Billionaire Newhouse family rules out selling Vogue owner Condé Nast

The billionaire Newhouse family has ruled out selling Condé Nast, the publisher of Vogue, The New Yorker and Vanity Fair, the Financial Times reported, rejecting long-running speculation about the company's future after its chief executive, Roger Lynch, stepped down.

Lynch announced last week that he was leaving Condé Nast after seven and a half years to become chief executive of Mattel, the maker of Barbie dolls and Hot Wheels cars. He became Mattel's chairman on Oct. 2 and will take over as chief executive on Nov. 2. He will keep a seat on Condé Nast's board.

Mike Perlis, Condé Nast's lead independent director and a former chief executive of Forbes and Ziff-Davis Publishing, is serving as interim chief executive while the company looks for a permanent replacement.

Sale rumors that won't go away

Condé Nast has been owned by the Newhouse family through its private company, Advance Publications, since 1959. Questions about whether the family would sell it have followed the publisher for years, as print readership and advertising declined across the magazine industry.

Lynch's appointment in 2019 added to them. He arrived from Pandora, the music streaming service, which he had sold 18 months after becoming its chief executive. At the time, Steven Newhouse, who heads Advance, told New York magazine that Condé Nast "has not been, is not, and will not be for sale."

The rumors returned last year. Tabloid reports suggested that Amazon founder Jeff Bezos was preparing to buy the company after Vogue put his wife, Lauren Sánchez Bezos, on its cover. The family dismissed those reports as untrue. The Hollywood Reporter has estimated Condé Nast's value at around $5 billion.

Lynch's legacy

Lynch was hired to run a newly combined company, after Condé Nast merged its US and international businesses. That merger led to the departures of Bob Sauerberg, who had run the US business, and Jonathan Newhouse, who had run the international business.

He spent his tenure tying the company's titles around the world into a single global structure. All editorial operations except The New Yorker now report to Anna Wintour, the company's chief content officer. He also invested heavily in live events, including the Vogue World shows.

In his farewell memo to staff, Lynch said commerce revenue rose 170% and digital subscriptions rose 155% during his time at the company.

The family's decision to keep Condé Nast leaves the choice of Lynch's permanent successor with the Newhouses, who control one of the largest private media fortunes in the United States. Beyond magazines, Advance holds stakes in companies including the social media platform Reddit and cable operator Charter Communications.