Media mogul, Conde Nast chairman, 89

NEW YORK — S.I. Newhouse Jr., the low-profile billionaire media mogul who ran the parent company of some of the nation’s most prestigious magazines, died Sunday. He was 89.

Newhouse’s death was confirmed by his family, who said he died at his New York home.

The chairman of Conde Nast since 1975, Si Newhouse, as he was known, bought and remade The New Yorker and Details magazines and revived Vanity Fair. Other magazines in the Conde Nast stable included Vogue, Wired, Glamour, W, GQ and Self.

The glossy titles helped set the nation’s tastes, reached millions of readers and appealed to upscale advertisers.

“In all realms, he wanted Conde Nast — and its writers, artists and editors — to be at the center of the cultural conversation,” Bob Sauerberg, the company’s CEO, wrote to staff members in announcing Newhouse’s death.

As Newhouse himself put it in a rare 1988 interview with The New York Times, “Our magazines represent a certain tone and audience.”

“He was passionate about journalism and he supported journalists and editors,” said his nephew Steven Newhouse, the chairman of Advance Publications Inc., which owns Conde Nast. “He set an example of caring about the right things in media, which is great stories, great design, great magazines, great websites.”

Conde Nast struggled in recent years with the advertising meltdown. Since 2007, it has closed magazines including Gourmet, Modern Bride, House & Garden and Golf for Women.

Forbes said in March 2009 that the downturn had sliced Newhouse’s fortune in half, but his estimated net worth of $4 billion still left him among the world’s richest men. Newhouse and his brother, Donald, owned New York-based Advance Publications Inc., which in addition to Conde Nast has over 20 daily newspapers in the U.S. and a cable television company.

Samuel Irving Newhouse Jr. was born Nov. 7, 1927, on Staten Island in New York, the grandson of Russian Jewish immigrants. His father, Sam Newhouse, bought the Staten Island Advance in 1922 and used its profits to purchase more papers.