Conde Nast CEO Chuck Townsend To The Troops: Keep Your Heads Up, and Your Expenses Down
Conde Nast is "having the worst year of any publisher" the New York Post reported last month. So the fact that that CEO Chuck Townsend sent out an all-hands memo entitled "Managing Through Challenging Times" must have certainly sent a shiver through the magazine empire this afternoon.
The good news: Nowhere in Townsend’s missive does he actually mention sackings, re-org or other personnel cuts. The bad news: Townsend warns employees that "all of us" will "have to make additional difficult decisions to manage costs and ensure our financial well-being". But he doesn’t spell out what those are.
Conde started hacking at expenses last fall, by shuttering some titles and making cuts of 5% or more at others. Meanwhile it has refused to cut ad rates, even as competitors pick up some market share with lower-priced pages.
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