One issue not mentioned here is that Condé Nast has particular rules about staffing that are good for magazines but bad for web sites. These kinds of issues need to be worked through politically every single time they come up.
As a stand-alone entity, they won't be subject to those rules, and Condé Nast doesn't have to worry about the rest of its companies saying, "but reddit did it".
Comments
One issue not mentioned here is that Condé Nast has particular rules about staffing that are good for magazines but bad for web sites. These kinds of issues need to be worked through politically every single time they come up.
As a stand-alone entity, they won't be subject to those rules, and Condé Nast doesn't have to worry about the rest of its companies saying, "but reddit did it".
I'm interested in learning more about these rules. (This is not snark - I don't know anything about the magazine biz.)