in a beach vacation in san diego, i jumped at the chance. i took a break from life and a break from blogging. its all going to be okay, though: besides the 40 degree increase in temperature since i left my fair city, everything is back to normal. (pictures of the wedding and my trip to come)

i jumped back into the grind with both feet, landing a job interview yesterday and sending out emails to everyone who had it coming to them yesterday and today (editors who owe me replies, i'm looking at you). now, i'm getting ready to lounge by the water in hoboken. its hard to argue that being unemployed during the warm, sunny summer months will be a hardship, although my bank account might disagree. it is seriously dwindling, which will send me indoors to pound out cover letters, article pitches and other things that might make me $$. any ideas? hire me please. thanks.

speaking of being unemployed for the summer, conde nast folded yet another publication yesterday, the oft-maligned portfolio. i have to admit, the news gave me a certain thrill and a feeling of justice. before my own conde title was folded, i had heard tell of the trials of the business pub, which launched two years ago. the magazine probably cost 10 times what dnr did to operate, and although its readers were probably more hihg profile that ours, i doubt they were as loyal. and, with portfolio gone, there are any number of business magazines, newspapers and online publications to cover the industry yet there are very few outlets for men's fashion in the wake of dnr's demise. yes, it was a small pub, but the loss of dnr was mourned.

as for portfolio, that is yet to be seen. certainly, those 80+ staffers who lost their jobs yesterday will miss it, and i am not looking forward to competing with them for full time jobs in the larger market, within conde or even freelance and part time gigs.

yesterday, many who announced portfolio's closure did not seem surprised by the news. when it launched, the media met portfolio with suspicion. it was a tough time to launch a business mag and its concept seemed iffy at best: vanity fair meets fortune/forbes/wall street journal. but the publication was backed by power player conde and was a favorite of company head si newhouse. he had reportedly promised it $100 million over five years, so it had some money to burn. newhouse would not let his baby die, which is why he let other less-prestigious titles like dnr, men's vogue and domino fall before closing something in which he had so much invested.

when news of portfolio broke in 2006 i was working at forbes. i can tell you that editors there were shaking in their boots, not just because they thought the magazine would succeed and steal their market share, but because they thought editor joanne lipman (formerly of the wsj like many a forbes-er) would steal promising talent. they were right (the mag did eagerly approach at least one forbes writer that i know of) but they may have overestimated the conde title's pull. would an up-and-comer leave a stable job for something that might fold in just a few years? of course, no one foresaw the downfall of the magazine industry that started snowballing last year. if not for that, would portfolio have survived? i am no expert, but i believe that, had newhouse had unlimited funds to throw at it, portfolio would have stuck around for a few more years.

from inside the media bubble where i lived for three years, reading my gawker and daily intel and mediabistro, i didn't know how successful portfolio was, if at all. last summer, when i had just started at dnr, i started dating a finance guy. he subscribed to portfolio and actually liked it, and i was surprised. i thought, maybe there is an audience for this magazine after all. i gave it the benefit of the doubt.

yesterday, as the news spread of the magazines closure, there were a lot of people who seemed smug, and even happy, over the news. my boyfriend was the only voice i heard that was genuinely sad. now, i wonder what conde will replace his portfolio subscription with after its may issue.