Condé Nast Puts Love’s Print Edition on Hold, Keeps Digital

WWD has learned that the title is under strategic review, and a core staff will remain, putting the focus on digital content and catering to followers on social media.

LONDON — Condé Nast has put Love under strategic review, pausing the print publication and keeping the digital iteration of the title, WWD has learned.

The final print issue of the biannual will be No. 24, which was released over the summer. Love will retain members of the core team, including Harriet Verney and Soraya Lamari.

Condé is also understood to be looking at new opportunities around the magazine’s social media following of 1.5 million. The decision to resize Love comes as its founding editor in chief, Katie Grand, has departed the title, as has its publisher, Catherine Russell.

Love made its debut in February 2009, featuring Beth Ditto on the cover. The final issue had four covers, one of which featured Denise Sherry Balugo, photographed by her son, the New York-based photographer Jahmad Balugo.

Denise Balugo has been fighting stage-four metastatic breast cancer for the last three years, and her son took a series of portraits while he kept her company during lockdown in Los Angeles in June.

The portraits are accompanied by an interview where the photographer talks about the impact of COVID-19 and lockdown on his mother’s deteriorating health.

The recasting of Love comes amid a multifaceted crisis in print and digital media and layoffs at Condé and other organizations, exacerbated by the COVID-19 crisis.