The publisher is researching the potential appeal of technology and business titles Portfolio and Wired in the competitive UK magazines market. UK managing director Nicholas Coleridge is expected to make an announcement later this year on potential launch dates.
US business monthly Portfolio, which was launched in April last year priced at $5 (£2.50), has a circulation of around 350,000, according to the latest US circulation data in September last year.
However, should Conde Nast choose to do so, Portfolio will be launching into a challenging business magazine market. Last month, Press Holdings closed down business weekly The Business. The title had posted financial losses for some time and slumped to a circulation of just over 40,000 by last August.
But Alan Brydon, head of press at MPG, believes Portfolio would stand a good chance of success in the UK. "Just because one title fails does not mean that this can't succeed," he said. "If anybody can get it right, Conde Nast can."
Conde Nast's US technology and internet title Wired, also priced at $5 (£2.50), is a full-colour monthly magazine that reports on how technology impacts on culture, the economy and politics. It was launched in the UK in 1995 by Wired Ventures, a company fronted by US journalist Louis Rossetto, but financial problems prompted its closure two years later. Conde Nast subsequently acquired the title.
Paul Thomas, head of press at MindShare, believes Wired would need significant changes if it is to succeed in the UK.
"Wired as it stands will not work over here," he said. "It is very techie and needs to be more generalist, particularly with the advertisers it is likely to want to get in there."
Meanwhile, Conde Nast's UK contract publishing division has won the job to publish four magazines a year for Ferrari, which has decided to consolidate its varied magazines.
The title, which has yet to be named, will have an initial print run of 30,000. It will be edited by Jason Barlow, editor-at-large for Top Gear magazine, and aimed at owners of Ferrari cars around the world, targeting upscale advertisers.
- See Nicholas Coleridge interviewed at www.mediaweek.tv.
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