Publishing's Lou Cona Sells In Sag Harbor

It’s been said that if a bomb were to be dropped on Sag Harbor in the middle of summer, half of the New York publishing industry would be wiped out. Well, if that happens in the Summer of ’17, Lou Cona won’t be a casualty. The longtime magazine executive just sold his house on Bay View Drive, fetching $5,495,000 for it, with Douglas Elliman representing the property.

Designed by the architect Stuart Narosky, the modern-style home is 3,100 square feet on just under a half-acre. There are 4 bedrooms and 3.5 baths. Especially appealing is the property fronts water and has a bulkhead and a 135-foot deep-water dock that can accommodate a 42-foot boat. Another attractive feature to those aiming to preserve the planet is the house has geothermal heating and cooling, so no fossil fuels are burned. Other amenities include an in-ground pool and an outdoor wood-burning pizza oven imported from Italy.

In April 2013, Lou Cona was named the president and chief revenue officer of Condé Nast. He had been the chief marketing officer the previous three years, and before that served as the vice president and publisher of both The New Yorker and Vanity Fair. Alas, he and Conde Nast were not to live happily ever after, thanks to the mercurial ways of today’s print media. In August 2014, it was announced that Mr. Cona was leaving the company. Just the month before, heading for the exit at Conde Nast had been its chief operating officer and its editorial director.

Not sure about the other two guys, but at least Mr. Cona’s sale for $5 million-plus of his Sag Harbor manse may ease some of the pain. That pain continues, though, for Conde Nast: Last December it closed Self magazine, and it was announced last week that after only a few months of operation, it was shutting down the fashion retail site Style.com.