Conde Nast, Not So Lucky

The writing has been on the wall for a long time now; Digital has changed the print landscape. Lucky is the latest Condé Nast title to trim its frequency, cutting back to 10 issues a year from 12. The move follows Condé Nast’s decision last week to cut the frequency of W to 10 from 12, and the two titles join stablemates Details and Teen Vogue. Brides also recently cut its publishing schedule in half.

For Lucky, the move is part of an ongoing reinvention of the title under editor in chief Brandon Holley. Last month, in an unorthodox move, Condé replaced publisher Marcy Bloom with Gillian Gorman Round, a former beauty industry executive with no prior experience in publishing who joined Condé a year earlier to lead so-called brand development. Round, named general manager in charge of both business and editorial at Lucky, is now tasked with finding a new business model that places greater emphasis on digital.

In January, Condé said Lucky would have a new digital platform in the near future though it didn’t divulge any details about that plan. The spokeswoman said Wednesday they had no announcements to make on that front. 


Lucky lost 15 percent of its newsstand sales in the first half of 2012, the most recent data available, according to Alliance for Audited Media, and 20 percent in ad pages for a total of 894, according to Media Industry Newsletter.

This year, it will combine December/January and June/July, and release a special interest publication, similar to 2012’s “The Ultimate Style Guide,” with a second SIP to be released in 2014.