An issue of the New Yorker may be long and densely packed, but at least one only comes every seven days. It’s possible that the incarcerated manage to read every issue. I am skeptical of anyone else who makes that claim.

What happens, subscribers know, is that you build a pile of New Yorkers that you mean to get to. At some point, you get a new issue in the mail while you’re still working through the previous week’s. You’ve read about up to the film reviews, maybe, but the fresh new issue is hard to resist. So you put the unfinished one aside. A week later, that once-fresh issue joins it – maybe this time you skipped the fiction or the theater review. Then two months have passed and you have a stack of nearly ten magazines. You’re drowning, surfacing to suck in the new Talk of the Town with ragged gasps, desperate for the one-week reprieve that follows a double issue.

Earlier this week, the New York Observer blasted Conde Nast – and, in particular, Scott Dadich, the company’s executive editor of digital magazine development – for the “stalling out” of the company’s much-touted strategy to transition its properties from print to the iPad. When that strategy was first proposed, though, Dadich was seen as a “savior” to the company – at least according to the hagiographic portrayal by…the Observer. But to truy judge the success or failures of the Conde Nast iPad strategy one must first look through the prism of the significant part that Adobe has played alongside.

Gourmet Lives! Conde Nast CEO Chuck Townsend just announced plans to bring back the recently shuttered food title, not as what previously existed in print, but rather as a digital interactive experience that leverages its massive database of recipes, branded merchandise and social network. “We see tremendous upside in leveraging social networks,” said Townsend, and Gourmet Live appears to be the trial balloon.

Just a few months ago, the video demonstration of Wired magazine’s vision of a tablet-based iteration of their magazine made a lot of waves. In fact, one of the most talked about moments at SXSW last month was a presentation made by Wired‘s Scott Dadich and Adobe’s Jeremy Clark. But in light of the recent battles between Apple and Adobe over Flash and the iPad platform, did Wired make a strategic error in putting so much into their Adobe partnership? Yes, it appears so.

Any thought that fashion bible W could be on death’s door have been put asunder. After having about as rough a year in terms of ad revenue last year as any other Conde title last year, the glossy title nw appears to have a new lease on life. Conde Nast announced this morning that they plan to move the title out of the Fairchild Fashion Group and under the supervision of Conde Editorial Director Tom Wallace. The press release after the jump:

If you spent the weekend caught up in tsunami or hockey fever, you may have missed the story in Golf Digest about Tiger Woods’ seclusion following the revelation of his affairs. In the article, written by Jaime Diaz, the golf pro allegedly received phone calls of support from both former president Bill Clinton (which almost makes sense…) and our President Barack Obama. Except at least half of that never happened.

Political satire blog Wonkette is making its mark on magazine giant Conde Nast. Two Wonkette alums separately announced today that they are joining magazines within the Conde Nast family. Original Wonketteer Ana Marie Cox, who has also worked for Time and the now-defunct Air America Radio, became the newest addition to the GQ staff. But that’s not all.

I saw the Sport Illustrated demo video long before the iPad was released. It was everything the iPad should have been on Day One. A mind-blowing demonstration of what the future of the magazine could be. The problem is, the iPad cannot do what the demo shows and it should have. Flash is the only current technology that would make that possible.

Last fall, a hacker broke into Conde Nast’s computer system, flinging early copies of GQ, Vogue and other publications all over the Internet. To prevent further breaches of trust and budget, Conde set up the Fraud Reporting Hotline. According to the memo sent by Chief Financial Officer John Bellando, employees are encouraged to turn in anyone guilty of “release of proprietary information, accounting/audit irregularities, falsification of company records, theft of goods/services/cash,” and “unauthorized discounts/payoffs.”

In the lead-up to the release of the Apple Tablet, publishers like Condé Nast have somewhat tepidly ventured out on their own into the digital marketplace. Both the December and January issues of GQ were released as iPhone apps, becoming the first title to supply digital versions that count toward circulation numbers. Now, Condé Nast has released the first batch of stats and claimed success, but the numbers seem small. Is there hope?

As reported in Folio, the Publishers Information Bureau released its year-end magazine advertising report on Tuesday, backing up our suspicions that print is still indeed on the decline. In a surprise twist, boating publications were among the hardest hit with 50-60% losses in ad pages. With big-name players folding left and right over the past [...]

Former Gourmet editor Ruth Reichl guested on NPR’s Leonard Lopate show yesterday to talk about Gourmet‘s “shocking” demise, and the immediate aftermath (they had to be out of the office almost immediately). Also, how she was informed of the news and how she informed her staff.

If ever a man’s career accurately encapsulated the big media landscape of today, Richard “Mad Dog” Beckman‘s would be it. After serving Si Newhouse and Condé Nast for 24 years, the New York Post is reporting that Beckman will leave his position as CEO of Condé’s Fairchild Fashion Group to become CEO of e5 Global Media, a new trade publication company.

Condé Nast is considering new and different ways to monetize their “most iconic brands,” John Koblin reports in today’s New York Observer. He even quotes a Condé Nast insider, who reportedly sniffed “do we need Vogue handbags? Gourmet kitchen mitts?” Well, no — though mostly because Gourmet is no longer an “iconic brand” at Condé.

With print’s business model eroding, can journalists make the move online without sacrificing quality or originality? Fortunately, some already have. Last week, we ran a poll of some of the contenders for Top Site of 2009: Politico topped our editorial list. Find out why, and see the runners-up, after the jump:

2010 will be the year when we begin to consume media in a whole new way. The so-called iTablet may revolutionize how we experience magazines, and Boxee stands to do the same for web-to-TV convergence. You know how the iPod changed how we consumed and paid for music? Right. Like that.

It’s 2001 all over again. Details are sketchy, but a source who is on staff at a Condé Nast title tells Mediaite that the Times Square building has just been evacuated. Apparently elevators at the 4 Times Square were turned off, and all staffers at were forced to walk down 16 flights of stairs. Reports also claim that the NASDAQ building around the corner has also been evacuated. UPDATE: Nothing suspicious was found in the van!

Its sort of a perfect metaphor — Condé Nast is having problems with their digital group and is seeking assistance from the titans of the digital age. However in this instance, they aren’t looking for expertise in how to stay viable , they want datalogs from Google and AT&T. Keith Kelly reports in the NY Post Today , that Condé Nast is having a problem with hackers

The “Hulu for magazines” joint venture spearheaded by John Squires officially has a name: Next Issue Media. According to Folio, the partnership has some real heavyweights behind it: Time Inc., Meredith, Hearst, Condé Nast and News Corporation. All of which represent some serious old media muscle, but will they be able to compete in the digital marketplace?

There have been whispers in the publishing world for months now about a group solution to the print problem, in which all of the big dogs — including Condé Nast, Hearst, Meredith and Time Inc. — would come together to offer competitive marketplace solutions to widespread magazine woes. Today, they announced their big plans, including a “digital storefront” and much more.

Some of the biggest rivals in magazine publishing are close to a deal that would combine their forces in an effort to resuscitate a dying print industry. Titans of the media world — including Condé Nast, Heart and Time Inc. — are working to form an alliance that would recreate magazines for a digital age, in a plan that includes new mobile iterations sold in an iTunes-like store, as well as print magazines, according a report in The Observer.

This weekend’s New York Times feature about Bloomberg L.P., the “28-year-old media and technology company” started by New York mayor Michael Bloomberg in 1981, reads like anachronistic peek into the bygone days of media, packed with equal parts success and hubris, looking both to history and to the future. But with “free kiwis and pomegranates,” haven’t we been here before?

The headline in today’s “Media Ink” column: “Condé Nast hires crisis intervention expert” My reaction: Are you freaking KIDDING me? That one would have been useful, oh, three years ago. Or two years ago. Or one year ago. But of all the things to spend dwindling resources on…

Last month brought the news that struggling publisher Condé Nast would be closing a few of its titles altogether, including the much-loved Gourmet. To mark the end of the food mag’s life, associate art director Kevin DeMaria decided to document the dour proceedings, turning the closing into a memorial ceremony of sorts, which he dubbed The Last Days of Gourmet.

File this in the party, chit chat, rumor mill, category. According to a source, a Conde Nast editor at the Valentino fete the other night was telling party goers that Vanity Fair editor Graydon Carter — who has apparently returned from his trip to Bermuda — is offering laid-off Vanity Fair staffers a unique employment opportunity.