Jonathan Newhouse made the following internal announcement to Condé Nast staff yesterday: “It is my sad duty to inform you that Daniel Salem (pictured), who was Chairman of Condé Nast International from the 1960s to 1991, died Saturday morning April 21 at age 87. Daniel had been living in a convalescent home outside London these last few years and passed away peacefully in his sleep.
Daniel was a brilliant executive and can be considered the architect of Condé Nast's international success. When he took on the direction of International, the operation consisted of a five titles in Britain and France, along with a licensed edition of Vogue in Australia. Daniel vastly expanded International's scope, establishing Vogue and other Condé Nast titles in Italy in the 1960s, Germany in the 1970s and Spain in the 1980s. A licensed edition of Vogue in Brazil was established in 1975. Upon his retirement as Chairman in 1991 Condé Nast International published more than 30 titles in seven countries and was recognised as the leading international publisher of upmarket magazines in the world.
As a man Daniel was a memorable figure, tall and handsome, with immense charm, a winning smile and a razor-sharp, precise and logical mind. He was a cultivated man with a keen eye for visual and literary quality, and he constantly pressed his editors to strive for the highest editorial standards. As the same time, he had an unsentimental grasp of the business and applied a ruthless logic to his operational style as he drove the business forward. The son of a famous French mathematician, he shared that genius: while a financial director would sit across from him wielding a calculator, he could look at the numbers on a page upside down and add them together faster in his head.
Daniel was born in Paris on January 24, 1925. His family fled France in advance of the Nazi attack and settled in the United States. After graduating high school, he enlisted in the US Army and fought in World War II, an episode of his life of which he seldom spoke. He returned and attended Harvard University, where he graduated with a double major in mathematics and philosophy.
He came to Condé Nast in the US about 1950, where he worked for the then President, Iva Patcevitch, and closely with a man named Hal Meyer, who today would be called a strategic planning director. After some years, he left the publishing business and went into banking, working for Lazard Frères. He was persuaded to return to Condé Nast in the early 1960s by Samuel I Newhouse, the father of Si Newhouse. In addition to running Condé Nast International, in 1986 he added the title Deputy Chairman of the parent company.
Daniel had a wide range of interests beyond publishing. He maintained a foot in the financial world, serving as the chairman of an investment fund. As a pastime, his principal passion was music. He served for many years as Chairman of the London Philharmonia, one of the city's leading orchestras, and regularly attended the music festivals in Salzburg and elsewhere. He was an avid golfer, and a keen enthusiast of bridge and backgammon. His personal life had a French twist: married to Marie-Pierre, with whom he remained on good terms, in later years he spent time with his long-time companion, Martine Garel, and his many nieces and nephews and their families. He enjoyed fine wines, a good cigar and had a ready supply of jokes, which he delivered with perfect timing in a thick Gallic accent.
Daniel's home was a flat in Knightsbridge in London but he remained in many ways the quintessential Frenchman, and France recognised him by naming him a Chevalier in the Legion of Honour in the 1990s, and later Officer.
Daniel meant a lot to me. I admired him for his drive and ability, his brilliant mind and not least, his integrity. He was a mentor and a friend. Not many people in the organisation today remember him, but those who knew him will never forget him.”
