Condé Nast’s Most Drastic Cuts Yet: The Disappearing Town Car
by Peter Kafka
Posted on March 25, 2009 at 2:30 AM PT
Sure, fabled magazine publisher Condé Nast has been forced to shutter magazines and trim its staff. But now you know things have really gotten dire: It’s cutting back on cars.
The New York Post’s Keith Kelly says that top Condé editors are eschewing the use of chauffeured autos to make their way across Manhattan and beyond. Hailing a taxi or even–gasp–riding the subway are as symbolic as it gets at Condé, where the use of a car was considered a birthright, even for mid-level employees.
Alas, symbolism is unlikely to suffice at Condé, where CEO Chuck Townsend has already announced that the company will need to tighten its belt again this spring; Condé is reportedly gearing up for another round of layoffs.
Meanwhile, other New York publishers who never doled out that much largesse to begin with are probably going to make another round of cuts themselves this spring.
