I’ll explain the problems of Condé Nast
What happens in Condé Nast? The journalist Andrea Montanari, president of the Board of Auditors of the Order of Lombardy and general councilor of the Inpgi explains it on Senza Bavaglio
WHAT IS HAPPENING IN CONDE 'NAST
What's going on in Condé Nast? The large American group has for some time had a non-ordinary, or if we want orthodox, vision of the concept of publishing and information. Because, as the many colleagues who have left in recent years know, even with lavish and golden slides (up to 36 months if not 40), but also due to strong "pressure" from above, the company's mission has drastically changed .
THE NUMBERS OF CONDE 'NAST
But without hitting the objectives imposed by overseas and initiated by management. Suffice it to say that last year, the national branch of Condé Nast fell below the threshold of 100 million in revenues (99 million. -6.4%) and recorded a loss of over 13 million compared to a red of 3.67 million of the previous year. A drastic turnaround compared to previous years when millionaire dividends flowed from Italy to the parent company.
USAI PERFORMANCE
The creator, so to speak, of these certainly not brilliant performances was the CEO Fedele Usai, in the company since 2011 and CEO since June 2017, in place of the historic top manager Giampaolo Grandi, the "builder" of the Italian company in fact. In theory, I had learned the strategies from Maestro Grandi, having joined Condé Nast with the stripes of general manager, certainly not therefore a backup. But despite the bombastic and multiple announcements, it has never brought home the promised results.
THE MASSIVE CUT OF JOURNALISTS
Except for the massive cutback of personnel, in particular journalistic: dozens and dozens of colleagues left without a future but only with some more or less robust check. A particularly descending parable that of Usai who completed the journey with the exit of the scene in recent days. The former, at this point, Condé Nast's enfant prodige, with a background that has nothing of editorial and journalism – he was in the advertising agencies Tbwa, Bgs, Bates and Leo Burnett – and then assumed the role of worldwide communications manager forFiat Automobiles obviously got the industrial strategy wrong.
SOCIAL-COMMERCIAL HYBRID
Besides, it was inevitable. This was already evident from the programmatic lines defined at the time of the handover of Grandi-Usai: the “Reinvent the business” strategy was exalted. And he did it. He redesigned a company that was an example of profitability and transformed it into a social-commercial hybrid that no one has ever understood. Moreover, one of the flagships of the group was the Talent Social Agency. Advertised with great fanfare in the fall of 2018, no one knew anything about it just a few months later.
FROM JOURNALISTS TO INFLUENCERS
We wanted – and perhaps has done – to replace journalists with influencers, figures who, instead of being regularly paid and contracted, were most likely gifted with gadgets. A choice that had provoked harsh reactions from the editors and the Cdr. There have been various demonstrations under the Group's headquarters, often unwelcome to the company that has never shown itself on the street to seek dialogue. They preferred to cut, cut and cut again. Until the cutter has been cut, that is the operative head.
THE FUTURE OF THE GROUP
On the other hand, what is all to be understood and defined is the future of the business of a company which, as also happens for the other international player of magazines, Hearst, is forced to remain in Italy: abandoning the market and in particular Milan would mean goodbye to the robust budgets of the fashion houses that periodically crowd – certainly not in pandemic times – the catwalks and the shopping streets. And that's what remains obscure at the moment. For employees and for the market. And it is certainly not a good sign.
Andrea Montanari
President of the Board of Auditors of the Order of Lombardy
General Councilor of the INPGI
twitter @ilmontanari
(Extract of an article published on Senza Bavaglio; here the full version )
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/economia/vi-spiego-i-problemi-di-conde-nast/ on Sun, 13 Dec 2020 07:31:26 +0000.