Payments from Advance Publications seem to be slowing down as publishing mogul S.I. Newhouse Jr. prepares to fire at least 250 people working in Condé Nast’s New York City headquarters.
Condé Nast is taking the biggest hit among the Newhouse family’s Advance Publications, which also includes Fairchild, the Golf Digest Cos. and Parade.
The cuts are part of the parent company’s controversial move to consolidate back-office functions at a new site in Wilmington, Del. But the accounts payable department is one of those being replaced – and the slow payments have hit everyone from freelance writers to the vendors who fulfill Vogue editor Anna Wintour’s six-figure clothing allowance.
“What used to take one week is now taking three weeks,” said one insider.
Some writers are reporting that assignments from as far back as July and August have not been paid, and business managers on the magazines are certainly aware of the problems, said one freelancer.
A Condé Nast spokeswoman insisted, “None of our policies or procedures have changed.” Regarding the slow payment complaints, the spokeswoman said, “It may be an extremely limited or isolated or random case, but there has been no slowdown. We continue to process payments in a timely fashion.”
Part of the problem may have come because the company dropped its old McCormick & Dodge payment system and moved to a new PeopleSoft software package – the one that will be used by Advance’s new centralized operation in Wilmington.
The company went live with the new system on Friday, an insider said.
Many of the firings will occur on the 14th floor of the Condé Nast tower, said an insider, and speculation is already rampant about which magazine will move into the space. “Basically everyone has been told that they will be out of here between January and the middle of April,” the insider said.
Human resources and accounts payable are on 14.