Cond矎ast lures Pop founder for rival launch

Condé Nast UK is considering launching a fashion title to rival Pop, after it recently poached the founder and editor of the style magazine, Katie Grand.

Sources suggest that the publishing house has also poached other senior staff members from the magazine, after Condé Nast managing director Nicholas Coleridge’s attempts to buy Pop were thwarted when part of EMAP was sold to Bauer Media late last year.

Grand launched the magazine Dazed & Confused with Jefferson Hack. She left in 1999 after being lured by EMAP to be fashion director of style magazine The Face, with the promise that she could eventually start her own magazine. Following the closure of Face, she founded Pop in 2000 as a biannual; it is now published three times a year.

Celebrities such as Kate Moss, Liz Hurley and Madonna have featured on Pop’s covers.

A spokeswoman for Condé Nast claims not to know anything about the launch or Grand’s appointment.

This would be Condé Nast’s second high-profile launch this year. It counts itself as the only UK publisher to be launching titles at a time when advertising revenues are shrinking.

This summer Condé Nast announced the UK launch of its US monthly technology magazine Wired, in the first half of 2009. It has hired Jewish Chronicle editor David Rowan to edit the UK version. It bought the US magazine in 1998.