UPDATE 2-Conde Nast will close Portfolio business magazine

* Portfolio to close two years after launch

* Recession makes business magazine unsustainable

(Adds background on previous Conde Nast cost cuts)

By Robert MacMillan

NEW YORK, April 27 (Reuters) - Conde Nast is closing its Portfolio business magazine two years after it launched, making it the latest casualty of a dearth of ad spending afflicting the entire publishing business.

"The pressures and realities of the continuous deep economic slump have lowered Portfolio's revenue projections below what is needed to continue publication," Conde Nast Chief Executive Charles Townsend said in a statement on Monday.

"It is unfortunate we were unable to give Portfolio the time needed to fully mature," he added.

More than 80 people, including Editor Joanne Lipman and Publisher William Li, will lose their jobs, a Conde Nast spokeswoman said. That includes the staff at Portfolio.com.

Lipman, who joined Portfolio after leaving The Wall Street Journal, did not return an e-mailed message seeking comment.

Employees learned about the closing on Monday morning. Portfolio.com media blogger Jeff Bercovici posted a report on the magazine's website -- underneath the feature on "The Best (and Worst) CEOs. Ever."

Next to it, the site still offers a discounted subscription offer of 12 issues for $12, along with a "free gift." The newsstand price is $4.99 in the United States.

The money-losing magazine launched in May 2007 as an ambitious entrant in a crowded field of business titles. It combined hard-hitting business coverage with the sophistication of the publisher's other magazines.

Many observers in the cutthroat New York City media market slammed the magazine as too feature-oriented for business readers and too heavy on business for casual readers.

Many U.S. magazines and newspapers are suffering circulation and advertising revenue declines as more readers turn to the Internet. Advertisers have further slashed their budgets because of the recession.

Conde Nast is no exception. The publisher last year cut company budgets by 5 percent and fired staff at Portfolio. It also reduced Portfolio's publishing schedule to 10 times a year instead of 12.

The publisher, which also owns Vanity Fair, The New Yorker and Wired, closed popular home decor magazine Domino earlier this year.

Conde Nast is part of Advance Publications, the publishing empire run by the Newhouse family. It also owns several U.S. newspapers which have gone through financial distress, including The Star-Ledger in Newark, New Jersey. (Reporting by Robert MacMillan; Editing by Derek Caney)