Shiny, happy people holding prada

Portfolio, Conde Nast's new glossy business mag, has Felix Salmon, the best financial markets blogger out there. That, I get. The magazine itself, not so much. People read business magazines because they have to know what's in them for work . . . only nothing in Portfolio is a must read. I mean, I know its supposed to be a sort of glossy lifestyle magazine for the hedge fund set . . . but those kinds of magazines make most of their money advertising a lifestyle to people who haven't achieved it yet. Most of Vanity Fair's readers can't afford to buy Prada bags or Dolce and Gabbana suits; they're buying a technicolor fantasy.

In the hedge fund world, the glossy format kinda works against you. It's hard to dreamily envision yourself on your eighty foot yacht when the pictures make clear that if you ever get there, you'll probably be a short fifty year old man with a potbelly and a blackberry constantly going off in your ear.

The formidable Elizabeth Spiers has a more complete examination of it's flaws.