By Jerry Ceppos

The last thing the world needs is another business magazine, right?

Wrong, if the magazine is Portfolio, by Condé Nast. Like the company’s other sumptuous magazines—Vanity Fair, Condé Nast Traveler, Gourmet, Architectural Digest, W and more than 20 others—this one stuns the eye, feels expensive in the hand and is close to perfectly edited (never thought I’d say that about any publication). I can’t take my eye off the cover, a golden shot of Manhattan from the 86th floor of the Empire State Building. 

The monthly’s cover price is $4.95 (actually, I couldn’t find it on the cover, but that’s what the promotion says), though my direct-mail offer, and the one on the Web, is for a $1-an-issue subscription plus $3 “shipping and handling.” (Not classy for a classy magazine. Just charge $15.) Regular publication won’t begin until September, an interesting way for the staff to recover from the 328-page opening issue. 

As in Condé Nast’s other magazines, the eclectic mix works. Matt Cooper, formerly of Time, tells the inside story of his reporting on Valerie Plame—not exactly a business story, but absorbing nonetheless. The profile of Bruce Sherman, “The Paper Shredder,” was of special interest to me as a former Knight Ridder officer. After reading dozens of stories about Sherman, I actually learned something from this one: Former Knight Ridder CEO Tony Ridder senses that Sherman thought Gannett would jump in and buy the company at a good price. Didn’t happen.

Portfolio’s budget seems unlimited, at least in the premier issue, available now. For example, one of the byliners is Tom Wolfe, writing about the new masters of the universe. 

I haven’t figured out the Web site, which is to carry breaking news but, to be honest, is clearly marked as a beta test. Here’s the important part: Portfolio so impressed me that I wanted to get the magazine’s view of the breaking story of the day, Rupert Murdoch’s offer for Dow Jones. Alas, the only staff story was a brief rehash of the news. On the other hand, the site offered links to just about everywhere, including free access to a number of stories from the paid Wall Street Journal site.

Editor Joanne Lipman, a Journal refugee, says she wants the magazine to offer “breaking news, thoughtful analysis—and humor, too, because business doesn’t have to be boring.” 

She’s right. If I were Fortune, I’d worry.