In about a year (!) Conde Nast will introduce a new business monthly called Portfolio. Feeling the need to build market share among affluent business professionals, they considered buying Forbes, then decided it was cheaper to start their own.

Frankly we don’t expect to see any innovation. Instead of starting the web site right away, which would be a great way to experiment with new ideas, the web site will launch simulataneously with the print edition. See the quote from former Wall St. Journal-ist Joan Lipman and you can see she resents the Time Inc employees who have already dubbed their new competitor "Business Vogue."

New York Times: The Buzz of Magazineland Now Has a Name, 2006-June-5, by Katharine Q. Seelye

"This is serious business journalism — investigative, narrative, profiles — a commitment to long-form journalism, and telling that story with great design and art," she said. "This is not a lifestyle publication," she added. "This is a business publication."

Wouldn’t it be great to have a new business publication that challenged the model and actually had a social side? Maybe not Business Vogue but Business Town & Country.  Maybe they could have a networking element at their web site…something like LinkedIn. I doubt they’d have any trouble finding a networking partner with whom they could experiment. Any other suggestions for Conde Nast?