Magazine powerhouse Condé Nast is shaking up the board of directors of its money-losing International subsidiary as it forges ahead with the combination of its US and overseas operations.
Jonathan Newhouse — who relinquished his role as Chairman of Condé Nast International over a year ago — is now giving up his seat on the board of the London-based International subsidiary, severing his last tie to the overseas wing of the media giant. Newhouse is a cousin of the late Si Newhouse Jr., whose father founded Condé Nast as a newspaper publisher a century ago.
Wolfgang Blau, chief operating officer of global Condé Nast and president, International, will join the board of directors of the international wing, which racked up another multimillion dollar operating loss in 2018, according to recent financial results. from Companies House, the British government financial clearing house. The division was spared from a net loss only by the sale of its stake in Farfetch, Ltd. the publicly traded online luxury fashion retail platform.
“The change in directors of Condé Nast International Limited closely aligns to our current and future organization going forward,” said a spokeswoman for the division.
In November 2018, the publisher announced it would combine Condé Nast’s domestic and international businesses into a unified global company reporting to new CEO Roger Lynch. Jonathan Newhouse at that time became chairman of the combined company’s board at its NYC headquarters, relinquishing his job as chairman of International.
After more than a year, the International board has now has undergone a complete makeover with two other directors also exiting — Giampaolo Grandi, former CEO of Condé Nast Italy; and Nicholas Coleridge, the colorful, longtime managing director of Condé Nast International, whose day-to-day involvement ended in late 2017.
The new international board is younger and more pan-European.
Blau, 52, hails from Germany. Joining him will be Ciara Byrne, 35, director of business development, and Aidan Geary, 48, operations director, both from Ireland, as well as two Brits: Elizabeth Minshaw, 43, Blau’s chief of staff, and Chief Financial Officer Jason Miles, 48.
The turnover comes as the publisher’s once fast-growing overseas wing faces many of the same headwinds that have challenged the US operation in recent years as print sales continue to get hammered and the company pushes into new digital and exhibition ventures.
Condé Nast International reported an operating loss after taxes of about $43 million in 2018 on revenue of $440 million, according to a recent filing at Companies House, the British government financial clearing house. The loss had widened from $36 million in 2017. Revenue that year was $485 million.
The company noted a gain of about $188 million from the sale of FarFetch that turned its operating loss into net income of $152.4 million. Condé gained a big chunk of stock in Farfetch when it merged its money losing Style.com e-commerce site into the venture in 2017.
(Figures are converted from British pound sterling at the rate of $1 per 1.30 British pound.)
Condé Nast International covers mostly the Western European operations of the publisher of Vogue, Vanity Fair, GQ and other titles in Britain, France Germany and Italy.
