Get with the program, dahling

The New York Observer has a fun and interesting story by Gabriel Sherman about the merging of the somewhat rough-and-ready Fairchild Publications (Women's Wear Daily etc.) by the sleek and glossy Condé Nast Publishing (Vogue, etc.). It's an interesting case study in a clash of cultures that happens quite often with mergers of magazine publishing operations. (Certainly it happened when Telemedia and Avid were swept up into Transcontinental.) Some of the aspects are hilariously trivial (who gets invited to parties) and some are just sad (the open-plan hurly burly of Fairchild replaced by a beige cubicle-land at Condé Nast).