Au Revoir, Mademoiselle

Conde Nast Publications, the New York owner of such venerable magazine titles as Vogue, Glamour, GQ and The New Yorker, has elected to close one of its mainstays, Mademoiselle. The 66-year-old magazine for young women has been struggling to revamp its identity in a depressed advertising environment.

Conde Nast ceo Steven Florio said the magazine, which has a circulation of 1.1 million, “is no longer viable in the current economic climate.” It will cease publication with the November issue.

The critical advertising categories like toiletries and cosmetics are said to have remained stable. But the magazine has nevertheless lost advertisers. Ad pages were down 18 percent this year and revenue was down 10 percent through September, according to the Publishers Information Bureau.

Two years ago, new editor Mandi Norwood (formerly editor of British Cosmopolitan) tried to introduce more cutting-edge content to the magazine's mass market and somewhat traditional appeal. But the result was felt to be an awkward combination of occasionally bawdy humor (a December 2000 cover line advised readers how to have “Happy Horni-Days!”) with Mademoiselle's mix of fashion and old-fashioned relationship advice.

Conde Nast has been steadily paring its list of titles over the last two years. It has closed Women's Sports & Fitness and moved Details to Fairchild Publications, an arm of Conde Nast. But none of the moves was a resonant as the one to close Mademoiselle and its 800,000 subscribers.

The downturn in the magazine industry has made it clear to publishers over the last few months that publications that do not bring in advertising cannot be sustained. The attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon have darkened the publishing outlook, with companies waiting to see whether consumer confidence stabilizes or drops further. In the last few months, several magazines, like The Industry Standard and Individual Investor, have closed, and others, like Brill's Content, have cut back their publication schedules.