Condé Nast UK pre-tax profits drop 36% to nearly £18m as Newhouse family rules out sale

Condé Nast's UK arm reported pre-tax profits excluding exceptional items of nearly £18m last year, down 36% from £28m, as revenues fell 7% to £70.6m. The publisher disclosed the figures shortly after the billionaire family that owns it ruled out a sale, EIN Presswire reported.

Condé Nast UK Profits and Revenue Decline

Condé Nast publishes Vogue, GQ, Vanity Fair, House & Garden and Tatler, among other titles. The UK business had booked £64m in proceeds from the sale of its London headquarters, Vogue House, in 2024. An 18% increase in international revenues, to £29.7m, helped keep total revenues almost flat at £100m.

Restructuring costs more than doubled, from £1.9m to £4.3m, which the company said was "primarily due to severance costs". Staff numbers dipped from 466 to 461 between 2024 and last year. "Condé Nast remains profitable in the UK for another year," a spokesperson said. "The change in the exact level of profit reflects a period of planned investment in customised client solutions."

Steven Newhouse, chair of the Newhouse family holding company Advance that controls Condé Nast, ruled out a sale of the publishing group. Speculation had linked Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, who owns the Washington Post, to a possible purchase. Newhouse spoke after the abrupt departure of chief executive Roger Lynch, hired in 2019, to become the boss of the toymaker Mattel. "Maybe for a certain class of non-media owner, there's a prestige to owning media properties," Newhouse told the Financial Times. "But we've been a media owner for 100 years. So we're not in it for the glamour."

Condé Nast's AI Licensing and Partnership Moves

According to akta.pro company records, Condé Nast secured content licensing agreements with OpenAI, Google, Microsoft, Amazon and Perplexity to monetize editorial content for AI training and AI-generated responses, including a pilot role in Microsoft's Publisher Content Marketplace. The company also entered a multi-year strategic partnership with eBay in October 2025 making it the official pre-loved fashion partner across its brands in the US, UK and Germany. In June 2026 it became a founding member of the Alliance for Responsible Innovation in the Arts & Media, a coalition led by former Netflix executive Victoria Furniss.

Leadership Changes at Condé Nast

In October 2026 the New York Post reported that Condé Nast was searching for a new CEO after Lynch's departure, with Anna Wintour's dominant role over global content and editorial strategy described as a major obstacle. Folha reported that the Newhouse family rejected selling Condé Nast after Lynch's abrupt exit, calling it a business investment rather than a prestige asset, and that Mike Perlis would serve as interim CEO. In August 2026 TheWrap reported that Gourmet Revival, a worker-owned food publication, would rebrand after Condé Nast sued for trademark infringement over the Gourmet name.

What Comes Next for Condé Nast

Condé Nast has not named a permanent chief executive following Lynch's departure, and Mike Perlis is serving as interim CEO, according to Folha. The company's UK accounts were filed at Companies House.