Fuck You Lady, That's What Stairs Are For!

LINK: Conde Nast Is Experiencing Technical Difficulties

I must admit that I have a giant Schadenfreudian complex when it comes to Conde Nast. A dear friend who had spent maybe the better part of an hour listening to me rant about my interminable (and then supremely terminable) stint there, gave me a great compliment: "It is such a New York thing to be disillusioned with Conde." I adored the first four months I spent there, in digital marketing with women that are still my closest friends in the City. The following four months, in digital advertising, were agony and despair and waking up every morning hating my life and realizing just how backwards this media giant had it when it came to the web. The article I've linked to above is every frustration I had, from the H.R./hiring side to its history, constant re-structuring, and basic business philosophy.

In a recent interview for Nieman Journalism Labs, Mr. Dadich was still backing the iTunes newsstand and the “dedicated container” for content that an app provides on an iPad, “where covers are the primary means of purchase and browsing.” To which one commenter replied, “All I see when reading this is an entire organization screaming, ‘WE WANT IT TO BE THE EIGHTIES GODDAMMIT.’”

Truer words.

I'm currently temping at a major fashion house (like, MAJOR) and it is ,rather surprisingly, restoring my faith in my ability to be a competent, nay, successful even!, employee. Even though this project will not be as accidentally-long-term as Conde was -- hired for 2 days, stayed for 8 months -- and the end is always in sight, I thank my lucky stars every day that I continue to manage to pull myself out of certain ruin at just the last minute. (My roommate would probably disagree with me there, as in, when was the last time I turned in a full-amount rent check to him? But hey. Times are tough. I graduated at pretty much the worst time since 1929. I'm working on it.)

As someone with a degree in Journalism, I get asked rather often when I think that magazines and newspapers will go the way of the dodo. I think it's a poorly thought-out question; print will never be completely extinct. However, there will be a day, and it's coming quickly, when ad revenue shifts from Primarily Print to Primarily Web. Conde Nast will not be ready, and I will - well, I won't be fiddling, precisely, but I'll be humming along while Rome burns.