Former Conde Nast executive dies at 58

NEW YORK – Steven T. Florio, a hard-driving executive who worked his way up the publishing ladder to lead the Conde Nast Publications magazine empire, has died at age 58.

Florio died Thursday at New York Presbyterian Hospital-Columbia of complications from an earlier heart attack, said a spokeswoman for Conde Nast.

Florio was president and CEO of Conde Nast through 2004, expanding it to the second-biggest magazine publisher in the country while many others were cutting staff and costs.

He managed 16 magazines aimed at well-to-do readers, selling advertising that appealed to their luxury tastes and reaching more than 70 million readers a month.

Under him, Conde Nast included Vogue, Vanity Fair and New Yorker, as well as Glamour, Architectural Digest, Self, GQ, Gourmet, Bon Appetit, Conde Nast Traveler, Allure, Wired, Lucky and Teen Vogue.

Born in the New York borough of Queens, Florio graduated from New York University with a business degree in 1971.

He started his career at Esquire, then became publisher of GQ. Florio was named president of the New Yorker in 1985, when the magazine was purchased by Advance Publications, the Conde Nast parent company owned by the Newhouse family.

S. I. Newhouse Jr., the chairman, issued a statement saying:

“Steve was a great executive and a great leader. I’m very glad we had many years together.”