Magazines: 60 Seconds with... Lisa Henriques Hughes, Publisher, Cond Nast Traveler

Q. It's been quite a year for you, having come back to CN Traveler as publisher last month after less than a year at House & Garden. A. It was a great year, because I left Traveler in Tom Florio's [now GQ publisher] very able hands, and we finished 1998 way up. House & Garden had a phenomenal year too, so I had two big wins. And, several weeks after returning to Traveler, we won the National Magazine Award for General Excellence, probably one of the most thrilling moments in my career. Q. You must be a good packer. A. Yeah, and now I'm getting ready for the move into the new building.... But I've been at the company for 13 years-I've worked on Mademoiselle, the launch of Allure, Vanity Fair, Traveler, H&G and now Traveler again-so I'm certainly used to moving around. The exposure to different categories makes you better at what you do. Q. What's new with brand extensions of Traveler? A. Along with the Travel Channel's Amazing Destinations program hosted nightly by Editor in Chief Tom Wallace, we have a Cond Nast Traveler Minute on Bloomberg Radio starting June 7. The minute, which is hosted by our consumer news editor, Wendy Parent, will run for 27 weeks. Q. There are a lot of one-shot magazines taking off at Cond Nast. What's Traveler up to? A. We were really the first to do one of these. In the June issue we have an onsert called the Cond Nast Traveler's Business Extra, which is in its second year. It's targeted to business travelers and is distributed in a lot of first-class lounges and on the Boston-New York-Washington shuttles. It's also distributed with Bloomberg's Market Professional magazine. This year we'll be doing two issues, with another one in October. Q. So where's your next vacation spot? A. Well, I'm still in the middle of reading our May Hot List issue, so when I pick one, I'll let you know.