Plans for the move were first reported yesterday by the New York Observer.

The swap is really a testament to the power of Google (GOOG) and the long-tail theory: Even though Condé had been running Portfolio.com with a skeleton crew since the beginning of the year, the site was still generating four to five million page views a month, primarily because of search queries, says Condé Nast Group President David Carey. So that alone made Portfolio.com worth saving.

It will now serve as the central hub for ACBJ, a collection of 40 local business publications (including one I used to work for many moons ago). But it won’t just be an aggregator, insists ACBJ President Tim Bradbury. He intends to rebuild the site’s staff–he’s keeping two of the last Portfolio.com employees and intends to launch with a full-time editorial staff of five, plus freelancers–and pump out new content.

Bradbury says he’d “like to get the old band back together,” but I’m not sure exactly what that means. In the last few months of Portfolio.com’s life, the site was essentially a blogging platform for the excellent duo of Felix Salmon, who covered finance, and Jeff Bercovici, who covered media. But Salmon jumped ship for Reuters prior to the shutdown, so he’s presumably locked up. No word on Bercovici’s plans. But even if Bradbury can’t get those two back on board, I’m guessing there’s no shortage of applicants for full-time and contract slots.

Here’s the release:

New York, NY, May 20, 2009 – Portfolio.com will become part of the American City Business Journal’s bizjournals.com effective in July, it was announced today by Tim Bradbury, President, American City Business Journals, New Media, (ACBJ) and David Carey, Group President, Condé Nast. ACBJ and Condé Nast are units of Advance Publications.

Bizjournals.com will oversee both the editorial and business sides of the site. The Portfolio.com editorial team and sales staff will be based in New York. In addition to newly created content, the site will share content with other Condé Nast sites including Wired.com, GolfDigest.com, and WWD.com, as it did previously. The site will also be the home of the archives of all the popular content published by Portfolio’s print and digital properties over the last two years.

“We are excited about continuing Portfolio.com and including the site in the bizjournals network because we were impressed by Portfolio’s strong web presence, its clean and crisp design, and its voice in the business journalism marketplace,” Tim Bradbury, President, American City Business Journals, New Media said. “We believe our readers will benefit as the re-launched Portfolio.com will have a stronger focus on industry news and a greater mission to offer information relevant to today’s business professionals.”

On top of its existing strengths, Portfolio.com will be able to leverage the collaborative skills and insights of the more than 600 ACBJ business journalists around the country. The site now will have access to local market intelligence and work collaboratively with ACBJ newsrooms across the country, presenting the most important local insights through a national lens and making it unique among national business media.

“We knew that Portfolio.com was a highly valuable asset, with an established digital brand, strong direct navigation by users, and a solid long tail of traffic from content published over the past two years,” David Carey, Group President, Condé Nast said. “We saw ACBJ as a perfect match due to its great editorial resources in the business arena, and view this as a win for both Portfolio.com’s readers and the company.”

Condé Nast Portfolio magazine and its website Portfolio.com, launched in April 2007 and the magazine closed in April 2009. The site provided insight into the day’s top business stories, with analysis from bloggers and columnists. During those two years Portfolio.com grew to 2.8 million monthly uniques and won industry praise with awards such as the MIN:  Best of Web 2008, MIN: Hottest Launch of the Year 2007, WebAward: Outstanding Achievement in Website Development 2007, and Webby nominees in Best Business blog and Financial Services categories.

No more. Greenfield has cut his recommendation on the company from a “Buy” to a “Sell.” His logic: “While we have long viewed Rupert Murdoch as the most visionary CEO in the media sector…we are increasingly surprised/frustrated with his lack of strategic direction related to News Corp’s television station, newspaper and book publishing assets.”

To tease that out, Greenfield sees News Corp. as two different businesses: There’s a group of “good” assets–its film studio, cable networks, MySpace, etc.–and a group of “bad” assets–its broadcast TV and newspaper units, including Dow Jones, which owns this site. (Uh-oh).

The analyst previously argued that the “bad” businesses would wither away without pulling down the rest of the company; now he worries that Murdoch, who isn’t known as a sentimentalist but is known for his love of newspapers, will prop up his money-losers for too long:

Our fear is that News Corp. is so committed to its existing businesses that it will be willing to sustain businesses that slip into negative profitability for years, (similar to its approach to the NY Post). We believe several of its TV stations are or will shortly be ‘in the red,’ with book publishing heading for losses, as well as a significant number of its Newspapers. In fact, on a reported operating income basis, Dow Jones will generate meaningful losses in its first full-year of News Corp. ownership following its $5.7 billion acquisition.”

So perhaps this will cheer up Greenfield, though it won’t be good for me or for my colleagues: Portfolio.com’s Jeff Bercovici is reporting that Dow Jones’s Wall Street Journal will be making newsroom cuts next week:

It’s unclear exactly how many employees will be affected, but two sources put the number of people being targeted at 50. (If, as seems likely, that is the number of people on the list to be offered buyouts, then the actual number of jobs eliminated could be substantially lower.) It’s also rumored that there will be parallel cuts at Dow Jones Newswires, and that one or more Journal bureaus may be eliminated as part of the cutbacks. A Dow Jones spokeswoman declined to comment.”

And if you think that none of that makes sense, don’t worry. Everyone knows you can’t charge people a penny to read something on the Web–especially a weekly publication.

Except that you can: The Economist does a (relatively) healthy business while keeping its weekly magazine behind a subscription paywall. So does the Wall Street Journal’s Barron’s. And as the online ad business continues to evaporate, charging people for access to stuff they want does not seem completely insane.

“We’re creating a tailored product for readers that does what the old newsweeklies did, which was to stop time for people and say ‘What the heck happened over the last week?’ and make sense of it,” editor Brian Kelly tells Portfolio.com’s Jeff Bercovici.

Alas, the new publication seems like a classic tweener: It won’t have enough heft or substance to justify an offline existence. And it won’t be nimble enough to take advantage of the Web’s real-time, did you hear what just happened flexibility, because it’s literally going to be a weekly publication, distributed via downloadable PDF file.

But I’d love to be proved wrong here, because I’ve got a vested interest in viable content production models. And if this one works, I’ll be happy to eat my words. Maybe you’ll pay to watch.

New York Times, Nov. 7: “I was talking to a friend of mine who works in the industry. He’s very wise. I said, “What should I do next?” And he said, “Get out of journalism.” He’s probably right; he’s got a good read on things. But I probably wouldn’t do anything different.”

Time Out New York, Winter Bar Guide: On her dream job: “Writing for you, editing for you, preferably not recapping The Hills for you, but—who am I kidding—that’s totally negotiable.”

New York Post, Dec. 15: “Everything everyone is reading is doom and gloom, so there is a lot of anxiety about the job market,” she said. “There are positions out there–people still need editors, writers and reporters–but now, there is a surplus of very talented and qualified people looking for the same jobs.”

However Paige Ferrari generated the flood-the-zone coverage of herself, it has worked (sort of), says the Post. The paper reports that she has “has landed a part-time gig as a Web editor:

Since negotiations haven’t been finalized, she’s keeping mum on the details. But she did say it’s a Web site that covers pop culture.

‘It’s great for me,’ said Ferrari, 26, who lives in the East Village. ‘It’s part-time, so it gives me the flexibility to freelance, choose my own projects and make my own schedule.’”

More power to her. Let’s hope that other well-publicized unemployed media people have similar luck–and that not too many more of us join their ranks.

Thanks Jeff Bercovici, one of the last men standing at Portfolio.com, for pointing this one out.

[Image Credit: New York Post]

Portfolio.com media blogger Jeff Bercovici posted a short item about one of the panels yesterday afternoon; later that evening, the story had disappeared.

It should never have run in the first place, Portfolio.com managing editor Daniel Colarusso tells me. That’s because Portfolio magazine was a sponsor of the event (editor in chief Joanne Lipman moderated one panel; Washington editor Matt Cooper moderated the one that Bercovici wrote about) and is honoring its no-press rules.

Again, it’s Quadrangle’s conference, and they can run it however they’d like. But it seems particularly ironic that the one story that did get published, then pulled, was about a panel of professional communicators: CBS (CBS) news anchor Katie Couric, NBC anchor Brian Williams and ABC’s George Stephanopoulos.

Some MediaMemo readers have asked me to reprint all of Bercovici’s story, but I don’t have access to it. I can tell you, however, that is a very short story–maybe three or four paragraphs long–and that the text I quoted yesterday was the most interesting part. Here it is again:

Couric shed some light on her preparation for the interviews: Beforehand, she sought advice from former senator Sam Nunn and Council on Foreign Relations president Richard Haas. They told her to draw Palin out on her geopolitical worldview and urged her to let the governor speak at length without interrupting her. Maybe she should bring them along with her when she takes over at Meet the Press?”

Meanwhile, Quadrangle really has bigger problems on its mind these days than unauthorized blog posts. It is shutting down its media hedge fund after sustaining losses of 25 percent year-to-date.

So who said what at Quadrangle’s Foursquare conference, and was any of it interesting?

You got me. The media and tech confab is off the record. And so far, the members of the fourth estate who attended the event yesterday seem to be keeping their mouths shut.

But I did talk briefly with an attendee, who told me that the most interesting panel was the one that Portfolio’s Matt Cooper conducted this afternoon with television personalities Katie Couric, Brian Williams and George Stephanopoulos.

That would be an interesting group under any circumstance, but even more so since Couric’s interview of Republican VP candidate and Alaska governor Sarah Palin for CBS (CBS) is now considered to be a turning point in the 2008 election.

And while Couric hasn’t talked publicly about the interviews yet, she apparently did dish a bit today, according to a source who talked to Portfolio.com’s Jeff Bercovici:

Couric shed some light on her preparation for the interviews: Beforehand, she sought advice from former senator Sam Nunn and Council on Foreign Relations president Richard Haas. They told her to draw Palin out on her geopolitical worldview and urged her to let the governor speak at length without interrupting her. Maybe she should bring them along with her when she takes over at Meet the Press?”

UPDATE: Bercovici’s report has been pulled. Details here.

One newsworthy item not covered in Bercovici’s account: After the event, Couric gave Twitter correspondent MC Hammer a smooch, which was apparently well-received.

That’s what Portfolio magazine’s Kevin Maney tried to do last Friday, when he announced that as part of the cutbacks at Condé Nast, he’d no longer be writing his Tech Observer blog.

It had a great lede: “If Tech Observer looks a little sparse from here on, that’s because it is dead.”

But by Monday, Maney’s post had disappeared. Is Maney going to be writing the blog, after all? No, I’m told, he’s not. But Condé’s just not that excited about telling people that, especially since it may try to keep a small crew of bloggers working on the magazine’s site even after it fires the majority of the staff.

Luckily, I still happened to have a browser window open with Kevin’s now-vanished goodbye post. Here’s the full text:

Oct 31 2008   7:50PM  EDT
The End of This Blog

Kevin Maney writes: If Tech Observer looks a little sparse from here on, that’s because it is dead.

Some of you may have already seen the news that almost all of Portfolio.com’s staff is getting cut, and the site will be reformulated as something less costly and ambitious. As part of that, my contract to do this blog has been terminated.

I’ve enjoyed being here. To quote Douglas Adams: So long, and thanks for all the fish.

If you’re in the Bay Area, come see our band play on Dec. 2 at the charity event Silicon Valley Rocks. Or buy our CD, Privacy. Perhaps you can help me leave journalism to become a rock star. (You know, I’m looking for a profession with more job security…)

Next fall, keep an eye out for my book, to be published by Doubleday. At the moment it’s titled, The Fidelity Swap: Why Some Things Catch On, and Others Don’t.

And I’ll still be writing for Portfolio magazine … and hoping the economy gets fixed. Soon. Really soon.

Take care.

Kevin”

Unfortunately, it’s almost certain that we’re going to be seeing a lot more goodbye posts over the next few months. The silver lining is that sometimes people write really good stories as they’re being fired. Not sure I’d be up for writing one myself, but I sure do appreciate reading good stories.

Here’s the best one I can recall: Seth Mnookin’s report on the end of his job at Brill’s Content/Inside.com, from way, way back in October 2001. I scoured the Web looking for this one but couldn’t find it, and ultimately asked Seth for help.

Turns out I wasn’t the only one; I think this story is now a bit legendary. And Seth turned out just fine–fancy jobs, big deal books–so this tale has a happy ending. Here’s hoping this era’s layoff stories turn out the same way.

[Image Credit: Shht!]

• Ken Wells, senior editor
• Jeff Garigliano, senior editor
• Jeff Van Dam, associate editor
• Mary Bridges, reporter
• Paul Smalera, staff writer

Ken Wells is the most high-profile name of bunch. He’s a Pulitzer finalist and a longtime Wall Street Journal vet (like many of Portfolio editor Joanne Lipman’s hires).

He’s also a prolific author; his most recent book, “The Good Pirates of the Forgotten Bayous: Fighting to Save a Way of Life in the Wake of Hurricane Katrina,” came out last month. Portfolio hosted a book party for him just this week, an incredulous colleague tells me.

Meanwhile, employees at Portfolio.com still don’t know who’s staying and who’s going. One of them tells me that half the 23-person staff will be let go at the end of November and the rest will stay through December.

At that point there will be a skeleton crew of three people, though there is unconfirmed talk that Condé may end up keeping at least a couple high-profile bloggers, like media reporter Jeff Bercovici and financial columnist Felix Salmon.

Tips? Please drop me a line: peter@allthingsd.com.

A second source says they’ve been told the staff will shrink down to three people and that a “plan would be worked out in the next couple of days.”

Also unclear: Which one of Condé’s digital units will end up adopting the Web site. Portfolio.com had been run as a standalone property. That made it a rarity at Condé, where most of magazines’ digital arms are run by its Magnet unit, and the rest are run by Sarah Chubb’s CondéNet group.

Confused? So are most Condé Nast staffers, who spend lots of time complaining about the publisher’s byzantine digital architecture. But you won’t hear them complaining too loudly right now–they’re trying to hang on to their jobs, or at least protect their exit packages.

Web site staffers were told about the cuts in a meeting led by General Manager Ari Brandt and publisher David Carey, who didn’t provide much detail, according to people who attended the meeting.

Portfolio.com staffers have been told they have been meeting their revenue goals for 2008 while the magazine has not. According to a person who attended the meeting, one of the staff’s braver souls asked Carey why the Web site was being punished more severely than the magazine.

“He gave a sort of corporate-speak answer, and what it appeared to boil down to is, is ‘This is a magazine company,’” says a person who attended the meeting. ”And it left the impression that the Web site was sacrificed to save the magazine.”

In a separate meeting, Portfolio magazine editor Joanne Lipman told her staff that the publication would cut some positions and publish 10 times a year instead of monthly.

UPDATE: A partial list of departing Portfolio staffers.