The demise of Conde Nast Portfolio

Conde Nast's decision to shut down its business magazine Portfolio received a lot of attention. One common viewpoint was that the magazine's monthly publication schedule was not appropriate for a business magazine. BusinessWeek wrote, "It came at a time when business is a moment-by-moment bloodsport uniquely unsuited to being chronicled by a leisurely monthly frequency."

I understand that things move quickly in the finance world. For example, the day I started writing this, the stock market opened with big gains only to close with a small loss.

However, many of the important business stories of the past few years developed much more slowly. The housing boom lasted for years. And, the housing bust that followed took years to manifest itself too. There is plenty of room for a monthly publication to explore important developments.

In fact, a monthly publication has an advantage in that it can ignore the hour-to-hour, day-to-day fluctuations that the cable news and weekly magazines drown the viewer/reader in. It is too easy to lose the forest for the trees. The thinking that "a moment-by-moment bloodsport" can not be covered by a monthly frequency is not right and should be changed.