Working with McKinsey, Townsend and a Conde Nast team will “develop new perspectives on optimizing our approach to business, growing revenues, and enhancing our brand assets. All areas of Condé Nast will be included in the study.” Conde Naste has more than 30 brands between the consumer magazines, which include The New Yorker, Wired and Vanity Fair, and the Fairchild Fashion Group.

The second clip, presented for your amusement, comes from today’s news bundle. It is entitled, “Conde Nast shutters Gourmet After McKinsey Review.” Here’s a bit:

Conde Nast told shocked staff today it was closing Gourmet magazine, Cookie, Modern Bride and Elegant Bride, surpassing expectations of perhaps one or two shutdowns as a result of McKinsey’s analysis.

This is offered simply as a reality check. When desperate companies, at a loss for how to manage change or maintain the standing of their senior management, hire McKinsey, there is often a lot of blather about how this is a positive step, how it will build value, how it has nothing to do with tossing people from the parapets. And then a day very much like today always comes. And we all know what it was always all about. Lest we forget, you know.